Thinking about Charlotte Mason?

I am.  Gentle reading.  Real books.  Nature studies.  Walks outside.  Good habits.  Chronological history.  I am finding that there is much that I appreciate about her methods, and little that I don’t.  So much of this just fits who we are.  I LOVE our unit studies, but I love books more.  And when our unit studies take away from our reading time, they aren’t worth it. 

So when I imagine Charlotte Mason learning, what do I see?  Hours spent outside.  Observing nature, collecting bugs and rocks, learnign everything there is to know about HERE.  Listening, smelling, watching.


I see us snuggled up on the couch reading Charlotte’s Web and Anne of Green Gables.  I see us talking.  Not me talking, us talking.  Discussing, learning together and from each other.  Discoveries.  Passions ignited, and more questions then answers found.  Leading deeper into the heart of learning. 


I see us making nature notebooks, full of leaf rubbing.  Watching bugs grow and change, and butterflies emerge.  I see us knowing the birds by their calls and the trees by their leave.  I see nests and rocks and eggshells scattered on our shelves. 


I see us learning about history, not through facts and dates, but through stores of the people who lived there.  Through imagination and delight. 


So, where did I get this vision of Charlotte Mason’s gentle methods?  A wonderful blog, which has a series all about Charlotte’s ideas, and she puts them in such a plan and simple method that I can’t help but be tempted by them.  If you would like to read more about Charlotte Mason’s method, or the information that you have read before has been confusing, you need to check out these blog posts. 

Thursday’s Thoughts at The Cheap Chick