A MuddlePuddle Reading Year

Since i’m loosely basing this on Charlotte Mason, with rather a heavy pinch of “what i’ve liked about HE in the last 4 years”, here is some stuff you might find useful, if you haven’t done this before. I’ve put links at the bottom, plus my basic thoughts on this approach from what i’ve read of CM. There are a couple of book recommendations too.

Charlotte Mason Approach.
I went to a Charlotte Mason school and the things that i remember most strongly, that i want to recreate, are summed up by a philosophy of CM’s that goes something like this. “Whatever a childs ability in reading, you can take them anywhere by reading to them. Don’t let their opportunities be held back by their skill level, fire their imagination with good quality literature and let them build their own skills in their own time.” I must find the real quote, but that is the gist of it.

CM advocates real literature telling stories of real worth; real people, real cultures, real beliefs. Now, i remember being read A Pilgrim’s Progress at 7 and loving it, but i doubt it would suit the Disney orientated girls i have here, not yet anyway. So quality tellings of Greek Myths, Cultural Stories etc etc, with inspiring artwork in book sizes that encourage them to pick up and look, seem to fit the bill.

CM also advocates seeing God in everything. I’m of the opinion that in this century we need to see tolerance, open-mindedness, understanding and kindness in everything. I’d like to think my children will understand everyone’s take on any god they may choose to have, rather than simply a Christian viewpoint. That is my aim with this - but i think it will be tweakable all over. Nothing is so interlinked that it can’t just be left out, if you see what i mean.

CM advocated “no twaddle” in literature. I suspect she wouldn’t think highly of Felicity Wishes and the Rainbow Fairies but she did think highly of Narnia. “No twaddle” doesn’t mean “strictly realistic,” it means that the literature should have some meaning and use to the development of the child. She has lots of books in her writings with talking animals in them, just not ones that are trashy or pointless. I don’t know what she’d have made of Harry Potter

CM advocates “living history” - ie learning about the world through books that capture the imagination - things like Castle Diary or Jean Plaidy books or whatever. She did not approve of dry text books but that doesn’t mean she didn’t use them. I remember several great text books we had for history; i suspect she would have approved of DK and Usborne books very much indeed.

CM did not believe in formal education before 7. This is one of the driving forces behind what i want to do this year - only one of my children is over 7 but the 5 and 3 year old want to take part in things. I know that i can build something where the stories get heard by everyone, and then the projects and more formal work gets done by the eldest or elder two. First and foremost i think, in an HE environment, we want something fun, light and not time-consuming. I want my kids to think they are being read to, by someone who will embellish the bits that grab them, not “educated”. It is the stories i hope they’ll remember with pleasure.

I think that what i am looking to create is the very opposite of National Curriculum school - i want to build something where the living books and world view come first and the numeracy and literacy sides are filled in around pleasurable days spent with mum and siblings. Most HEers who have been around for a little while know that this works just as well as labouring over maths books. I’m hoping this will give some confidence to let that happen. (For me too!)

There is lots more to CM but that probably is the most relevant to what is happening here.

Here is my MuddlePuddle page of CM links and a description of my school experience at a PNEU school. This is an even better one by someone else!

The books i like are
A Charlotte Mason Education… and two more which have disappeared off Amazon. I’ll find them!!!!

Regarding what to do with the stories each week…
*Sounds trite but just read them, as bedtime or quiet time books. Don’t feel they have to be more. We used them last year as a story before the bedtime story. It worked brilliantly and they remembered them well.
*Get older children to narrate them back. We used blogs, set up for each child - i typed and they told. I have really good memories of narrating as a child and Fran enjoyed doing it a lot. Doing it on a blog or into Word means you can be quick and they can have a print out or a record to look back at.
*Illustrate them - oil pastels are good for this, nice colours and easy to use.
*Find out more. Look on your shelves or the net for anything to do with any they particularly like.
*Map work/globe work - find a place, print a map of it, colour it in, find pictures or clipart of that place etc etc.
*Make a scrapbook of anything you do that they want to keep. We have files with slip in plastic pages for them to fill up.

What i found most enchanting about using Ambleside last year was that we just kept moving. If we hated something we dumped it, if we missed a week, it was not a problem. If something was okay but not a grabber, we just moved on. I didn’t feel obliged to make the most of everything, i just read their cues and followed them. I think with this, they are such nice books that you’ll value them for years anyway. You can grab a short story for a quick moment, do a long one on a quiet evening - just go with the flow.