Thinking Love

Charlotte Mason hoped that children, educated upon many, beautiful ideas and supported in good habits, would grow up to continue learning their whole lives. With that in mind, educating our children is a dynamic process that moves toward this big picture. We choose books, plan lessons, and teach our kids, but as they get bigger, we start working on habits of independent learning, too.

In this episode, Amy and Leah chat about why Year 4 gets a lot of attention in Charlotte Mason circles, why this doesn't mean we need to panic, and how we are helping our children grow as independent learners through reading their own school books and starting written narration. Leah also informs Amy about a slightly contentious topic in the Charlotte Mason world!

Full Show Notes available at https://thinkinglove.education/2022/10/27/raising-independent-learners/

Charlotte Mason believed that children should learn a second language from a very young age. She felt this was so important that teaching foreign language made it into the very short list of daily subjects for a child under six!

But if we have little or no knowledge of a second language, it's hard to know where to start.

In this episode of the Thinking Love Podcast, Leah and Amy chat with Adelaide Olguin of Talkbox.mom on how we can make learning a foreign language a family effort - even if we are starting from scratch.

You can read full show notes at https://thinkinglove.education/2022/10/13/charlotte-mason-foreign-language/

Check out the 30-40-50 sale from Thinking Love

For one week only, you will get 30 percent off the purchase of one product, 40 percent off the purchase of two products, and 50 percent the purchase of three! This sale includes our Habit training workshop, the Wise beginnings early years summit, and our Education is a life course. The sale ends on October 20th. Find out more at https://thinkinglove.education/sale.

Sometimes homeschooling doesn't feel very peaceful. Whether our kids are dragging their feet, or we're struggling with our own attitudes, it's worth thinking about how we can get our day out of a downward spiral and heading toward something better.

In this episode, Leah and Amy talk about what to do when our day is less than great. We turn to our tried-and-true friends, Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life to guide us.

Read the full show notes here: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/09/29/save-homeschool-day/

How are handicrafts going? Whether you are crafting up a storm or struggling with consistency, we hope that this episode will be helpful and encouraging. We chat about why handicrafts are part of a Charlotte Mason curriculum, what we need to think about when we choose handicrafts, as well as sharing what and how we've taught our children.

Read the show notes, including links.

The Thinking Love Podcast is back for a new season, and we'll be talking Everyday Homeschooling. First up: what do we do with some of the not-so-everyday homeschool days, like the first day back after a summer break? Amy and Leah talk about how we can keep family traditions genuine, rather than an attempt to keep up with all of the pictures we see in our feeds!

We also share where we put most of our effort in preparing the first day back at school: scheduling, planning, and preparing spiritually and philosophically.

Find the full show notes, including resources we've mentioned in this episode at: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/09/01/first-day-of-school/

Eighteen months ago, Amy caught wind that Karen Glass had a new project around Charlotte Mason's Home Education. Karen was removing distracting, outdated references, adding back in some essays that had been moved to other volumes, and writing some study questions to help the modern reader see the principles behind Miss Mason's writing.

Karen has now published her book, A Thinking Love: Studies from Charlotte Mason's Home Education. Congratulations, Karen, we love the title! We think it's a great time to re-release Karen's interview. It will be an encouragement from beginning to end.

Originally, we aired this as two episodes to keep consistency with the rest of our season, but for this special occasion we are sharing it as one long episode. Enjoy!

Get a copy of Karen's book.

Find the original show notes.

It's summer! Whether you follow a more traditional school schedule or school year-round, if you're in the northern hemisphere, it's time for some sun and hopefully some fun. In our season finale, Leah and Amy chat about what we do when we're not doing school and how our children (not to mention ourselves) can find living ideas to grow and inspire wherever we live.

Don't forget that our new self-paced course, Education is a Life is open for registration! It's a great way to get in some mother culture over the summer.

For full show notes, visit : https://thinkinglove.education/2022/06/02/charlotte-mason-summer/

Technological advances seem to happen faster and faster, and for many of us homeschool moms, we would prefer to tuck ourselves away with our book stacks and nature journals. But hiding from the Information Age could mean that we are missing opportunities to enrich our homeschools on one hand, and prepare our children for the world they will live in. Join us as we chat with Dachelle McVey about how to balance our concerns with technology and social media with taking advantage of the best it has to offer.

You can learn more about Dachelle at https://hidethechocolate.com/thinkinglove for some special freebies for our listeners, and at https://literaryadventuresforkids.com (her language arts curriculum).

Our new course, Education is a Life, is now open for registration after running in beta. We've made some tweaks and added some bonus content that we think you'll love. Head to our website to register!

For full show notes, head to: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/05/19/charlotte-mason-technology/

Is the Charlotte Mason method enough? In a world full of pressure to achieve and attain, most of us have asked this question. Perhaps it looms largest on the minds of parents of kids with special needs. But for education specialist and home educator Amy Bodkin, the answer is a definite, "Yes". If your child is a born person, the Charlotte Mason method is not only enough, but it is the foundation for an education that will let your child flourish. Join us as we talk with Amy about how the Charlotte Mason method comes to life in her family.

Learn more about Amy on her website and at Charlotte Mason Plenary.

Read the full show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/05/05/charlotte-mason-special-needs/

In this episode of the podcast, Amy and Leah circle back to the topic of habit training, but with a special focus this time on kids with differently wired brains. We explore how we might expand our understanding of "Education is a Discipline" and think about how to break habits down in order to help our kids learn and grow - starting right where they are. Join us as we break down Charlotte Mason's 'big three' habits (obedience, attention, and truthfulness) from the perspective of neuro-divergent children.

In this episode we mention our Habit Training Workshop as well as Leah's executive function cards.

For full show notes, head to our website.