This is a re-release/update to our original Episode #80. Charlotte Mason developed her educational method for all students, but many feel that by high school they must get on to more serious preparation for college or career and abandon the course they have been on. The moms of A Delectable Education discuss the high school years, what studies are tackled, how to deal with college transcripts and applications and college entrance exams. Does Mason’s curriculum prepare a child for the real world? Will they be able to succeed in a non-Charlotte Mason environment? What does high school look like if you follow a Mason approach to education?

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“The work of the Parents’ Union School led up naturally, and without any real break, to the larger life of the public school, for which the children by their early training were well fitted, as it seemed merely the stepping from one classroom to another, so comprehensive and intelligent had been the previous preparation.” (In Memoriam, p. 45)

“The history studies of Forms V and VI (ages 15-18) are more advanced and more copious and depend for illustration upon readings in the literature of the period…But any sketch of the history teaching in a given period depends upon the ‘literature’ set; for plays, novels, essays, ‘lives,’ poems, are all pressed into service and where it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the period produced.” (Vol. 6, pp. 176-78)

“I feel one of the joys of the Sixth Form is that there the girls can go on with the subjects they are most keenly interested in–subjects they have been longing to have time for–and freedom of choice is one of its characteristics…[they] learn how little they know–what fields of knowledge there are of which they know.” (A P.U.S. Headmistress, writing in the Parents’ Review)

“But the people themselves begin to understand and to clamour for an education which shall qualify their children for life rather than for earning a living. As a matter of fact, it is the man who has read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary training, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing plans, or keeping books. The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will he both fulfil his own life and serve society.” (Vol. 6, p. 3)

“All callings have one thing in common––they are of use; and, therefore, a person may prepare for his calling years before he knows what it is. What sort of person is of use in the world?” (Vol. 4, Book I, p. 205)

“The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (Vol. 3, pp. 170-71)

A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold

In Memoriam: A Tribute to Charlotte Mason

Michael Faraday

You Can Teach Your Child Successfully, Ruth Beechick

ADE at Home 2023 {Virtual} Conference

CM Peoria Conference

FREE High School Transcript Planner

All of the products in our Teacher Helps categories will be on sale for 20% off from Friday, November 25 through midnight (EST) on Monday, November 28.

Use code “HELP23” to apply the discount to any product in these categories:

Teacher Helps: Planning
(Curriculum Templates, Exam Planner, Schedule Cards, etc.)

Teacher Helps: Forecasting
(Bible Lesson Breakdowns, Composition Planner, etc.)

Teacher Helps: Lessons
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Homeschooling teenage boys has its own challenges. The ADE ladies welcome Cathy McKay in the Voices of the Conference series to share her wisdom and experience in raising teen boys. Attendees of the 2022 ADE at HOME Virtual Conference will be glad for more opportunity to learn from Cathy.

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“Having seen that it does not rest with the parents to use, or to forego the use of, the authority they hold, let us examine the limitations and the scope of this authority. In the first place, it is to be maintained and exercised solely for the advantage of the children, whether in mind, body, or estate. And here is room for the nice discrimination, the delicate intuitions, with which parents are blessed. Again, the authority of parents, though the deference it begets remains to grace the relations of parents and child, is itself a provisional function, and is only successful as it encourages the autonomy, if we may call it so, of the child. A single decision made by the parents which the child is, or should be, capable of making for itself, is an encroachment on the rights of the child, and a transgression on the part of the parents…introduced
them by degrees to the full liberty which is their right as men and women. Anyway, it is too late now to keep them in training ; fit or unfit, they must hold the rudder for themselves.Further, though the emancipation of the children is gradual, they acquiring day by day more of the art and science of self-government, yet there comes a day when the parents, right to rule is over; there is nothing left for them but to abdicate gracefully, and leave their grown-up sons and daughters free agents, even though these still live at home; and although, in the eyes of their parents, they are not fit to be trusted with the ordering of themselves: if they fail in such self-ordering, whether as regards time, occupations, money, friends, most likely their parents are to blame for not having introduced them by degrees to the full liberty which is their right as men and women. Anyway, it is too late now to keep them in training ; fit or unfit, they must hold the rudder for themselves. (2/16-17)

“Method implies two things–a way to an end, and step-by-step progress in that way.” (1/8)

Ourselves, Volume 4

Formation of Character, Volume 5, Part III

INK Newspaper (Illustrated Newspaper for Kids)

ADE at Home 2023 {Virtual} Conference

A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason podcast seeks to inspire, encourage, and explain the Charlotte Mason method. During the midwinter ADE at Home {Virtual} Conference, all three take place in various presentations. On today’s episode, hear how many different individuals participate in this conference either with friends, away from home, at home…and share some of their ideas for making the most of it.

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The Secular Creed, Rebecca McLaughlin

Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Rosaria Butterfield

ADE at Home 2023 {Virtual} Conference

Living books are the heart of the Charlotte Mason method of education, and providing a wide variety of books is essential. Of special importance to families in this century is reading living books about and from the perspective of people of various ethnic backgrounds. Today’s guest, Nicole Cottrell, describes her gift to the Charlotte Mason community of a database of diverse living books particularly of people of color. We also discuss several other places to find living books of all sorts.

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