How in the world did Charlotte Mason approach the subject of math? This podcast episode explores that question and addresses our qualms and insecurities in teaching math to our children. How do we avoid fears, tears, pushing and pulling, and reach to its infinite beauty as an instrument in acquiring knowledge of the universe?

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“Arithmetic, Mathematics, are exceedingly easy to examine upon and so long as education is regulated by examinations so long shall we have teaching, directed not to awaken a sense of awe in contemplating a self-existing science, but rather to secure exactness and ingenuity in the treatment of problems.” (Vol. 6, p. 231)

“…the use of the study in practical life is the least of its uses. The chief value of arithmetic, like that of higher mathematics, lies in the training it affords to the reasoning powers, and in the habits of insight, readiness, accuracy, intellectual truthfulness it engenders.” (Vol. 1, p. 254)

“Never are the operations of Reason more delightful and more perfect than in mathematics…By degrees, absolute truth unfolds itself. We are so made that truth, absolute and certain truth, is a perfect joy to us; and that is the joy that mathematics afford.” (Vol. 4, p. 63)

“Let his arithmetic lesson be to the child a daily exercise in clear thinking and rapid, careful execution, and his mental growth will be as obvious as the sprouting of seedlings in the spring.” (Vol. 1, p. 261)

“Mathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the text-book and few subjects are worse taught; chiefly because teachers have seldom time to give the inspiring ideas, what Coleridge calls, the ‘Captain’ ideas, which should quicken imagination.” (Vol. 6, p. 233)

“There is no must be to him he does not see that one process, and one process only, can give the required result. Now, a child who does not know what rule to apply to a simple problem within his grasp, has been ill taught from the first, although he may produce slatefuls of quite right sums in multiplication or long division.” (Vol. 1, p. 254)

“…’nearly right’ is the verdict, a judgment inadmissible in arithmetic.” (Vol. 1, p. 255)

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, Part V, XV

Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter 10, Section III

Number Stories of Long Ago

String, Straightedge and Shadow

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Our very favorite resource for Mathematics teaching

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is another Q&A. As we implement the method, challenges arise: what adjustments need to be made when I come to the method late, how should I organize my home differently, and what about the only child’s needs, are this week’s focus.

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“It is not an environment that these want, a set of artificial relations carefully constructed, but an atmosphere which nobody has been at pains to constitute. It is there, about the child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of the earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons and things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense.” (Vol. 6, pg. 96)

“No artificial element [should] be introduced…children must face life as it is; we may not keep them in glass cases.” (Vol. 6, pg. 97)

The Conquest of the North and South Poles (Landmark Book), Russell Owen

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Episode 4: Three Tools of Education

The Education of an Only Child, Mrs. Clement Parsons. The Parents’ Review, Volume 12, p.609-621

Foreign language was a major component in Charlotte Mason’s curriculum. This podcast addresses the reasons for foreign language study and how mothers of one tongue can still faithfully include it in their homeschool.

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“All educated persons should be able to speak French.” (Vol. 1, p. 300)

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, Part V, Chapter XX

An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter 10, Section II: Languages

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

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Home

http://www.thespanishexperiment.com/

http://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/

http://www.theitalianexperiment.com/

http://www.thegermanexperiment.com/

http://cherrydalepress.com/

Mason’s Living Languages

CM Simple Spanish

What are Charlotte Mason’s thoughts on grammar and composition? Listen to this podcast to hear some of her rationale for these subjects, to dispel myths about the Charlotte Mason method and the subject of writing, as well as these moms’ experience with teaching these technical and creative written skills.

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“[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

The Bedford Handbook

The Elements of Style

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This episode marks the one year anniversary of this Charlotte Mason podcast. Over the past year, we have received dozens of questions from our listeners and this Q&A is exemplary of the requests we receive and our attempt to address widely varying topics, namely this week: where to find out-of-print living books, the relevance of Charlotte Mason today and the practice of “scaffolding” lessons.

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“The public good is our aim; and the methods proposed are applicable in any school.” (Vol. 6, p. xxvi)

“Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little (and get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is to be read, in order that the children may be animated by expectation; but she should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative. Then, she may read two or three pages, enough to include an episode; after that, let her call upon the children to narrate,––in turns, if there be several of them…and when the narration is over, there should be a little talk in which moral points are brought out, pictures shown to illustrate the lesson, or diagrams drawn on the blackboard.” (Vol. 1, pp. 232-33)

Writing to Learn

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Addall Search Engine

Bookfinder.com

Main Lesson

Yesterday’s Classics

Living Library Press