Charlotte Mason

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!

Graphing: Facebook Birthdays

  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…

Popcorn Math Activity

  (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…

Fun with Patterns

  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…

Living Math Series

Beginning next week… October 15-26… a series full of practical ideas for incorporating more living math into your school days! Join me here daily!  Better yet, add my feed to your feed reader so you’re sure not to miss a post!

Open notebook with lesson plans inside

Weekly Lesson Notebooks

(This post contains affiliate links.) Better lesson organization is one of my main goals for the upcoming school year.  Having a high school student, middle school student and a kindergartener, I have no choice but to be more organized – or feel flustered and fall behind too often like I did last year when I…

Charlotte Mason Carnival

Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Carnival!  An Atmosphere of Learning is our theme – and don’t you just LOVE the atmosphere a Charlotte Mason education provides??  Me, too! I wouldn’t trade for the world our times of snuggling up with living books, basking in the sunshine of nature study, or enjoyment of handicrafts and artist…

M&M image for a blog post about M&M Math

M&M Math

(This post contains affiliate links.) Talk about a fun week of learning with M&M Math! Below you’ll find all sorts of activities we have done for M&M Math.  Most of the ideas could easily be used with other types of candy pieces, too. Estimation: Fill a jar with M&M’s and ask your children to estimate…

Blog image about simple field guide hints with an image about blue birds in a field guide.

Simple Field Guide Hint

Here’s a simple field guide hint that will work for all ages from preschool through adult. We started using this little trick before our children were even readers and we still use it to this very day. Simple Field Guide Hint Get out the stickers! Before they could write, or even draw very well, I…