A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast

This season, we are interviewing experienced Charlotte Mason moms, inviting them to tell us how they've come to "Trust the Method." In today's episode, as she prepares to graduate her oldest student this spring, Morgan Conner joins us to reflect on her homeschool journey and how she came to trust Charlotte Mason's Method. After jumping from one curriculum to the next, once Morgan discovered Charlotte Mason, she never looked back, but that doesn't mean it has always been easy. You will glean much from Morgan's vulnerability and honesty as she describes overcoming her perfectionistic tendencies and learned to trust the Lord with even the smallest details with her neurodiverse students. For the Children's Sake, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen Q&A about Nature Walks Podcast Episode on Forecasting Forecasting Teacher Training Workshop Morgan's episode on Reading Charlotte Mason's Volumes Morgan's episode on Planning Physical Geography Lessons ADE's Patreon Community

Charlotte Mason firmly believed that novels are our greatest teachers, hence why she included them as a major serving in the feast that nourishes our children's education. This episode was recorded live at the ADE At Home conference, February 2, 2024, with Nicole, Emily, and Liz leading a discussion with attendees who had read the book and come to contribute what they had been taught by William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel Vanity Fair. If you have read the book, you will revel in the myriad messages this book conveyed to us all, and if you have not, you will be inspired to read it.   Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray Talkbox.mom

This season, we are interviewing experienced Charlotte Mason moms, inviting them to tell us how they've come to "Trust the Method." In today's episode, Jami Hurt, mom of two homeschool graduates tells us about her experience with Charlotte Mason Homeschooling, and the joys she is witnessing with her boys who have now launched their own lives in young adulthood. For the Children's Sake, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay Destiny of the Republic, Candice Millard ADE's Patreon Community

As home educators trying to spread the wide feast of a Charlotte Mason education for multiple children, we feel the need to have our students working independently. But how do we get them there? Join Liz, Nicole, and Emily as they discuss the rewards and challenges with practical advice for how to help our children grow in independence--in school lessons and beyond.   “As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing." (6/99) “One of the features, and one of the disastrous features, of modern society, is that, in our laziness, we depend upon prodders and encourage a vast system of prodding.” (3/39) "...parents who have always satisfied the intellectual craving of their children must needs forego the delight of watching a literary awakening." (3/123) “The children must know themselves to be let alone, whether to do their own duty or to seek their own pleasure. The constraining power should be present, but passive, so that the child may not feel himself hemmed in without choice. That free-will of man, which has for ages exercised faithful souls who would prefer to be compelled into all righteousness and obedience, is after all a pattern for parents. The child who is good because he must be so, loses in power of initiative more than he gains in seemly behaviour. Every time a child feels that he chooses to obey of his own accord, his power of initiative is strengthened.” (3/31) "A parent may be willing to undergo any definite labours for his child's sake; but to be always catering for his behoof, always contriving that circumstances shall play upon him for his good, is the part of a god and not of a man!" (1/10) "Make children happy and they will be good,' is absolutely true, but does it develop that strenuousness, the first condition of virtue, which comes of the contrary axiom-' Be good and you will be happy'?" (3/57) "Let her distribute her time as she likes, but count her tale of bricks; let her choose books for her own reading, but know what she chooses; let her choose her own companions, but put before her the principles on which to choose..." (5/245) The Coddling of the American Mind, Haidt and Lukianoff Awaken: Living Books Conference 2024 ADE @ Home {Virtual Conference} Episode 108: Masterly Inactivity ADE's Patreon Community

At the 2022 ADE at HOME {Virtual} Conference Melissa Petermann of Charlotte Mason PE presented a talk entitled "Mindset, Margin, and Tactics: Homeschooling Through Trials & Chronic Illness." We've invited her onto the podcast this week to discuss some of the practical ways she has found to continue on even on hard days. "ln the things of science, in the things of art, in the things of practical everyday life, his God doth instruct him and doth teach him, her God doth instruct her and doth teach her. Let this be the mother's key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl; not of her children; the divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child. Because He is infinite, the whole world is not too great a school for this indefatigable Teacher, and because He is infinite, He is able to give the whole of his infinite attention for the whole time to each one of his multitudinous pupils. We do not sufficiently rejoice in the wealth that the infinite nature of our God brings to each of us." (2/273) "Let the mother go out to play! If she would only have courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a day , out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in a picture gallery looking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed, without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents. The mother would be able to hold herself in 'wise passiveness,' and would not fret her children by continual interference, even of hand or eye-she would let them be." (3/33-34) 2024 ADE @ Home {Virtual Conference} Melissa's Swedish Drill Resource Melissa's Mindset, Margin, and Tactics: Homeschooling Through Trials & Chronic Illness Workshop from the 2022 Conference Sabbath Mood Homeschool Science Guides Liz's Grammar Resource ADE's Patreon Community

Charlotte Mason, educator and philosopher, discusses the importance of children enjoying their books. The podcast explores the nuances of children's taste and the role it should play in selecting lesson books. It emphasizes the value of intellectual impact, sympathy, and understanding, as well as modeling reading challenging books and choosing age-appropriate read-alouds. The significance of providing appropriate books for children's reading habits is highlighted, along with the cultivation of children's taste for good literature. The podcast concludes with the benefits of reading books you may not initially like and details about the A.D.E. At Home Conference.

