Wednesday 7 October 2015

A Delectable Education


Do you still have many questions about how to implement a Charlotte Mason education? Or are you looking for some fresh inspiration?

Three fabulous ladies have just begun a wonderful podcast:

A Delectable Education

"Not what we have learned, but what we are waiting to know is the delectable part of knowledge"

 ~ School Education, p. 224

For the most part, you will not find "the delectable part of knowledge" in public school classrooms (fill-in-the-blanks, dry textbooks, too many oral lessons are, after all, pretty uninspiring). The Charlotte Mason philosophy is so different from what public schools are doing that it certainly is a leap of faith to trust her philosophy of education. Luckily, her methods have been proven very successful over the last 125 years! So much so that there are still very fine CM private schools around!

A Charlotte Mason School

Yet, every such school often brings it own approach into the mix. Even Ambleside Online often seems to be too methodological (and its implementation of dry science textbooks for lack of better living books knowledge or the unavailability therof ) to me has been a turn-off. Yet I know this site is very popular with homeschoolers.

Therefore, I'm so excited to blog about the fabulous podcast above. Coming from Emily Kiser and Liz Cottrill, this is simply bound to be good! Under their guidance you will be able to dig deep into the very heart of a Charlotte Mason education!




Sunday 30 August 2015

Membership Registration for 2015/2016 is now closed.

All available spots have been filled.


If you would like to be placed on our waiting list, please contact me at daniekoepke@gmail.com


Thursday 13 August 2015

Short Book Review: Organs Telling Their Story!


Just shelved: This is a truly fascinating collection of articles from the viewpoint of various organs! A really great supplement to the study of anatomy!

I am Joe's Body, by J.D. Ratcliff


It covers so many organs, that it is hard to choose one for review. I would just like to give you a glimpse into the account of the ear here:

"Joe is impressed by the computer his company bought not long ago. It will perform seeming miracles, but to me it is as crude as a concrete mixer. Perhaps I am prejudiced, for I am a triumph of miniaturization. Nowhere in his body is so much crammed into so small a space as in me. I have enough electrical circuits to provide phone service for a good-sized city. I am also a kind of automatic pilot, keeping Joe from toppling over.
I am Joe's right ear, and I do all this in a space not much larger than a hazelnut! Joe considers his eyes his most important sensory organs. Yet, without my partner and me, he would be doomed to solitary sonic confinement - far more emotionally disabling than blindness."

Compiled in 1975 by Reader's Digest; 205 pages. Much more interesting (and a living book) on the inside!





Wednesday 15 July 2015

Loving books (this summer)!


Anyone who has a book collection and a garden wants for nothing. ~ Cicero

                                            ~~~~~~~


"I should have thought," said Gilbert, "that life in a bookshop would be delightfully tranquil."

"Far from it.  Living in a bookshop is like living in a warehouse of explosives.  Those shelves are ranked with the most furious combustibles in the world - the brains of men. (...) 
Printers ink has been running a race against gun powder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gun powder in half a second while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries.

                            The Haunted Bookshop
                                Christopher Morley

Sunday 14 June 2015

On now! Living History Table: Cowboys and the Wild West

There is history, but there is also just plain fun summer time reading! 


We have collected oodles of all-time-favourites, both boys and girls can enjoy these! Here are just a few for you to sample : )


All cowboy gear had a very practical purpose ... .
"Why the Cowboy dressed that way."


So funny!



Two  older gems by Sanford Tousey!


Cowboys in Texas!


"Josiah Eagle used to live on a homestead near Willow Creek, Wyoming. For a while he stayed at the Boys Home, but now he's hiding out in the hills. (...) Most of the folk in Willow Creek think he's an outlaw like his Pa - that he helped with the robberies. There's plenty of talk about lynching him. Bart Gibson, the rancher, doesn't think much about anything except his own secret reason for wanting to get his hands on the boy. What's going to happen to Josiah Eagle?"
Exciting Christian fiction for ages 10 - 15.


A classic Western horse story. 


This gives a detailed look!


Funny! We love this one by Glen Rounds!



Book #1 in the Canadian West series, especially enjoyed by girls!


An artist to explore would be Frederick Remington, his various western scenes are marvellous and he was an eyewitness!