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Happy Summer!
- Note from Janice
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: Renaming the Wilder Award wasn’t censorship, but was it the right thing to do?
- Charlotte Mason was Right: Education is an Atmosphere —Here's a study that shows that a family's "scholarly culture" matters in a big way.
- New books from Living Books Press
- Resource: High school planning worksheet
- Resource: AmblesideOnline.org's free lesson plans
- New handy link pages at Excellence-in-Literature.com
Dear Friend ,
I enjoyed meeting or reconnecting with so many homeschoolers during the 2018 convention season. Not only did I get to visit with two of the moms from my 2016 China trip, but it was also a delight to talk to so many parents who were just beginning to learn about homeschooling. I met quite a few whose oldest child was only three or four, and I think they'll be glad they started learning now. Starting early can help you feel confident when it's finally time for that first lesson. If you have requested copies of my slides from any of the conferences, I'm working my way through all the requests. Watch your email for a link to the correct download page (much more reliable than trying to email attachments)! Thank you for being so patient — it's hard to get things done during the traveling months. In this issue, you'll find an article on the Laura Ingalls Wilder award-renaming flap, a favorite from the archives ( Charlotte Mason was Right: Education is an Atmosphere), and news about a few new books we are carrying from Living Books Press. As a bonus, I've even included grandchild photos;-)! May you each have a wonderful remainder of the summer (or winter, depending on where you are).
—Janice Campbell
P. S. Did you know that we are the only source for the Excellence in Literature books in e-book format? It's the most economical way for our overseas friends to get our books. Plus, we do a "Print Plus" bundle with print and a seriously discounted ebook together so you can use a single level with more than one student at a time (in your immediate family). |
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Should the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award have been renamed?
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was recently renamed the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, a remarkably generic name for such a prestigious award. A lot has been said about the change, and most that I have seen has been negative, with reactions including outrage, confusion, and diatribes on censorship. A few responses have been thought-provoking and helpful, and I’ve linked to those below.
My boys and I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, which seemed an accurate portrayal of the historical period through which she lived. I didn’t want to join the chorus of reactionary outrage without spending a bit of time thinking through the issues. It seemed important to find out a few things about the award, Wilder’s books, and the nature of historical fiction. Here’s what I learned (read more) . . . |
| | Resource: AmblesideOnline.org's free lesson plans
Have you heard of AmblesideOnline.org? They offer a free K-12 curriculum based on the sound educational principles of Charlotte Mason, a nineteenth-century British educator. Mason's ideas translate beautifully into the homeschool setting, and can lead to pleasant, peaceful lessons and a well-rounded life.
My boys were grown before I found this resource, but my grandchildren are happily following the AmblesideOnline lesson plans. I have no connection with the site, but it has all been created by a group of very knowledgeable volunteers, and is well planned, based on good living books, and entirely free. |
| | Charlotte Mason was Right: Atmosphere Matters!
Charlotte Mason said that “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life,” and she was right. An extensive study published in 2010 on “Family Scholarly Culture and Educational Success” (PDF), reports that a family’s “scholarly culture – the way of life in homes where books are numerous, esteemed, read, and enjoyed” matters. I’m sure this doesn’t come as a surprise to homeschoolers, but just in case you need a reason to keep building your family’s home library, here are a few significant quotes from the report. Read more . . . |
| | | We carry some of the Charlotte Mason books!
Did you know that Charlotte Mason's six-volume set of books are one of the best investments you can make in teacher training? We are now offering the Living Books Press edition. LBP is an Australian publisher who is working hard to create beautiful editions of books related to the Charlotte Mason method, including books used for Charlotte Mason-style lesson plans. See the CM-related books we have now at Everyday Education, and check back periodically, as we plan to add more.
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| | Resource: High School Planning Worksheet (PDF)
Homeschooling through high school can be daunting, but planning ahead makes it simpler. I've added a very simple high school planning worksheet to my article on High School at Home at Everyday Education. Just click the link at the top of the page to get the worksheet. |
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| | | | Peaceful Planning and Record-keeping
I finally got around to creating some small planning and recordkeeping booklets that reflected the type of planning I did. You can read about the Peaceful Planning system at PeacefulPlanning.net. There are four booklets:
Lifetime Reading List — NEW! Choice of two covers—just indicate whether you want the Monet landscape or Canaletto's view of Venice.
For quite a few years of homeschooling, I'd buy a teacher plan book from the teacher store or set up a big binder with highly organized and structured daily plans and overall organizational schemes. These usually lasted a few weeks (if I was lucky and tried really, really hard), but in the end, I always went back to keeping short, simple records in the 5.5 x 8.5" format of my daily planner. Somehow, it didn't seem overwhelming to pick it up for reference or adding more notes, and I would actually end up with what I needed to keep track of written down. With these little books, your plans and records can be simple and beautiful. I hope you find them helpful! |
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Remember: Link updates at Excellence in Literature!
Link updates for the online context resources mentioned in the Excellence in Literature curriculum are kept updated at the Curriculum User Content page on the Excellence-in-Literature.com website. You'll also find over 800 pages of resources for the study of literature. These include poetry, short stories, and other context resources, plus a growing selection of how-to articles.
From Cathy Duffy's review: “Students completing these courses should be miles ahead of most of their high school contemporaries in their ability to read and analyze literature at a sophisticated level. The challenging writing assignments also promise to develop student skills in composition to a high level.”
You'll find a downloadable book list as well as links to the recommended editions of books studied in Excellence in Literature at Everyday-Education.com. You'll also find links on the description page for each study guide. You don't have to use the recommended edition, but there are reasons I prefer them, and you'll find my criteria listed on this page as well.
From a review at Joy in Our Journey: “I guess what impresses me so much is that this is written in such a straightforward manner that most junior high aged students could easily work through the entire curriculum on their own. And there are no ‘waste of time’ pop quizzes with those silly WWWWW questions to see if our children have actually read the book selections. You won’t find ‘busywork’ in this curriculum.”
And of course, all Amazon links are affiliate links, and help keep the website afloat (though it costs you absolutely nothing extra)! |
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Teacher Training from Charlotte Mason Through all the years of homeschooling my boys, there was one series of books that I turned to again and again. Not just because they made way more sense than anything else I read on the subject of education, but because they are rich with thoughtful ideas that continue to unfold year after year. My copies of these books are heavily underlined, annotated, and sticky-noted, and I still refer to them often. As teacher-training volumes, they have no parallel.
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HIgh School English
Excellence in Literature helps you teach classic literature and writing to teens even if you don’t know Virginia Woolf from Beowulf!
- Self-directed
- College prep
- Easy to use
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Peaceful Planning
At Everyday Education you'll find an article with brief instructions for simple, peaceful planning and recordkeeping, and at DoingWhatMatters.com, you'll find a number of posts on planning and organization. |
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| | Everyday Education, LLC is the publisher of the Excellence in Literature curriculum, the 1857 McGuffey Readers with instructions for use with Charlotte Mason methods, Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting; Transcripts Made Easy; and other homeschool helps. We've been online since 2001, which is a really long time in internet years.
The DoingWhatMatters.com blog has been online since 2007, and has quite a few articles on teaching with a classical/Charlotte Mason focus. We moved it from a different address a couple of years ago, so are still updating and relinking articles. There's useful stuff, there, though, so I hope you'll find it interesting. |
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