Read Charlotte Mason’s Volumes

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 11 XI.—OUT-OF-DOOR GAMES, ETC. The bright hours fly by; and there is still at least one lesson on the programme, to say nothing of an hour or two for games in the afternoon. The thought of a lesson is uninviting after the discussion of much that is more interesting, and, […]

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 10 X.—THE CHILD AND MOTHER-NATURE The Mother must refrain from too much Talk.—Does so wide a programme alarm the mother? Does she with dismay see herself talking through the whole of those five or six hours, and, even at that, not getting through a tithe of the teaching laid out

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 9 IX.—OUT-OF-DOOR GEOGRAPHY This pleasant earth of ours is not to be overlooked in the out-of-door education of the children. ‘How do you get time for so much?’ ‘Oh, I leave out subjects of no educational value; I do not teach geography, for instance,’ said an advanced young theorist with

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 8 VIII.—THE CHILD SHOULD BE MADE FAMILIAR WITH NATURAL OBJECTS But what is the use of being ‘a very observant child,’ if you are not put in the way of things worth observing? Now take up a natural object, it does not matter what, and you are studying one of

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 7 VII.—THE CHILD GETS KNOWLEDGE BY MEANS OF HIS SENSES Watch a child standing at gaze at some sight new to him—a plough at work, for instance—and you will see he is as naturally occupied as is a babe at the breast; he is, in fact, taking in the intellectual

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 6 VI.—FIELD-LORE AND NATURALISTS’ BOOKS Is it advisable, then, to teach the children the elements of natural science, of biology, botany, zoology? On the whole, no: the dissection even of a flower is painful to a sensitive child, and, during the first six or eight years of life, I would

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 5 V.—‘LIVING CREATURES’ Then, as for the ‘living creatures,’ here is a field of unbounded interest and delight. The domesticated animals are soon taken into kindly fellowship by the little people. Perhaps they live too far from the ‘real country’ for squirrels and wild rabbits to be more to them

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 4 IV.—FLOWERS AND TREES Children should know Field-crops.—In the course of this ‘sight-seeing’ and ‘picture-painting,’ opportunities will occur to make the children familiar with rural objects and employments. If there are farm-lands within reach, they should know meadow and pasture, clover, turnip, and corn field, under every aspect, from the

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 3 III.—‘PICTURE-PAINTING’ So exceedingly delightful is this faculty of taking mental photographs, exact images, of the ‘beauties of Nature’ we go about the world for the refreshment of seeing, that it is worth while to exercise children in another way towards this end,… Get the children to look well at

CONDENSEDVolume 1 Part 2. Chapter 2 II.—‘SIGHT-SEEING’ By-and-by the others come back to their mother, and, while wits are fresh and eyes keen, she sends them off on an exploring expedition—Who can see the most, and tell the most, about yonder hillock or brook, hedge or copse. ‘Find out all you can about that cottage