You didn’t think I’d end the season without saying goodbye, did you?

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Do you remember the first episode of the season? I laid out the first morning of formal schooling with its materials galore: alphabet and math manipulatives, nature packs, watercolors, piles of books, cups of tea, and so on. I asked if buying and organizing supplies are what make a ready mother-teacher or if maybe, just maybe, we were missing the main thing.

You know, like how to teach.

From January to December, we’ve spent the entire year getting our pedagogy in place, learning our educational philosophy, and preparing to be mother-teachers. It’s been a joy to do this and I hope you feel yourself getting your bearings in the classical Mason world as we learn together.

Before I close us out this season, I have one more surprise. Today, the excellent Karen Glass joins me on the podcast to bring it all together: motherhood, philosophy, and education as one harmonizing whole. It was a dream to talk with her and I hope you enjoy our conversation!

To catch the bonus question at the end of the episode, join us in Common House!

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Karen Glass homeschooled all of her four children from start to graduation using Charlotte Mason’s methods. She has immersed herself in Mason’s volumes and explored resources that Mason herself read and referenced. After many years of study, she has written several books to share some of the things she has learned, including Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition and Know and Tell: The Art of Narration. After living overseas for 25 years, she has recently relocated to the United States and has been speaking and teaching on various topics related to Charlotte Mason and education. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook, as well as many encouraging articles on her blog, which is linked to her website.

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You can find Karen on Instagram, Facebook, or her website.

Pst. You can also watch today’s interview on Youtube! Just search The Commonplace!

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Resources from Karen Glass

In Vital Harmony

Know and Tell

A Thinking Love

Consider This

Mind to Mind
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You can find the full episode notes here.

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For many of us, education is a thing outside of the sacred. We certainly know God made the world and the things in it, but school is something that’s done…over there. It’s just reading, writing, and arithmetic. If we want a Christian education, we need to add a Bible class and maybe a catechism. But what if I told you education is Christian if it’s true, harmonious, and whole? It’s time for Mason’s twentieth principle and for me to tell you why I’m always talking about truth, goodness, and beauty.

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You can find the full episode notes here.

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Did you think we were finally finishing Mason’s twenty principles?

Not. Just. Yet. My. Friend.

While thinking through some angles on educational philosophy and pedagogy I can’t speak to, I knew there was another important one besides the older, wiser mom (Catch Bethany in last week’s interview!): the dad.

The good news is that I do know a classical Charlotte Mason homeschooling dad.

Today’s guest is Trae Bailey, a classical educator married to his high-school sweetheart and father to four young children. He kindly joined me to talk about how dads can support the homeschool and the home at-large since every home is one of education.

While moms will certainly leave with some beautiful, encouraging ideas, this one’s for the dads.

Ps. If you’re curious about the story he mentions at the top of the episode, you can find “Bren and Brohen” in Common House. Last month, I shared how we use story in our home to teach and inspire our children by sharing a story I made up on a Tuesday afternoon when my kids were listening to the Dragon Folly.
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You can find the full episode notes here.

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We've spent the whole year getting our pedagogy in place by studying Mason's 20 principles. But sometimes, we need help bringing all that philosophy down to the practical level, down to our commonplace homes.

Thankfully, today's guest is here to help. Bethany Douglass, a wife, mother of four, and writer at Cloistered Away, joins me to offer practical homeschooling encouragement on setting rhythms, cultivating atmosphere, important practices for moms, and how to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty through it all!

To catch the bonus question at the end of the episode, join us in Patreon!

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You can find Bethany on Instagram @cloisteredaway and at Cloistered Away.

Find the reel mentioned in the episode here.

Pst. You can also watch today’s interview over on Youtube! Just search The Commonplace!

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Resources from Cloistered Away

Homeschooling | Getting Started

Homeschooling | Preschool Years

Homeschooling | Childhood Years

Homeschooling | Encouragement

Homeschooling | Resources

Homeschooling | Gift Guides

Family | Motherhood

Home | Simply Rhythms & Routines

Food | Sabbath Routines & Dinners
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Never in my reading life have I found a chapter in a book that mentions such a range of characters. In Chapter IX of Volume Six, Mason manages to pull together Florence Nightingale, Euclid, Pythagoras, Satan, William Shakespeare and Karl Marx in her exploration of the Way of Reason.

What point does she make? Reason is a yes man who will try to confirm any idea accepted by the Will.

Which is how we get Florence, Shakespeare, Marx, and your children all thinking their own thoughts right.

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You can find the full episode notes here.

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The world may call a defiant, difficult, and disobedient child “strong-willed”, but we know that’s not so.

A strong-willed child can command themselves to choose what’s right even if it’s not what they want. Sounds pretty magical, right? But also, maybe a little difficult.

How does a mother-teacher help a child train their will? Let’s talk about it.

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It’s classic Mason to give such a tidy explanation for such a huge idea. What are the two guides in the moral and intellectual self-management of a child? Oh, just little things called ‘the way of the will’ and ‘the way of the reason’.

Consider today your primer on these two ways before we dive in deep in the next two episodes!

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Those of us formally schooling are kicking off the new year right around now, so I thought it was the perfect time to share a BONUS episode as a bit of beginning of the year fun.

I’m joined today by two dear friends, Amanda Faus and Brooke Johnson, to discuss how to form a classical Charlotte Mason co-op. I asked them my burning questions: how to build a co-op vision, how to share the group’s philosophy with enquiring moms, what to do for mother’s education, and more!

I know you’ll love their gracious wisdom and my opening troubles with technology.

Grab a pen and some paper, and settle in. This is my hour-long gift to you for this second season, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce you to the world of co-ops through a conversation with our amiable guests, Amanda and Brooke!

Pst. You can also watch today’s interview over on Youtube! Just search The Commonplace!

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You can find Amanda on Instagram at @commonplacecontemplations or on her blog commonplacecontemplations.wordpress.com where she may eventually write about motherhood in the early years and homeschooling with a classical Charlotte Mason approach if she ever finds the time. 

You can find Brooke on Instagram @brookejohns where she is consistently inconsistent with posting. When she remembers, she may share a thought on Christian formation, hobby-farming, discipleship, motherhood, and homeschooling.
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To catch the bonus question at the end of the episode, join us in Common House!

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You can find the full episode notes here.

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It’s narration week! I mean, really, what’s more Mason than talking about narration?

(Actually, a lot of things. You have to talk about all the things.)

But let’s get to it! What is narration? Why does it happen after a single reading? What if you have a lot of students narrating at once? How do you narrate a piece of music? Is it the same thing as a discussion?

…what if the kid’s narration was…subpar?

We’re going to talk about all of it and more! Let’s go!

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You can find the full episode notes here.

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