Miss Austen, Miss Mason ~ A "Living Book" Home Education

"the point to be considered is that the subject be one on which, to quote again Jane Austen's expression, the imagination of the children has been 'warmed'..."

~ Charlotte Mason

Three of my favorite topics are the Regency Era, Victorian Times and Home Education. What can they possibly have in common here? Simply said, they are encouragement for your homeschool. Charlotte Mason, our Victorian Era teacher, encourages us through the words of Jane Austen to "warm" our children's imagination in home education… and the rest will follow! Quality reading is the wonderful answer.

"The children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times--a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story books."

~ Charlotte Mason

"Education By Books: For the last twelve years we have tried the plan of bringing children up on books and things, and, on the whole, the results are pleasing. The average child studies with 'delight.' We do not say he will remember all he knows, but, to use a phrase of Jane Austen's, he will have had his 'imagination warmed' in many regions of knowledge."

~ Charlotte Mason

May this year and those to come inspire many journeys of the imagination, not those of wizards and magic but science, nature, geographical and historical adventures! Excellent books will "warm" your children towards learning, tutoring them in many academics along the way. These treasures are referred to as "living books".

"Our business is to give him mind-stuff, and both quality and quantity are essential. Naturally, each of us possesses this mind-stuff only in limited measure, but we know where to procure it; for the best thought the world possesses is stored in books; we must open books to children, the best books; our own concern is abundant provision and orderly serving."

~ Charlotte Mason

"Our first care, when we stepped in safety on land, was to kneel down and thank God,

to whom we owed our lives; and to resign ourselves wholly to his Fatherly kindness."

~ Johann David Wyss, Swiss Family Robinson

Join the shipwrecked Robinson family on an exotic island and learn about the purposes of certain plants and the tendencies of interesting animals from a godly, dominion perspective. This is one adventure in science and nature that you will never forget. Keep your encyclopedia's close by and reference/sketch all the animals/plants you meet in a nature journal along the way. Have students copy some of the elaborate sentences from the novel for a harmless lesson in grammar.

          

Enter the colonial world of a young boy who is responsible for keeping his family's homestead during a long absence. The Sign of the Beaver will teach you about outdoor skills, colonial life and loyalty. Join a pioneer family on their homestead and live the frontier life with Caddie Woodlawn. American history was never so exciting! Don't forget to make a timeline (free printable here) with the children and record these stories on it using the approximate dates. Utilizing a blank map of the United States, have children color in and label the areas where these stories took place including any bodies of water, mountain ranges, and so forth that were mentioned in the books. Geography is natural and easy to teach when implemented through your literature.

“I'll always say my prayers…
and if God doesn't answer them at once I shall know it's because
He's planning something better for me.”

~ Johanna Spryi, excerpt from Heidi

Reading books that take place in other countries is another geography gem (such as Heidi, Hans Brinker, The Hiding Place). Locate and label the area on the world map. What countries are near by? What language do they speak? What is the traditional clothing worn? Have children plan a traditional meal from that country and dress accordingly. Each student can pose as a historical person from that country and see if anyone could guess who they are through their researched clues. They will be more interested in that country now that they "know" someone from it.

Live in Ancient Egypt as a Pharaoh on the run from a dangerous plot! He soon finds himself face to face with King Hezekiah and the Assyrian army who wants to conquer Jerusalem. God King will immerse your children in Biblical history and bring a whole new perspective to the Scriptures. Read 2 Kings 18:2 and compare it with the story. What archaeological findings confirm this account?

This is only a taste of what your children can learn this year. And if books are chosen carefully, the character building lessons will be the most beneficial! Education is an adventure. It is not dull. It is alive and waiting! Allow the literature to teach and their imaginations will be "warmed" providing for a lovely learning experience.

Happy is the homeschool with rows and rows of real "living books"!  Have a wonderful school year! ~ JES

"Ideas of nature, of life, love, duty, heroism, –– these children find and choose for themselves from the authors they read, who do more for their education than any deliberate teaching... a curriculum which shall furnish children, not with dry bones of fact, but with fact clothed upon with the living flesh, breathed into by the vital spirit of quickening ideas…" ~ Charlotte Mason

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Charlotte Mason ~ Home Education Series

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"Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food."

~ Charlotte Mason

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