For quite some time now I have been slowly reading up on some of Charlotte Mason's education philosophy. I've not done any real indepth study, just spent some free time here and there reading and attempting to understand what I can about her ideas of educating. I have been intrigued by what I have read. Miss Mason was born in England in 1842 and was an only child. Tragically she became an orphan at the young age of sixteen. It was also at a young age that she decided that education would be the work of her life. She would dedicate the rest of her days to understanding young children, they way they learn, how they excel and how best to asisst parents in educating their children to the best of their abilities.
I'll admit that Miss Mason does seem to have been blessed of the Lord when it comes to understanding these precious little ones. Although she never had any children of her own she was able to pour herself in to her "life's calling" in such a way that she resulted in having an intimate knowledge and understanding of children and learning.
Last week I was able to go to a local homeschool used book sale and picked up a book by Catherine Levison entitled A Charlotte Mason Education: A Home Schooling How-To Manual. I have seen this book around and have wanted to purchase it for quite some time but never did. I am so glad that I didn't because I was able to pick it up at the sale for $2.00!!! I also picked up at that same sale last year a wonderful book by Penny Gardner called Charlotte Mason Study Guide.
Although both about the Charlotte Mason education Mrs. Levison's books seems to be a more practical how-to book. From what I can gather by just flipping through the book it seems like it would help me understand how to teach each subject along the CM lines.
Mrs. Gardner's book however seems to go into more details about the actual reasons behind why Miss Mason taught as she did. She simplifies the philosophy for us more so than the first book.
My plan is to slowly read through the following books:
Why don't I just read the books Miss Mason wrote on her own? Well, I might dip into those since I can print them from the web for free but honestly, being a homeschooling Mommy of 4 little ones my time is very limited . I am also highly distractable so I would either a.) do nothing but read through her works or b.) begin and not ever finish!!
I figure that these smaller books are more practical for me at this point in my life. Although someday I do plan on reading through Miss Mason's own writings I don't forsee that happening anytime soon. So in the meantime I will utilize what managable books I do have to the best of my ability.
I would like to warn you however. This little study of mine is not going to be done as many "CMers" would probably do it or approve of. I am a simple lady. I do not believe that I will be tackling any great philosophical anythings and posting about them here! These will just be my simple thoughts and conclusions. Simply McMama!
What I would like to do is blog once a week about what I've learned from my readings. Maybe I'll give it a cute name like....Miss Mason Monday...or Twaddle-free Tuesday...or...I don't know, it's late! I've got nothing else!
Anyway I would like to welcome anyone else who is interested to join in! If you have access to any of the books please feel free to comment on what you are learning as well. Just leave a comment below and who knows, I may like what you have to say so much that I have you blog on here too!!
I am only going to be sharing what the Lord speaks to me about through these books and I would love to hear how He is working in your lives as you learn to be a better "educator" of your children!
As far as a schedule goes, yeah I'm so relaxed that I hadn't really thought about that yet! (This is going good huh??!) I will probably read just one chapter a week in each book. I will try to work on something and post it here within the next couple of weeks.
My official Miss Mason Monday (just decided to call it that! what a great planner I am! Hope I don't scare any of you away!) will begin on Monday, June 7. Hope to see some of you here!!
Lovin' Learnin'
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