Charlotte Mason Motherhood
by Larissa Leigh
A podcast for everyday mothers to learn a practical application of the Charlotte Mason method.
Podcast episodes
Season 1
Narration: The Art of Telling Back | Principles #14-15
In today's episode I'm talking about the fourteenth and fifteenth principles of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. This principle focuses on narration: the art of telling back.--------Show Notes:See the Show Notes for This Episode--------Commonplace Quotes:Principle #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”.Principle #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, summarizing, and the like.”"...a conscious mental effort, from the scholar, the mental effort of telling again that which has been read or heard. That is how we all learn, we tell again, to ourselves if need be, the matter we wish to retain, the sermon, the lecture, the conversation. The method is as old as the mind of man, the distressful fact is that it has been made so little use of in general education" (A Philosophy of Education).--------Further Education:A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte MasonKnow and Tell by Karen GlassMy blog post and video on Narration(*some are affiliate links)--------Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood(Get an EXCLUSIVE monthly Q+A podcast episode, an exclusive Day in the Life and Lesson Plan With Me videos, and more!)--------Find me on: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon
The Charlotte Mason Subjects: What is the Feast? | Principle #13
In today's episode I'm talking about the 13th principle of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. This principle focuses on the "feast" that Mason focuses on. Learn more in this episode!--------Show Notes:See the Show Notes for This Episode--------Commonplace Quotes:Principle #13: In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity)Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.“For it is a mistake to suppose that the greater number of subjects the greater the scholar’s labour; the contrary is the case as the variety in itself affords refreshment, and the child who has written thirty or forty sheets during an examination week comes out unfagged. Not the number of subjects but the hours of work bring fatigue to the scholar…” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 158).“The boy or girl aged from ten to twelve who is intimate with a dozen or so of Plutarch’s Lives, so intimate that they influence his thought and conduct, has learned to put his country first and to see individuals only as they serve or dis-serve the state. Thus he gets his first lesson in the science of proportion. Children familiar with the great idea of a State in the sense, not of a government but of the people, learn readily enough about the laws, customs and government of their country; learn, too, with the great interest something about themselves, mind and body, heart and soul, because they feel it is well to know that they have it in them to give to their country. (A Philosophy of Education, p. 187)--------Further Education:A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 154-234)My video on Math the Charlotte Mason WayMy video on Modern Language the Charlotte Mason Way(*Some are affiliate links)--------Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood--------Find me on: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon
"Education is the Science of Relations" | Principle #12
In today's podcast we are discussing principle #12 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles: "Education is the Science of Relations"--------Show Notes:See the Show Notes for This Episode--------Commonplace Quotes:Principle #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 make valid as many as may be of – those first-born affinities that fit our new existence to existing things.”“The art of standing aside to let a child develop the relations proper to him is the fine art of education” (School Education p. 67)“We have relations with what there is in the present and with what there has been in the past, with what is above us, and about us; and that fullness of living and serviceableness depend for each of us upon how far we apprehend these relationship and how many of them we lay hold of. Every child is heir to an enormous patrimony. The question is, what are the formalities necessary to put him in possession of that which is his? (School Education, p. 218)All knowledge is joined by a unity of “the relations which bind all things to all other things” (Parents and Children, p. 259)--------Further Education:A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 128-138)Article from the Parents’ Review in 1905 on “Education is the Science of Relations”(*some are affiliate links)--------Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood(Get an EXCLUSIVE monthly Q+A podcast episode, an exclusive Day in the Life and Lesson Plan With Me videos, and more!)--------Find me on: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon
"Education is a Life" + Nourishing the Mind | Principles #8-11
In today's podcast we are discussing principles #8-11 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. The eighth principle is the third of three instruments of education; "Education is a life." Learn about what this phrase means and how we can nourish a child's mind in today's episode.--------Show Notes:See the show notes for this episode--------Commonplace Quotes:Principle #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."Principle #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."“One of our presumptuous sins in this connection is that we offer opinions to children (and to older persons) instead of ideas” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 110)“we know that food is to the body what fuel is to the steam-engine, the sole source of energy; once we realize that the mind too works only as it is fed education will appear to us in a new light” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 105)“...but an idea clothed up on with fact, history, and story, so that the mind may perform the acts of selection and inception from a mass of illustrative details” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 111).“...all I have said is meant to enforce the fact that much and varied humane reading, as well as human though expressed in the forms of art, is not a luxury, a tit-bit, to be given to children now and then, but their very bread of life, which they must have in abundant portions and at regular periods” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 111).--------Further Education:A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 104-127)(*some are affiliate links)--------Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood(Get an EXCLUSIVE monthly Q+A podcast episode, an exclusive Day in the Life and Lesson Plan With Me videos, and more!)--------Find me on: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon
"Education is a Discipline" | Principle #7
In today's podcast we are discussing principle #7 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. The seventh principle is the second of three instruments of education; "Education is a discipline."--------Show Notes:See the Show Notes for This Episode--------Commonplace Quotes:“We need not labour to get children to learn their lessons…Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight’ (p. 99)“The habits of fitting and ready expression, obedience, of good-will, and of an impersonal outlook are spontaneous by-products of education in this sort. So, too, are the habits of right thinking and right judging; while physical habits of neatness and order attend upon the self-respect which follows an education which respects the personality of the child” (p. 100)“If we fail to ease life by laying down habits of right thinking and right acting, habits of wrong thinking and wrong acting fix themselves of their own accord” (p. 101)“We entertain the idea which gives birth to the act and the act repeated again and again becomes the habit; ‘Sow an act,’ we are told, ‘reap a habit.’ ‘Sow a habit, reap a character.’ But we must go a step further back, we must sow the idea or notion which makes the act worthwhile” (p. 102)“It is possible to sow a great idea lightly and casually and perhaps this sort of sowing should be rare and casual because if a child detect a definite purpose in his mentor he is apt to stiffen himself against it” (p. 102).--------Further Education:A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 99-104)Article from 1967 on “Education is a Discipline”Habits of the Household by Justin Whitmel EarleyHabit Training Resources:Laying Down the Rails by Simply Charlotte MasonOur 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson(*some are affiliate links)--------Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood(Get an EXCLUSIVE monthly Q+A podcast episode, an exclusive Day in the Life and Lesson Plan With Me videos, and more!)--------Find me on: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon