Reflections Blog

There is a helpful metaphor in the Charlotte Mason philosophy which she invokes often, the "feast of ideas," that the mind feeds on ideas as the body on food. If we want our children's bodies to be healthy, we offer them a wide variety of foods, if we want their minds and spirits to be nurtured? We must offer them a wide variety of ideas! For this reason, outdoor play and Nature study have a crucial part to play in a Charlotte Mason education. Nature brings us into constant contact with God's creation and a vast multitude of living ideas. Charlotte was an advocate for Art. She was an advocate for foreign language! But she was also an advocate for a wide selection of Living Books . You can search for a definition of Living Book on YouTube and come up with some good content if this is your first acquaintance with the term. I like to ask myself, "is this a story that has appealed to the human imagination for generations?" this criteria becomes problematic when ...

 My favorite fairytale picture book in our house is an adaptation of The Light Princess by George MacDonald. I am always looking to collect good fairytale picture books, especially from the Brothers Grimm collection (if the adaptation is bad, I am happy to have the boys hold the picture book while I read from the original), so to have a favorite is saying something - I am typically not one to commit to favorites, but this story is simply too good not to fall for (and not to share with you!). The Light Princess is a spin off of the well known "Sleeping Beauty" story; taking a drastic turn at the beginning of the tale when instead of the princess being cursed with death, she is cursed with losing her gravity. The light princess grows up untethered from the earth and with no sense of gravity about the situation she is in; always laughing and making light of life, the King and Queen try everything to make her see the serious side of things: to no avail. Can anything transport t...

The Emporia Public Library has great inter-library loan connections: if you live near Emporia and enjoy reading, you have a great resource available to you! Below are some of the titles that we read this year and most of them are available through the Emporia Library, one way or another, and the process to request a book that is not on site is very simple, I promise!! First, you'll need to make an account at https://emporia.biblionix.com/catalog/ with your library card number, then head to "Account" and "Reserves/Requests" where there are prompts for you to follow in order to request an item that you're looking for!  We have read and enjoyed all the titles included below, which are just our very favorites. I am currently itching to get to town so that we can pick up The Children's Christmas Carol that is waiting for us; nothing like the anticipation of the start of a new title!!  Enjoy, Sam Margaret Wise Brown The Big Red Barn Margaret Wise Brown The Lit...

Continuing my series of posts on Charlotte Mason, today's topic is God as the Supreme Educator. Charlotte believed that our efforts to educate children would only be fruitful so far as we are willing to cooperate with the Supreme Educator of all. She held that every fruitful idea, every new scientific revelation, every true and worthy thought was inspired by God Himself, regardless of whether the person thinking, discovering, or receiving such things acknowledged His role or not. This truth was the "Great Recognition:" that there is no separation between "spiritual" and "educational," for God made all things and by Him they live. We cannot understand the truth about anything (either spiritual or physical) apart from His light shining upon our minds. If this is true, then it follows that education is not possible without Him. In her book Parents and Children she says, "God, the Holy Spirit, is Himself the Supreme Educator of mankind. How? He openet...