2 other homeschooling mothers (one was Lisawa) and I made a road trip this weekend to attend a Charlotte Mason Workshop given by Catherine Levison. Boy was it one of the BEST days I have had in a LONG LONG time! The fellowship was wonderful, uplifting, and supportive. The workshop really refilled my cup and I am excited at the new possibilities that await around the corner with our homeschooling journey.I really like this philosophy and do want to implement this into our homeschooling and family life. I purchased all of Catherine's Books and can't wait to finishing reading them all. I have read the introduction to the Literary Education and paged through the book lists. There are a lot of books in there that we haven't read yet. My personal homeschooling goal is to get a lot of those book read over the years to come.
One idea I came away with is to do short lessons with the max. time being 15 min per lesson. If we need to stop at 15 min and come back later to finish something up, that is fine. But the idea is to not sit there for a hour doing the same work; give your children breaks.
Another thought was to not try and implement everything I liked about the workshop starting Monday morning. Do a little at a time, introduce concepts/ideas slowly to avoid burnout or the feeling of not living up to "my" expectations based on what I learned this weekend. I will take it slowly, I am not supermom and can't do the swicheroo 2 days time. This will be a learning process for me and can I tell you I am excited about what lies ahead of us.
I have spent quite a bit of time on 2 sites today: Simply Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Classical. I have been receiving emails (in digest form) from Ambleside's online yahoo group for years, but never really have taken the time to read them. The file section is loaded with goodies, and the website is filled with free things to help implement what you teach to your children.
On Ambleside Classical, I found a page that shares the complete 6 volume set: The Original Homeschooling Series, written by Miss. Mason herself for FREE. Catherine recommend reading book 1, 3, & 4 to gleam the best understanding of her philosophy. So I have not decided to dedicate some time during the week to read these books, or at the min., the sections that are of top interest to me.
As I continue learning I will update my blog with my ah-ha moments and share tidbits of what I learned at the workshop. Do stay tuned! *Ü*
Are there any other CM users or want to be users that visit my blog? I would love to visit your site and gleam from your experience and/or begin this journey with you. *Ü*
