Charlotte Mason's first principle is: children are born persons. They are entrusted to us to protect and teach and lead in a manner that pleases their Heavenly Father. They deserve respect and individual attention and education because their souls are worth more than anything else in this world. In this episode, we discuss why it is so important to start with this simple, yet profound, truth.

With so much information available on the internet, it can be confusing to know what we're actually getting into with a Charlotte Mason education. I have read her volumes and hope to clarify in this episode how she actually intended for children to be educated. With things like living ideas, a wide and varied list of subjects --including short lessons that require full attention--narrating what is learned, time out in nature, realizing that all education is self education, and knowing that without God, no learning would happen at all.

Charlotte Mason compared ideas to the mind as food is to the body. Our minds feed on ideas. She said, "Give your child a single valuable idea and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information." In this episode, I discuss some of the different ways that we get ideas and the powerful fruits that can grow from those ideas.

There is a certain aesthetic in Charlotte Mason homeschools these days. You've probably seen it. The girls only wear linen dresses, the children only have beautiful wooden toys, and everyone is always perfect and happy. Well, maybe we need a little taste of reality in these circles. It's good to strive for excellence, but it's also okay to not be perfect. It's okay to not have everything together all the time. Let's remember where our strength truly comes from and keep doing our best while accepting our faults with a little bit of humor.

In this episode, I tell some stories of people (fact and fiction) who have inspired me. Charlotte Mason said, "Mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them." Our children come to us with their own personalities and it's our job to notice and correct the bad behaviors and notice and encourage the good ones. It isn't always easy. But it's definitely worth it.

One of the main aspects of a Charlotte Mason education is the wide variety of subjects that the students learn. From art and hymn study all the way to citizenship and handicrafts, Miss Mason has a good argument for learning a huge variety of subjects. In this episode, I explore the reason behind teaching so many different subjects even when it isn't always easy. As Miss Mason said, “It is at our peril that we remain too long in any one field of thought.”

Learning to read is hard work and takes years to master. Charlotte Mason describes the specific way to do reading lessons in her book Home Education on pages 199-222. In this episode, I explain the atmosphere behind the lessons. The books we use, the way we use our time with reading lessons, and our attitudes all contribute to the atmosphere of reading lessons.

ADHD wasn't diagnosed very much until the mid 1900s. Charlotte Mason was at the end of her life around that time, so it is very likely she never heard of ADHD. But we all know that the habit of attention is dwindling in many children as well as adults because of our current way of life. Because of this, we can all benefit from some wonderful techniques that Miss Mason used in her school. She said "children have naturally great power of attention." And following her methods yields great results in people with or without ADHD.