This season, we are interviewing experienced Charlotte Mason moms, inviting them to tell us how they've come to "Trust the Method." In today's episode, Melanie Verlage, Canadian mom of four girls tells us about her transition from public school to Charlotte Mason Homeschooling, and the surprising joys she's witnessed over the last six years.   The Body, Bill Bryson Episode 269: Voices from the Conference with Jono Kiser ADE's Personal Curriculum Consultations ADE's Patreon Community

Can you make a child care about their education? Or about anything, let alone the many things that Charlotte Mason commended? We tackle these questions in this episode of the podcast, exploring the reasons for a seeming indifference in our students as well as how we can come alongside them and help them grow in their love for knowledge.     “Our aim in Education is to give a Full Life.- We begin to see what we want. Children make large demands upon us. We owe it to them to hast set my feet in a large room,' should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time ; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking-the strain would be too great-but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest. We cannot give the children these interests; we prefer that they should never say they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. The question is not,-how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education-but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him ? I know you may bring a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. What I complain of is that we do not bring our horse to the water. We give him miserable little text-books, mere compendiums of facts, which he is to learn off and say and produce at an examination; or we give him various knowledge in the form of warm diluents, prepared by his teacher with perhaps some grains of living thought to the gallon. And all the time we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of thinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children." (3/171-172) "I know you may bring a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. What I complain of is that we do not bring our horse to the water. We give him miserable little text-books, mere compendiums of facts, which he is to learn off and say and produce at an examination; or we give him various knowledge in the form of warm diluents, prepared by his teacher with perhaps some grains of living thought to the gallon. And all the time we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of thinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children. The fact is, we undervalue children." (3/172) “In conclusion, the parent must educate himself up to the level of the child, or if he cannot do this, he must never discourage. Children with their natural irresponsibleness and ignorance of what is in them, will take up various subjects with more or less vigor, only to drop them perhaps, before finally lighting upon the one thing of absorbing interest. Be patient with these vagaries and the litter they make if they are wholesome and healthy; above all do not scoff at this inconsequence, and if their particular hobbies are not according to your especial taste remember that— “There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.” (PR 22 p. 792)         Spark, John Ratey Habits of the Household, Justin Whitmel Earley A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century, Witold Rybczynski       Talkbox.mom 2024 ADE @ Home {Virtual Conference} Parents' Educational Course Episode 113: Service, An Interview with Vanessa Kijewski Episode 249: Voices from the Conference: Cathy McKay on Teenagers ADE's Patreon Community

At the 2023 ADE at HOME {Virtual} Conference Jono Kiser of Living Literature presented a talk entitled "Good and Dangerous Books." We've invited him onto the podcast this week to discuss why Charlotte Mason encouraged students to read literature with objectionable content, and what makes these worthy books. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Bleak House, Charles Dickens Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens Number the Stars, Lois Lowry Junkyard Wonders, Patricia Polacco The Hundred Dresses, Eleanor Estes 2024 ADE @ Home {Virtual Conference} Areopagitica, John Milton ADE's Patreon Community

In this episode we return to the topic of Recitation, a distinctive feature of Charlotte Mason's Method. We are focusing on practical ways to help your student develop their skills in Recitation, both the "Mechanical" and the "Sentimental" Branches. “It will now be seen that I spoke nothing but the truth when I said that reading was an art which had its fixed laws. We have found laws for the emission of the voice, for respiration, for pronunciation, for articulation, and for punctuation ; that is to say, laws for all the material side, the technical part of the art of reading. Let us now pass on to its intellectual aspects.” (Ernest Legouvé. A Short Treatise on Reading Aloud. PR 17, p 436) Hay said, “the first of these two branches ... can in all cases be taught, and the second beyond hints and suggestions for guidance must be left to the taste and judgment of the speaker.” (p. 33-34) What Charlotte Mason called “the fine art of beautiful and perfect speaking.” (1/223) “It will now be seen that I spoke nothing but the truth when I said that reading was an art which had its fixed laws. We have found laws for the emission of the voice, for respiration, for pronunciation, for articulation, and for punctuation ; that is to say, laws for all the material side, the technical part of the art of reading. Let us now pass on to its intellectual aspects.” (Ernest Legouvé. A Short Treatise on Reading Aloud. PR 17, p 436) Hay said, “the first of these two branches ... can in all cases be taught, and the second beyond hints and suggestions for guidance must be left to the taste and judgment of the speaker.” (p. 33-34) The Speaking Voice: Its Development and Preservation, Volume 1, Emil Behnke The Speaking Voice: Its Development and Preservation, Volume 2, Emil Behnke The Art of Reading and Speaking, Canon Fleming How You Talk, Paul Showers Awaken: Living Books Conferences Episode 69: Recitation Episode 179: Recitation Immersion Nicole's Recitation Handout Episode 266: The Unity of the CM Method Arthur Burrell's Recitation: The Children's Art Mrs Tongue Does Her Housework 2024 ADE @ Home {Virtual Conference} ADE's Patreon Community