Improve Your Mind

Simply Charlotte Mason

August 13, 2010 By Sylvia 4 Comments

The Charlotte Mason method of home education is a great way to develop a life-long learner and to raise a student who truly loves to learn. The Simply Charlotte Mason site is a great way to introduce yourself to Charlotte Mason and her ideas and get super tools for teaching in your home.

Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her method, the Charlotte Mason method, is centered around the idea that education is three-pronged: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.

I have used the Charlotte Mason method in our home school for over 18 years. I like the flexibility and the kind of people the method produces. My children love to learn, are capable researchers and are able to connect with a large range of people on many different topics and levels. In other words, the are very well rounded people. We have tried to major on laying down a good foundation of manners and good habits of study and speech. Simply Charlotte Mason has a great book to help you get on track with that called Laying Down The Rails.

Check out the Simply Charlotte Mason site and find out who Charlotte Mason was, what her method is all about, why her teaching methods are so helpful and find lots and lots of free help in addition to the high quality purchased materials.I have purchased several items from this site and I am very satisfied with them all. I especially like the Spelling Power books.

They offer a planner, ideas for scheduling your days or weeks depending on the age of your child, lots of books suggestions too. It was always difficult for me to find the books I needed for our lessons when the children were young. This site has all of the books you hear people talk about using with the Charlotte Mason method.

They also offer a free eBook called Getting Started In Homeschooling.

Simply Charlotte Mason has a free Curriculum Guide and a ton of free eBooks to help you. There is just no way I could possibly list everything they offer!

This post was not a paid advertisement! I like the site and I use it often so I thought I would share a great thing with you!

Simply Charlotte Mason.

Filed Under: Homeschool, Improve Your Mind

You Wanna Be A Blogger?

November 4, 2009 By Sylvia Leave a Comment

Wow! I needed this years ago. I can still use it now.

Many of my friends have asked me how to start their own blogs lately. I figure there are a couple of ways to do it. You can do like I did and take about 13 years of your life to learn and work at it, make mistakes and have to redo everything numerous time before you finally get a professional to do it for you. Or, you could just skip all the hassle and and skip paying someone to do it for you…. you can learn how to build your blog from a professional and have plenty of support while you’re doing it.

Beginner to Blogger is an e-course designed by Instructor Traci Knoppe. Traci will lay everything out in 20 lessons (five lessons a week for four weeks) that offer step-by-step navigation through building and managing your own blog.

Traci sent me a copy of Beginner to Blogger to review, and I loved it. I learned so much and corrected some errors in my own methods of blogging. She has put together a tutorial on blogging that will become the standard.

Not only is the information worth the price of $39.95, the personal support and research she has done for you makes it a steal.

If you have something to say, something to share, then it may be worth your while to get this ecourse and get going on building your own blog and doing it right the first time. Traci offers a 30 day money back guarantee with her course, but I don’t think you’ll be returning it once you see how detail oriented and complete the course is!

Click on the picture at the top of this post and it will take you to where Traci sells the eCourse.

Filed Under: Improve Your Mind, Tutorials

Reformation Day

October 31, 2009 By Sylvia Leave a Comment

Reformation Day should be studied and read about at all Protestant Churches…. after all, that’s what the name means…. Protest – ant….. those who protest.

Here is an excellent summary of Reformation Day and what it means to the Church today. Go read.

Filed Under: Improve Your Mind

A Sense Of History

October 26, 2009 By Sylvia 8 Comments

“History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.” Stephen Spender

Our family has been reenacting American history since about 1987. Lately we’ve been working on a good portrayal of 1860 and 1838. Before that we represented the American Revolutionary War period from 1770-1780.

The main reason we do it is that we find it interesting to know how people lived so many years ago. From their clothes, to their religion, their occupations to their food…. its all interesting to us. Another reason is that we know that other people find it interesting too, and since we learn so much from our study, its fun and exciting to share that knowledge with other not just through talking about it, but by living it out for them to see. We learn from reenacting, too. We learn about people, their decisions, and about God’s plan for mankind through the ages.

This past weekend, my husband, youngest daughter and I, and my oldest son, went to the Tennessee History Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. Right there in downtown Nashville at Bi-Centennial park we camped out in 1838 fashion and set up all our wares for children and adults to come by and take a look. We talked all day long for two days.