History must afford its pageants, science its wonders, literature its intimacies, philosophy its speculations, religion its assurances to every man, and his education must have prepared him for wanderings in these realms of gold. – Charlotte Mason
For a decade I classically homeschooled my six children full time, plus a couple of nieces, with a Charlotte Mason (CM) methodology, using Ambleside Online as a guide. I have since utilized a hybrid-approach, leaning both on the public school system and Ambleside Online in varying measure during different seasons for different children–which has been a surprise to me and a gift from God.
Downloads:
Most Popular Homeschooling Posts
- How We Do: School Schedules (part 1)
- How We Do: School Schedules (part 2)
- How We Do: School Schedules (part 3)
- How We Do: First Grade
- Homeschooling Archives (all posts)
- Start The Year off Strong
Getting Practical
- Taking Sabbath Weeks – homeschool for six weeks, break for one
- Ambleside Year 1 posts
- Making School Schedules
- Shakespeare
- Books of Centuries and Timelines
- Planning your new school year when overwhelmed
- Art
- Homeschooling: What, Who, Where, When – Schooling two students with two toddlers in tow – while pregnant!
- Schooling, How We’re Doing It – Schooling three students with two toddlers and a newborn!
- Homeschooling in a Crisis or Transition
- School Spaces – where we homeschool
Nature Study Posts
- Sand: thoughts on change and how we grow
- Overview of Nature Study
- Nature Study: It’s for the parents, too
- Nature Study Archives
“Oh yeah, this is why I’m doing it” Posts
- Relation of Education to Redemption
- Himself, a Lover of the Beautiful
- Infinite Loveliness, Irresistible Tenderness: God, the settler of our minds
The only article from only time I tried to do a CM newsletter: The Ambler
Full CM Archives
Resources I love:
A Bit of Our Journey:
For a decade I classically homeschooled my six children full time, plus a couple of nieces, with a Charlotte Mason (CM) methodology, using Ambleside Online as a guide. We have since for several years done hybrid-style, with some kids in school and some homeschooled (with AO), or all in school and and none at home. Educating my children has been one of the deepest, most enriching journeys of my life. I will never stop being grateful for the experience. I believe in the goodness of homeschooling, and in the utter soul-spirit-mind-body-heart fullness of a CM approach, with all of my heart. I wish all schools were CM schools, the world would be a better place.
Like many of you, we’ve had the crazy, through-the-glass-darkly privilege of homeschooling through multiple life circumstances. We’ve had pregnancies, illnesses, military deployments, job changes and a number of cross-country moves. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that life comes in seasons, that it’s best to flex and bend, that curriculum is servant (not master), that good habits form a strong foundation, that parents are persons too, that keeping in step with the Holy Spirit matters most, and that God is faithful through it all. I’ve also learned that we can’t do everything we wish in this life, and that sometimes the very things we treasure are the things that are taken away: and losing full-time homeschooling has been a loss of my dream but a gain of God’s greater good for me and my family, and I’m grateful for this too.
I remember chomping at the bit for so long, waiting for my eldest to be old enough to start school. I read and worried and tried diligently “to just read good books and hang out in nature and hold off on academics”. Now he is a senior, and time is slipping through my fingers faster every day. What a gift it all is.
Leave a Reply