Charlotte Mason homeschooling encompasses everything that is wonderful about homeschooling. Gentle lessons in a literature-rich environment, short lessons that focus on real-life with plenty of opportunity to explore the world indoors and out. And, these are just a few of the reasons I love this style of homeschooling! In these articles, my goal is to share the wonder, joy and creativity of the Charlotte Mason style, while giving you plenty of ideas and practical advice for implementing it in your own home. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Carnival! In this edition of the CM Carnival, we are taking an in-depth look at how Charlotte Mason homeschoolers plan and organize – everything from curriculum and daily schedules to school rooms. Enjoy! Letters from Nebby shares her Charlotte Mason curriculum choices for elementary in Our School Plans. Homeschool Room…
There is so much goodness to learn about during a modern history study. We loved our living literature-based approach. This post contains affiliate links. Modern History For us, modern history goes from 1860 to the present. That’s a lot of territory with a lot of happenings to cover in one school year! Here’s our plan…
(This post contains affiliate links.) High School American Lit I love meeting the particular needs and interests of my children in our homeschool studies. Once my children reach high school, the same philosophy applies. Thus, the reason I’m pulling bits and pieces of various American Literature courses and adding some of my own choices in…
This post contains affiliate links. Read my entire disclosure policy here. Artist Study of the Month Since Michelangelo’s birthday is coming up on March 6th, we’re gearing up to focus on him again during this month’s artist study. We studied his work once before (several years ago) as part of a mini-unit about Renaissance artists. …
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) Target Age Range: 3rd-7th Skills Covered: volume, length, width, height, formulas, 2-dimesional shapes, 3-dimensional shapes Snap cubes are great for teaching perimeter, area, and volume in a hands-on way. This lesson focused on volume and understanding the formula for finding…
Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Carnival! This edition focuses on Ms. Mason’s Principle 18: The Way of Reason. 18. The way of reason: We teach children, too, not to ‘lean (too confidently) to their own understanding’; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth, (b) of an initial…
Target Age Range: 4th-8th Skills Covered: reading, addition/multiplication, calculator skills, problem solving, charting data (This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) The King’s Chessboard by David Birch is a fantastic book – both for math and character training. In it, the king foolishly agrees to doubling a gift…
Target Age Range: PK-1st Skills Covered: shape names, cutting, fine motor, baking, creativity This living math lesson for little people is simple and motivating. Who doesn’t want a cookie break in the middle of the school day?? 1. Make your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe first and refrigerate it. For a real living math…
Learning math with play dough geometry is so much fun! Middle and high school students like to play, too, and this series of lessons gives them a great, hands-on overview of beginning geometry. Concrete learning (actually touching, building, and manipulating things) is so important to solidify a real understanding of otherwise abstract concepts. Play dough…
Target Age Range: 4th-12th grades Skills Covered: gathering data, graphing, technology, keyboarding When I used to teach in a classroom, it was easy for my students to gather large amounts of data for graphing…there were 24+ people in the room at all times. As a homeschooler, it takes a little more creativity to gather…
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) Target Age Range: 3rd-8th Skills Covered: estimation, capacity measurements, multiplication, calculator, collecting data, making comparisons, cooking Food motivates my children and I suspect it might motivate your children, too! It just happens to be a bonus that this food inspired…
Target Age Range: PK-6th Skills Covered: finishing patterns, growing patterns, symmetry, naming patterns, area, perimeter, charting, relationships between patterns, number patterns, problem solving PK-2 Activities Top Photo: Begin a simple pattern (using any manipulative you like) and ask your child to continue the pattern. To help young children begin to understand what a pattern…