Books and movies based on Greek or Roman mythology have been all the rage lately.  Reading the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series of books really got my oldest two kids interested in learning more about mythology.  I found Classic Myths to Read Aloud by William F. Russell and it has been a wonderful accompaniment to the kids’ reading.  It has been a great way to tie Greek and Roman root words and phrases in with our vocabulary lessons.

This book follows a really neat and organized format which is helpful for the parent or reader.  Each of these classic stories from mythology starts with a paragraph about the story as well as a helpful vocabulary and pronunciation guide.  My oldest two kids have been reading independently for years but still really enjoyed taking turns reading from this book and discussing them together.

These amazing cave paintings and many others were found in a cave complex at Lascaux, near the village of Montignac, in central France.  The caves and their paintings were first discovered 70 years ago by four teenagers and their dog.  They are thought to be over 30,000 years old.  The caves were first opened to the public in 1948 and then were closed in 1963.  Over the years of public display and after receiving hundreds of visitors a day, the cave paintings started to deteriorate from the carbon dioxide produced by visitors.

Wanting to preserve the cave paintings, authorities have kept the caves closed and the paintings have been restored and are closely monitored.  Reproductions of two of the halls of caves opened nearby and other Lascaux artwork can be seen at the Centre of Prehistoric Art in Le Thot, France.  Right now, very few scientists are allowed to enter the caves and only for a few minutes a month.  Scientists are still working to preserve the cave paintings and are monitoring them closely.

Lascaux: A Visit to the Cave, is a very cool website that gives one the feeling of walking through the different halls of the cave complex.  You can click on certain sections of the cave, which are identified by links, to find out more information about the various paintings.  The kids really liked exploring the website tour and reading about the cave paintings.

My kids and I have loved Liberty’s Kids, an original PBS series, for years.  The Emmy-nominated animated series originally aired on PBS in 2002-2003.  It has since been syndicated and shown on various channels including the History Channel.  My oldest two kids and I watched it during the original airing.  I was thrilled to see it finally come out on DVD in recent years.  So glad that my little H. Man will also be able to watch this great series.

Liberty’s Kids follows the American Revolutionary War through the eyes of two teenagers.  James is a colonist who works as a printer and reporter for Benjamin Franklin’s newspaper out of Philadelphia. Sarah is a young English woman who comes to America in search of her father who is a British officer gone missing in the west.  Many adventures ensue for these two likable and intelligent characters as well as their friends Henri, Moses, and many others met along the way.  Some very well known celebrities voice the roles of historical characters throughout the series.

There are so many jumping off points for learning whether for homeschooling or just for personal enjoyment.  We tied watching the show in with reading biographies of some notable Americans as well as making a timeline of events of the Revolutionary War.  Are any of you fans of the Liberty’s Kids series? 

Charles Dickens and his enduringly popular tales really remind me of Christmastime and have become a part of our homeschooling schedule, for this time of year.  The obvious connection here would be with Dickens’ story, A Christmas Carol.  This year another movie adaptation of the story has been released by Disney.  The story lives on and is relevant for people in our modern age, just as it was for people during the Victorian Era.

Why does Dickens have such lasting appeal, especially around Christmastime?  People today can still relate to the feelings of trying to balance generosity and sharing with others, with our wants and needs for ourselves and our own family.  This can be applied to material items and shopping but in this busy age, also to our time.  We want to be able to volunteer, help with projects, and attend special events but also want to have the time to enjoy the season’s quiet moments.

We have made Dickens at Christmastime, a part of our homeschool schedule for the last three years. It has become less of a scheduling matter and more of a tradition.  Beginning about three weeks before Christmas, the kids and I will take turns reading aloud from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, everyday after lunchtime.  My oldest two enjoy discussing the many details of the story and comparing Dickens’ original version, with the many other movie and stage versions that they have seen over the years.

Our Dickens at Christmastime tradition serves as a jumping off point for us when we resume our homeschool schedule after the holidays.  The last couple of years, we have continued reading other works by Charles Dickens such as Oliver Twist and Little Dorritt.  We enhance our reading with several well done movie adaptations of those stories.  Many of Dickens works can be found for free online at Project Gutenberg.  Another of his works which we just recently discovered and have been enjoying is Dickens A Child’s History of England.

