The New Mason Jar with Cindy Rollins

Anne's Author Page on Amazon

Anne Writes

Anne's Blog: Dewey's Treehouse

S4E53: High School and College Prep Using AmblesideOnline with Melissa McMahan Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?

Charlotte Mason, School Education Show Summary:

Today's guest is Melissa McMahan, veteran homeschool mom of 2 graduates and 3 still at home, and long-time follower of AmblesideOnline
How Melissa first heard about Charlotte Mason's philosophy
How Melissa came to start using the AmblesideOnline curriculum
What was it like thinking about getting your children ready for college?
Did having a Charlotte Mason hinder your daughters from getting a solid science foundation?
Has narration sufficiently prepared your students for college writing?
How learning to manage time at home helps students prepare for college and independence
Other tips for preparing high school homeschoolers for college

Books and Links Mentioned:

School Education by Charlotte Mason

Find Cindy and Megan:

S4E52: Music Education in the Charlotte Mason Paradigm with Megan Hoyt Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

…what if the devitalisation we notice in so many of our young people, keen about games but dead to things of the mind, is due to the processes carried on in our schools, to our plausible and pleasant ways of picturing, eliciting, demonstrating, illustrating, summarising, doing all those things for children which they are born with the potency to do for themselves? No doubt we do give intellectual food, but too little of it; let us have courage and we shall be surprised, as we are now and then, at the amount of intellectual strong meat almost any child will take at a meal and digest at his leisure.

Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education Show Summary:

Today's guest is Megan Hoyt, veteran homeschooling mom, musician and author
Megan tells how she picked up her love of music from her parents and passed it on to her own
What is the overall theme of A Touch of the Infinite?
What are some of the misconceptions you think people have about Charlotte Mason and music education?
What did music education look like in your own homeschool?
How Megan wrote A Touch of the Infinite and what is in the book
How did you start writing children's books?

Books and Links Mentioned:

Bartali's Bicycle by Megan Hoyt

The Greatest Song of All by Megan Hoyt

Thanku: Poems of Gratitude edited by Miranda Paul

Hidegard's Gift by Megan Hoyt

A Touch of the Infinite by Megan Hoyt

Find Cindy and Megan:

S4E51: Homeschooling Boys the Charlotte Mason Way with Alanna Hendon Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Let us consider carefully what feelings we wish to stimulate or repress in our children, and then, having made up our minds, let us say nothing.

Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children Show Summary:

Today's guest is Alanna Hendon, homeschooling mom of 6, 5 of whom are boys
How Alanna came to learn about the Charlotte Mason philosophy
The lasting and eternal value of a Charlotte Mason education
How would you respond to the criticism that Charlotte Mason is too feminine for educating boys?
Approaching poetry with boys
What other elements of a CM education have had the most impact on your home?
How does Charlotte's emphasis on the knowledge of God and encouragement of religious habits encourage boys in their own spiritual walk?

Books and Links Mentioned:

AmblesideOnline

Consider This by Karen Glass

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Classic Poems for Boys

The Poet's Corner narr. by John Lithgow

Creativity by John Cleese

Find Cindy and Alanna:

Alanna's Instagram

S4E50: Public School Teacher to Charlotte Mason Homeschooler with Timilyn Downey Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Stories….of the amusements, foibles, and virtues of children in their own condition of life, leave nothing to the imagination. The children know all about everything so well that it never occurs to them to play at the situations in any one of these tales, or even to read it twice over. But let them have tales of the imagination, scenes laid in other lands and other times, heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales in which they are never roughly pulled up by the impossible––even where all is impossible, and they know it, and yet believe.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Volume 1 Show Summary:

Today's guest is Timilyn Downey, former public school teacher and home schooling mother
How Timilyn first learned about Charlotte Mason
How Timilyn finally chose to homeschool her sons
What role Timilyn's husband plays in their education
How do you respond to criticism about older books not being relevant
Why it is so important to understand the philosophy behind educational methods
Why Timilyn believe fiction and fairy tales are so crucial

Books and Links Mentioned:

Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins

Morning Time by Cindy Rollins

For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Consider This by Karen Glass

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Black Arrow by Robert Lewis Stephenson

Koshka's Tales by James Mayhew

A Study of English Romanticism by Northrop Frye

English Literature in the Sixteenth Century by C. S. Lewis

Find Cindy:

Tending the Soul Art by Addison and Ella

S4E49: A Charlotte Mason Journey with Anna, Addison, and Ella Hornstra Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

Though system is highly useful as an instrument of education, a 'system of education' is mischievous, as producing only mechanical action instead of the vital growth and movement of a living being.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol. 1 Show Summary:

Today's guests are Anna Hornstra and two of her three daughters, Addison and Ella
How Anna came to homeschooling early on
What happened when Anna let doubts and systems set the tone of their homeschool
How Charlotte Mason's principles have played out in Anna's home

Books and Links Mentioned:

Home Education by Charlotte Mason

The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading by Jennie Wise and Sara Buffington

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble

Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Leisure the Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper

Medea by Euripides

AmblesideOnline

Find Cindy:

S4E48: Math in the Charlotte Mason Model with Richele Baburina Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

Miss Mason taught us that 'Education is the science of relations' and that a child should feel from the very beginning that his relations with number are opening up to him yet another realm of beautiful and wonderful things for his enjoyment and delight.

Number: A Figure and a Step Onward, Mrs. W.A. Stephens, The Parents' Review Show Summary:

Today's guest is Richele Baburina, a veteran homeschooling mother of 2 and author of The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series, and Brush Drawing: A Basic Course
How Richele first heard about Charlotte Mason
How Richele began researching Charlotte's ideas about teaching mathematics
What levels is The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithemetic Series for?
What were some of the surprising things Richele learned in her research?

Books and Links Mentioned:

The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series by Richele Baburina

Brush Drawing: A Basic Course by Richele Baburina

Find Cindy and Richele:

Richele's Artwork Website

Richele's Instagram

S3E47: Christmas Memories with Lynn Bruce and Donna-Jean Breckenridge Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

Our flesh the Word became, and dwelt with us, And we beheld His glory, as, of God, The only-begotten Son: we who believed Knew glory when we saw it, by the signs— Not of the pomp and majesty of Kings— But Grace, the touch of God, showed sweet in Him; And Truth, discerning all things, made Him simple, His glory saw we—full of grace and truth.

Charlotte Mason, from "Savior of the World," Prologue to the Gospel according to St. John Show Summary:

Today's guests are Lynn Bruce and Donna-Jean Breckenridge, and together with Cindy they talk about Christmas memories
What did homeschooling look like around the Christmas holidays?
Why it is okay to take time off from your normal school work for Christmas celebrations
Why traditions are so important, possibly even more so as children grow older
What are some traditions that your family keeps from previous generations?
Handling changes and trauma as the years go by and still keep Christmas with courage
What are some Christmas "fails" that happened in your family?

Books and Links Mentioned:

Saviour of the World, Volume 1 by Charlotte Mason

This Country of Ours: Annotated, Expanded and Updated, Vol. 1 by Donna-Jean Breckenridge

Episode 40: Donna-Jean Breckenridge on Updating This Country of Ours

Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel's Messiah by Cindy Rollins

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

Find Cindy, Lynn, and Donna-Jean:

Lynn's Instagram

Donna-Jean's Facebook

Donna-Jean's Instagram

Donna-Jean on MeWe

S3E46: Q&A No. 5 with Cindy and Dawn Dec 08, 2022

Show notes

Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.

The Story of Charlotte Mason Show Summary:

This week Dawn and Cindy tackle some more listener questions with their personal opinions based on their experience and their reading
Why is it incorrect to say that the right homeschooling philosophy is the one that works for your children?
How do we seek to follow Charlotte Mason's philosophy without idolizing the person or the philosophy?
Are we doing something wrong if our children do not like to narrate or seem to enjoy the books that they have to narrate?

Books and Links Mentioned:

The Story of Charlotte Mason by Essex Cholmondeley

Know and Tell by Karen Glass

Find Cindy and Dawn: