Charlotte Mason Education part 3

   I didn't actually intend to do a part 3 on this one as I have given a load of information already. However, this morning I woke up and found a brilliant link in my inbox! I just had to share it!

   It is an ebook all about Charlotte Mason and it is mainly an interview with Karen Andreola who I mentioned in the last post. So here is the link to the Charlotte Mason We-ebook. And you might want to hurry because this is a 'Freebie of the week' so the link might not work next week. Enjoy everyone! - Deedee

Charlotte Mason Education part 2

   So, did you manage to digest all those principles? There is alot there isn't there? Charlotte Mason had some brilliant ideas about the 'gentle art of learning' as she put it.

   I thought I'd give you some resources for actually using CM's methods and to read more about them.

• The first is actually a complete CM curriculum that is totally FREE! It is a twelve year curriculum plan that is written by Mother's who use it. Most of the books are also available at the site as they are now copy right free so you can just print them off to use. Or else you can borrow alot from the library too. It is called Ambleside online and you will find tons of useful information there as well as a support network of other mothers who use the same curriculum.
• The next site is called Simply Charlotte Mason and has a wealth of resources for those interested in putting together a CM education for their children. There are copy work materials, book lists and organizers available here to get you started along with tons of articles by and about CM and her methods. This site is a treasure trove for those wanting to know more about CM methods.
• The next is the Charlotte Mason Research and Supply company. I know that is a mouthful, huh? The website is simply Charlottemason.com This site is run by Karen Andreola and her husband Dean. This wondeful couple actually found a copy of the original works of Charlotte Mason and are responsible for getting them republished! They found the books while living for a time here in the UK several years ago. Karen has also written a wonderful book called 'The Charlotte Mason Companion' that breaks down CM's teachings into bite size peices that you can handle and impliment easily. It is really the 'how to' manual for the CM approach. I had the joy of meeting Karen a few years ago. She lives near my parents and we met for coffee and cake and had a delightful morning chatting about our home education journey's and about CM's delightful teachings. There are many great resources available at this site. You can also buy the Charlotte Mason Companion from Conquest books here in the UK to save on shipping.
• Charlotte Mason uses alot of Nature study in her teaching as it is science that makes is hands on and makes sense to children. They can see nature, touch nature and examine nature for themselves. In discovering the world around them, they discover alot about themselves as well. There is a brilliant book called 'The handbook of nature study' and is almost 900 pages long. It is available from Conquest books to buy, but it is also available to read for free online at the link for the book. It is alot of fun doing a nature journal with the kids to record their discoveries!
• Living books curriculum is another great site for CM education ideas, resources and information. There are some great things on this website including a 20 page FREE sample of the curriculum to view and try out. It includes samples of lesson plans for the different ages. You can buy a complete curriculum pack from them with all the neccesary books for the year which can be easier than scouring the library for books.
• Cindy Rushton also has alot of articles at her website regarding CM methods. She is very American and there are some radio shows she has recorded playing on the website - all of her teaching and encouragement is great though with a very American accent.  She does have alot of great practical articles about CM though, so check it out.

I think that should give you a bit to sink your teeth into, huh?  And as you can see alot of it is quite inexpensive or even FREE! This method uses far less 'busy work' less worksheets and writing. It uses more gentle reading aloud and narration to 'check' that kids have learned something.

It emphasises the use of 'Living books' or real books rather than dumbed down books and textbooks which are compilations. It stretches children to a higher level in a gentle way. Charlotte Mason said that every day a every child should have -

1. Something or someone to love
2. Something to do (something worthwhile of course)
3. Something to think about (again, something worthwhile)

That sums up a CM education quite nicely actually! Enjoy finding out more. - Deedee

A few good websites

* I found this post back in the archives and decided to recycle it to the top as there are some great links in it! Have fun checking them out. - Deedee *

Hi everybody! Ok here goes. I'm going to attempt to bounce back and forth between here and my favourites list to compile a list of sites for you to check out for free lesson plans and worksheets. I'll try and comment on wether they are better for one age group of another.

