Here are some ideas for student projects. If you are moving from traditional schooling into HomeLearning, you may need some time to figure things out. These are things your students can do especially as you are getting your homeschool started and then as you continue to maintain. As you are working on getting things figured out, your children will need things to be doing – … Continue reading Project Ideas for Learning-at-Home
Everybody loves a field trip! Exploring, seeing new things, meeting new people… Excursions are valuable ways to get children interacting with others. They open the world to them- the things going on, the possibilities. Charlotte talks about students trips to the British Museum several times in the V’s. This was part of the child’s self learning as well as adding to the relationship-building aspect of … Continue reading Head Out! Field Trip Day!
“For it is only in doing, that we learn to do; through service that we learn to serve;” – Volume 5 p.261 I don’t think you need too much imagination to realize that the world today is about promoting self. We have, in fact, a generation called ‘The ME Generation’. These were the Baby Boomers. And if you have a ‘ME generation’ becoming parents and … Continue reading The Cure for ME
What is something your family is good at? Something you all do together?What hobbies do you or your husband have? What talents do you have? What skills do each of you have? Do you:speak a foreign languagehave a trumpet in the closet that dad playedenjoy eating and cookingbike ridingknow and do car repairgardensewherb craftknithikingplaying and performing musichouse repairanimal carecampingcutting hairsing at churchpreserve foodwoodworking These are … Continue reading Use what you Know, Use what you Have
PHILOSOPHY.Sounds and sight recognition of words through observation and attention is what Charlotte Mason’s reading lessons use. The lessons should not be drudgery, but interesting and engaging. Sounding out words as well as sight word recognition are part of her method. Lessons in CM are short in order to train attention. These lessons typically run 10-15 minutes. ——♦♦—— METHODS. 1. Using Books Basic Plan. CM does … Continue reading How to Do Reading Lessons
PHILOSOPHY.The purpose of Poetry Study is to develop a love of beautiful language and meaningful thoughts for reflections and character. Poetry is a large part of Charlotte’s curriculum. She often talks about the moral lessons and satisfying qualities of poetry for students.Charlotte speaks, in general, of knowing our poets, but not with the specific purpose of actually studying a particular poet intentionally throughout a term. … Continue reading How to do a Poetry Study Lesson
Sometimes the same repeating process get to the the same ‘ol, same ‘ol. It gets to be quite boring frankly. The mind needs new and varied input. Eating oatmeal every single day, gets old (I know because we did it when we had food allergy issues here). Boring, turns into drudgery, which turns into dislike, which becomes aversion, and then ultimately refusal. Variation is needed! … Continue reading Narration Options
Moving from Oral to Written Narrations Eventually a student will move from all oral narrations to written narrations. A written narration is…. Just like you guessed… writing a narration on paper rather than giving it orally.To make this move a student must be proficient at two things. First, they must be proficient oral narrators. This must not be over looked. Second, the student must be … Continue reading Moving From Oral to Written Narrations
What are you DOing when you DO CM? This is a question that I often get –in various forms. When you are new to CM, it is difficult to know what to ask. What question should I be asking that I don’t know to ask? When you are ‘old’ to CM, it is difficult to answer, because there is so much yet so little. The … Continue reading What are you Doing when you DO CM?
Here are two quotes from Charlotte that don’t seem to line up. On the one hand, Charlotte often says that narration is an individual telling back, that is is not verbatim, but given back with the student’s own words and workings. Here is one of the several quotes where she talks about this output of narration: “These narrations are never a slavish reproduction of the … Continue reading Which is It? Original or Word Perfect Narration?