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) Was An Extraordinary Educator

Homeschool families have likely heard of Charlotte Mason already but for those of you who are new to homeschooling or just curious, this name may be a new one for you.  Charlotte Mason was born in England in 1842.  She was an only child and was educated by her parents (and some outside lessons) who each taught her certain subjects.

Charlotte’s mother died when she was 16 and her father, who never recovered from this loss, died the following year.  She stayed with friends until the age of 18, when she moved to London to attend The Home and Colonial School Society which was the only teacher training college in England at the time.

After earning her teaching certificate, Charlotte went on to a variety of teaching and Head Mistress positions in England.  In between some of these jobs, she would travel abroad and eventually came back to her home country where she spent time in the shires or counties of England.  She wrote about her time there and her writings were published as a very popular geography series, more of which was to follow.  Miss Mason was able to live off of the income of the sales of her books and moved to Bradford but also spent time in London.

Formation of the PEU and Further Accomplishments

In 1885, Charlotte gave a series of lectures about education, which appeared the following year in a printed volume entitled Home Education.  Soon after this, with the help of her supporters, Charlotte formed an educational society for parents, in Bradford – the Parents’ Educational Union (PEU).  Miss Mason, with the help and advice of other proponents of education, sought to spread her ideas to a wider audience.  This led to the opening of many branches of the PEU.

A few years later, in 1890, Charlotte began preparations to open a teacher training college.  She also began published a montly periodical for the PEU, called the Parents’ Review. Two years later the House of Education opened in Ambleside with a class of 21 students.  Charlotte continued her work there with the training college, as well as the Parents’ Review, what would become the Parents National Education Union (PNEU), and home correspondence courses, until her death in 1923 at the age of 81.

Charlotte Mason’s Ideas Are Still Inspiring Many Today

The late 1980’s saw a new generation of homeschool families in the USA.  This movement has continued and grown over the last two plus decades into what it is today.  There were many families who were looking to get away from the textbooks and standardized testing of schools and to go back to the roots of modern education.

Some found this in methods of classical education, while on the other end of the spectrum, some families are more comfortable with the idea of unschooling or child-led learning.  Somewhere in all of that variety, is where Charlotte Mason’s ideas have fallen.  There has been a resurgence in the popularity of her teaching principles and in her writings, over the last 10 years and many of Miss Mason’s writings have been re-published.

This has been just a brief introduction into the life and work of Charlotte Mason.  I really wanted to share her story with you, as well as some resources for more information.  My favorite resource for anything about CM, as she and her ideas are known to homeschoolers, is Ambleside Online.  The group of parents and families that run the site, have created a 12 year curriculum following the guidelines of Miss Mason’s principles of education.... as well as there being a wealth of information to discover.

There are many books about CM and those principles but my favorite is still the first one that I ever read about her – A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola.  Mrs. Andreola’s writing is lovely and really made me start to love the ideas behind Charlotte Mason education.  I would love to hear about other people’s experiences with CM learning, so please share!

Our Island Story, written by H.E. Marshall, was first published in 1905 – it has served as an influential piece of literature for over 100 years.  Parents over the decades have gone to great lengths to obtain a copy of this marvelous children's history of England which went out of print in the 1960's.  Luckily in 2005 a group of newspapers in Great Britain brought the book back into print and it is still for sale at a number of places including at amazon.com.

I first read about Our Island Story on the Charlotte Mason dedicated website amblesideonline.org.  Charlotte Mason was a British educator who dedicated her life to the improvement of children's education and the training of teachers.  I will write more on Charlotte Mason later.

My kids and I read Our Island Story, as well as Scotland’s Story and Our Empire Story, for the first time earlier this year.  They were intrigued by the engaging stories and always wanting to read more.  Although the older kids have been reading independently for years, we enjoyed taking turns reading these books aloud.  Marshall has quite a way with telling a story and ties in myth and legend about England with real history.