• www.atozteacherstuff.com  - Great site for themes! Lesson plans and worksheets on a variety of subjects. Some downloads are chargeable but most are free!
• www.akidsheart.com - Terrific resources for preschoolers and for holiday activities.Cute site too!!
• http://coloringcottage.com - Great site for coloring pages on all sorts of subjects.
• http://coloringbookfun.com - Fantastic coloring page site!! Top marks! Lots of 'character' coloring sheets (great for birthday parties) and coloring sheets listed by subject. Great add-ons for unit studies etc.
• www.dltk-kids.com - This site is great! They have a section on Bible stories, lesson plans, printable activity sheets, and crafts. There is also a section where you can use their templates and create whatever sheets you need, star charts etc. They even have Veggie Tales!
• www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org/aunty -This is the home of Aunty Math, a great math site for kids.
• www.teachcoal.org/lessonplans/elementary.html - OK! So I realize it is about American coal but coal is coal - right! Some of the activities and lesson plans are really creative! And it is really interesting,esp. if like me you live in a village and have coal heating!!
• www.explorerbiblestudy.org/index.htm - This is the site for this particular course of bible curriculum. But if you go on the site and follow though the process till you are asked for the quantity to buy you will see a button saying view sample. Click that button and you will get a weeks worth of that book in pdf form to print off. Great for a one off, or to 'try before you buy'. 
• www.thehomeschoolmom.com - What you can't find here might be shorter list! Check it out. Lots of link on to other sites, and encouragement for homeschool Moms (or Mums)!
• www.funbrain.com - This one has lots of online educational games for elementary school age children. I especially like the math baseball!
• www.oxfordhomeschooling.co.uk - This one is for those of you with teenagers. They do GCSE's and A level's.
• www.freedom-in-education.co.uk - A good site to find answers to questions about Home education in England.Especially good for those just starting out!
• www.home-education-resources.co.uk - Lots of link on here. Information about national curriculum, printable worksheets, and UK home education organizations.
• www.earlychildhoodlinks.com - A site to link off of to many others for preschool materials.
• www.schoolexpress.com - A great site with LOTS of printables.There is a sampler of 100 worksheets which you can print for free, several unit studies, and a free e-newsletter. Also for $25 a year (about £15) you can buy a membership and access 1000's of worksheets and ebooks!

OK, well there's a start! And I'm only halfway down my 'Favourites' School list! I'll try and post the rest next week, I think these might keep you busy till then!! And be sure to look at the sites that were posted by Dawesacadamy in the comment of my last posting. The ichtus one is FANTASTIC! A real find!

   Have a great week! - DeeDee

Charlotte Mason Education part 1

   If any of my very long standing readers are still about you may remember that I had this great idea once upon a time to do posts about the many methods of home education that there are.

   I did do a post about unit studies which you can find here. Now I thought I'd do a little about Charlotte Mason's gentle style of learning. CM was a British education reformer in the early 1900's. She was based at Ambleside in the lake district where she had a school and a teacher's training college.

   She didn't like the harsh educational methods of the day. She was against the constant drilling and the unnesessary work that was done just to keep the kids quiet and under control.

   She preferred 'twaddle free' and no 'busy work'. She advocated children giving report of something by narration and discussion rather than lengthy report writing. Science was mainly in depth nature study as you explore the world around you! And the believed passionately in 'Living books'. Real books rather than text books or watered down children's books.

   I will post below a list of the 20 principles of education.That should give you a bit to digest! LOL! I'll be back soon and list some brilliant books and resources to use with a CM approach.  - Deedee 

Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles form a synopsis of her Educational Method:

1. Children are born persons.

2. They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and for evil.

3. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but––

4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.

5. Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."

6. When we say that "education is an atmosphere," we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child-environment' especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the child's' level.

7. By "education is a discipline," we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits. 8. In saying that "education is a life," the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

9. We hold that the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.

10. Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher's axiom is,' what a child learns matters less than how he learns it."

11. But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that,––

12. "Education is the Science of Relations"; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of–– "Those first-born affinities That fit our new existence to existing things."

13. In devising a SYLLABUS for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered: (a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body. (b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity) (c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

14. As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should 'tell back' after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.

15. A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarising. and the like. Acting upon these and some other points in the behaviour of mind, we find that the educability of children is enormously greater than has hitherto been supposed, and is but little dependent on such circumstances as heredity and environment. Nor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children or to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in Elementary Schools respond freely to this method, which is based on the behaviour of mind.

16. There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call 'the way of the will' and 'the way of the reason.'

17. The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character, It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)

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 idea, accepted by the will. In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.

19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need.

20. We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life.

Volume 6: A Philosophy of Education Charlotte Mason 1922

Consultation Response form.

As expected I ruffled a few feathers with my last post! LOL!  I will answer some of my commenters as well, since they all posted anonymously and without leaving links so I can't reply to them individually!

I DID post that last post up before reading the document since it wasn't actually out yet! I did it on the basis of the articles that I listed in that post. I will say though, that I HAVE since read the report (yes! The entire 80 pages!) and I still stand by my post! 

My thanks to Conrad for being polite in his comments even if he didn't agree with me. And I would ask that others would refrain from calling names and nasty comments in future! This is a blog that I write on and I'm entitled to my opinion just as you are entitled to yours! I haven't gone to anyone elses blogs or websites and called them names for thier views and I would ask the same courtesy here. Thank you. 

I wanted to post some further information that might be of interest to some of you.   

Here is the link to the PDF of the entire document, and the letter reply from Ed Ball. Make a cuppa first. It is 80 pages long! Or you can just skip to the recommendations at the end as they are summarised.

Graham Badman's report  http://tinyurl.com/mxcdul

and Ed Ball's letter to Graham Badman http://tinyurl.com/l7yx4y

Here is a copy of the entire statement that the CofE actually made to the review. They were quoted just on some of the points they said rather than the whole picture - however, I still think what they said about education and children in this country is shocking!

 http://www.natsoc.org.uk/schools/electivehomeeducation.docx

There is also a survey being done of home educated young people to see what they have to say. Here are the details below!

Graham Badman claimed that his report was about balancing the rights of
children against the rights of the parents. Personally, I think it was
about balancing the (self decided) rights of government versus the rights of
families - and the balance has shifted their way.

I have put together a brief survey for home educated young people to
complete if they would like, as a way of actually asking the children what
THEY think about this issue. Any home educated child can take part.

The survey doesn't collect any identifiable data, and there is an option to
say whether or not they would like their answers collated and sent to DCSF
or not.

Please consider sending this link as far and as wide as you possibly can so
that our children can make their views known.

I don't expect government to listen - but we can get the media to listen to
the results I'm sure.

The link is:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7FN02SW4ktRkEvwLtk0BWg_3d_3d

The survey closes on 30th June.

If you want to contact DCFS directly to state your view here is some information on the best numbers to use.

If you are trying to ring DCSF to make a comment, complaint or whatever
about the Report, the alternative to the 0870/0845 number is:

01928 794446

If you require a paper copy of the "Home Education - registration and
monitoring proposals" consultation to be posted to you (at cost to the
DCSF...) then the number to call is:

01623 724503

Please pass on freely :0)

One of the things I found surprising and encouraging is that he has recommended that there be a group of home educating parents in each LA used for consultation on how this should be implemented. (See recommendation number 4) As far as I can see this is giving us a voice in the process and in the future of how it all plays out!

This is our chance to make sure that things are done without too much restriction. As Christians we should be the first ones standing up for such jobs! We can see in the States how when registration was put in place the Christians stood up and were counted in holding these positions and in shaping legislation. And in America the Home schooling population is HUGE now 30 years on. Also, because they used their voice - they didn't loose their rights!

He also clearly states that 'parents raise children not the government'! At least someone has finally admitted that.

Yes, there are a few things in the document that are a bit fuzzy and a few points that I would prefer someone to clarify for me. However on the whole, I was still fearing MUCH worse! So that is the cause of my celebratory attitude!

They have also given way for schools materials to be available, cheap music lessons, libraries, sports facilities, and help for special students. And yes, I know that all of these things will have some strings attached - but for many parents this is still a good thing.

My family have been inspected by two LA's over the space of five years now and have had VERY positive experiences. So, I know what it is like to have them in my home. We have never hid what we are doing, but rather be happy to shout from the mountain tops. 'We home educate! Come and see what a great job we are doing!' and they have never found a single thing to complain about.

They have also recommended that all inspectors should be trained in how home education works and what it looks like. They should also use home educating parents to help do this training! I have heard for years how so many inspectors don't know what they are doing and they should be trained. Well, now they will be! AND we get to help with the training! That has to be a victory!

We also have a chance to respond in a consultation. I would encourage everyone to do this. However I would also encourage everyone to be polite and tempered in thier responses since I doubt that rude and angry comments are going to do our cause very much good! Many home educators have taken their children out of school to remove them from bullying situations. So having home educating parents use bullying language and comments to the DCFS doesn't exactly put them at ease that the children are safer now - does it? It also makes us look like hot heads and people who can't make an articulate argument. All things that don't help our cause any.

So, even if you have to tell them that you flatly disagree with all of the report - please do it politely and firmly. It will help the cause more that way. Here is the link to the consultation below and please note that they have given us till October 19th to respond - so there is time to formulate our response.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1643&external=no&menu=1

Let's stand up and be counted now and make a difference. Let's show the LA's that home education does work - and that it works well. Let's blow their socks off with the great job we are doing. I would remind every one that 'A gentle answer turns away wrath'. And sometimes being accountable is a good thing.

I'll keep you posted as any more important information arises. There are many other blog posts, websites and facebook groups popping up all over the place to scream about the report, but I'll let you find those for yourselves and just post up the important links like the consultation and where to read the document for yourselves. - Deedee