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.
Ms. Mason believed everyone could and should learn to sing. She employed the technique of the Sol Fa method to aid in this study. This week’s immersion lesson is a demonstration of the process with examples of two lessons in two different forms.
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The first Form 1 lessonThe second Form 1 lessonThe last lesson (Form 2)
“I should like, in connection with singing, to mention the admirable educational effects of the Tonic Sol-fa method. Children learn by it in a magical way to produce sign for sound and sound for sign, that is, they can not only read music, but can write the notes for, or make the proper hand signs for, the notes of a passage sung to them. Ear and Voice are simultaneously and equally cultivated.” (1/314-315)
Have you ever wondered how Picture Study may change in the older Forms? Perhaps your Picture Studies have fallen into a rut and you’d like to bring more variety into these lessons. Join Emily and Nicole in today’s episode as they demonstrate one possible variation for this distinctly Charlotte Mason lesson.
This week’s immersion lesson is recitation. Nicole does real life lessons with her daughters, two of them in fact. Learn about the breathing lessons used in upper forms and how a child is encouraged to read poetry beautifully by listening as you listen in to their lessons.
This week’s immersion lesson demonstrates a Plutarch lesson. Nicole and her two daughters, forms III and IV, share their classroom experience with us, which reveals why Miss Mason considered this to be such an instructive lesson for young people and why they enjoy it so much
This week’s immersion lesson demonstrates the use of “map questions,” in the geography lesson. We know that maps are important, but in what way were maps utilized in the lesson? What sorts of questions were presented to the student in the regular map questions lesson and what about that puzzling “10-minute map exercise” lesson.
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The Great Lakes (Map Questions Lesson)The Roman Empire Area of modern world where Roman Empire wasItaly
“Great attention is paid to map work; that is, before reading a lesson children have found the places mentioned in that lesson on a map and know where they are, relatively to other places, to given parallels, meridians. Then, bearing in mind that children do not generalise but must learn by particulars, they read and picture to themselves…” the material from the reading. (6/224-225)
“The effect of abundant map study is obvious. In answering questions without the open atlas a scholar must rely on his powers of visualizing a particular map, a very important acquirement.” (CM Book 5)
“The last lesson was a quick ten minutes’ practice on the map. ”South America” was shown and the questions were all on the once famous Inca Empire, which had incidentally come into the morning’s “General History” as a Spanish possession. Following in their own atlases, the children found the countries it had included and its boundaries; then the parallels of latitude and the parts of other continents that lay between the same. From this and from a consideration of the position and direction of the “Andes” they deduced a few facts about the climate—at this point I read from “Pole to Pole” a short descriptive passage of the characteristics of the scenery. Next they found the four highest volcanoes and two of the chief towns. Then, after a few minutes in which to look at and memorise these places, the children shut their atlases and answered such questions as, “What are the boundaries of Ecuador?” “Which volcano lies directly south of Quito ?” etc. The idea underlying such a lesson is, that it should be rapid oral work, to familiarise the pupils with maps, and must not be confused with the infinitely fuller and more detailed Geography lessons.” (Frost, PR26/573)
