Spreading the feast of the Charlotte Mason method of education through weekly podcasts. Join us for short discussions that provide information, examples, and encouragement to the homeschool parents putting CM's ideas into practice in their homes.
As with every subject, Charlotte Mason’s method starts with ideas and continues with natural instruction according to her principles. Math is no exception. Guests Emily Al-Khatib and Heather Schultz unpack the underlying principles of Charlotte Mason’s approach to math and reveal a glimpse of the beauty and truth that will be revealed as Miss Mason’s method is applied to mathematics. Emily, Liz, and Nicole touch on the most common questions, concerns, fears, and perplexities teachers have about math with these enthusiastic math teachers.
Why did Charlotte Mason include drawing as one of the essential subjects in her curriculum? And why is ADE re-releasing the original discussion on drawing as one of the basics this season? This return to the subject of drawing will refresh your thinking about the necessity of drawing, its broad application to many subjects, and some practical guidance for implementing drawing in the feast.
Listen Now:
“It is only what we have truly seen that we can truly reproduce, hence, observation is enormously trained by art teaching. Personally, I believe every living soul can learn to draw from actual objects, if the eye has not first been vitiated by seeing copies of them.” (Miss Pennethorne, PR 10)
“This is what we wish to do for children in teaching them to draw–to cause the eye to rest, not unconsciously, but consciously on some object of beauty which will leave in their minds an image of delight for all their lives to come.” (Vol. 1, p. 313)
“Art, when rightly directed, is educational, for it trains not only one faculty, but all the faculties together; it trains the hand and the eye, and it trains the head and the heart; it teaches us to see and to see truly; it teaches us to think–that science can do; but it teaches us also to admire and to love; it disciplines the emotions.” (Mr. Collingwood, The Fesole Club Papers)
“…the great benefit of “brushwork” being that it can be made quite a moral training in exactness and decision.” (Mrs. Perrin, “Brush Drawing”, PR 4)
“Children should learn to draw as they learn to write. The great point is that they should be encouraged, not flattered. With no help and encouragement the child gradually loses his desire to draw.” (Mrs. Steinthal, “Art Training in the Nursery”, PR 1)
“There are two great points that must be remembered if we wish to make our system of art teaching…successful. The first is, always keep the children interested. Next, let us understand that drawing is not only learnt with a pencil and a piece of paper….The chief value of drawing is that it trains the eye to see things as they are.” (Mrs. Steinthal, PR 1)
“…we must be careful not to offer any aids in the way of guiding lines, points, and other such crutches; and also that he should work in the easiest medium; that is, with paint-brush or with charcoal, and not with a black-lead pencil. Boxes of cheap colours are to be avoided. Children are worthy of the best.” (Vol. 1, p. 313)
“The first buttercup in a child’s nature note book is shockingly crude, the sort of thing to scandalise a teacher of brush-drawing, but by and by another buttercup will appear with the delicate poise, uplift and radiance of the growing flower.” (Vol. 6, p. 217)
“Drawing is nothing to do with talent, but can be done with observation, intelligence and application–or by seeing, remembering and expressing and is a fundamentally educative subject.” (Juliet Williams, “The Teaching of Drawing and Its Place in Education”, PR 34)
Home Education (Volume 1), pp. 292-295 (What is commonly thought of “drawn narrations”)
School Education (Volume 3), p. 205
Ourselves (Volume ), Book I, Part II, Chapters II and V
An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter X (f)
Charlotte Mason’s counsel on education extends beyond academics to sound parenting advice. It’s wonderful to come to the feast, but what if the learners at the table have such bad attitudes that it spoils the meal? Liz, Emily, and Nicole discuss the reality of facing the challenges of children with bad attitudes and ways of dealing with them.
Listen Now:
“Our part is to remove obstructions and to give stimulus and guidance to the child who is trying to get into touch with the universe of things and thoughts which belongs to him.” (3/188)
“The mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body; there are no organs for the assimilation of the one more than of the other.” (6/218)
“There is no way of escape for parents; they must be ‘inspirers’ to their children, because about them hangs, as its atmosphere about a planet, the thought-environment of the child, from which he derives those enduring ideas which express themselves as a life-long ‘appetency’ towards things sordid or things lovely, things earthly or divine.” (2/37)
“They do not give their children the discipline which results in self-compelling power; and by-and-by…the time for training in the art of self-mastery has gone by, and a fine character is spoiled through indolence and willfulness.” (2/64)
“It rests with parents to make low the high places and exalt the valleys, to make straight paths for the feet of their [child].” (2/68)
“To give a child this power over himself — first in response to the will of another, later, in response to his own, is to make a man of him,” (3/20)
“Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend.” (1/118)
“…it is a mistake to suppose that the greater the number of ‘subjects’ the greater the scholar’s labour; the contrary is the case as the variety in itself affords refreshment.” (6/158)
“Teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life.” Point 20 of the Short Synopsis
“It is a happy thing that the ‘difficult’ children who are the readiest to resist a direct command are often the quickest to respond to the stimulus of an idea.” (3/23)
This week’s Charlotte Mason podcast episode is a re-release of a fundamental subject: writing. There is far more to composition than mechanical knowledge. This episode reveals the progression from oral narration to the polished compositions of the upper forms and includes a discussion of grammar, written narration, and composition.
Listen Now:
“[G]rammar, being a study of words and not things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should he be hurried into it.” (Vol. 1, p. 295)
“Children will probably be slow to receive this first lesson in abstract knowledge, and we must remember that knowledge in this sort is difficult and uncongenial. Their minds deal with the concrete and they have the singular faculty of being able to make concrete images out of the merest gossamer of a fairy tale.” (Vol. 6, p. 210)
“But a child cannot dream parts of speech, and any grown-up twaddle attempting to personify such abstractions offends a small person who with all his love of play and nonsense has a serious mind.” (Vol. 6, p. 210)
“Our business is to provide children with material in thier lessons, and leave the handling of such material to themselves…They should narrate in the first place, and they will compose, later, readily enough; but they should not be taught ‘composition.'” (Vol. 1, p. 247)
“It is not enough that a child should learn how to write, he must know what to write.” (Vol. 6, p. 234)
“In fact, lessons on ‘composition’ should follow the model of that famous essay on “Snakes in Ireland”––”There are none.”” (Vol. 1, p. 247)
“If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books.” (Vol. 1, p. 247)
If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.
Home Education (Volume 1), Part V, XIII
An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book I, Chapter 10, Section II: Knowledge of Man: Composition & Knowledge of Man: Grammar
For Charlotte Mason, poetry was a life giving instructor and inspirer of the children. This podcast episode includes special guest, Jono Kiser, a lover, writer, and teacher of poetry. Together the ADE ladies and Jono attempt to scratch the surface of the vast scope and value of poetry. If you love it, or are unsure, unfamiliar, unenthusiastic, or unconvinced, enter into this conversation and know delight is waiting for you.
