Living Books Curriculum are offering a one-of-kind sale at a crazy price.  AND, it is a chance to benefit children in Africa.

For a very short time, LBC is putting $386 worth of literature, guides, and audios online for you.

The whole, big, amazing site is called The Charlotte Mason Helper. (54 books and audios)

If you want to learn more about Charlotte Mason education or add living books and audios to your homeschool library–this is your chance. The price is too sweet to miss.

What’s The Charlotte Mason Helper?

Think of it as an online library of books, guides, and audios, many recommended by Charlotte Mason. The offer is available only till 8 pm EST November 7, 2011.

There are too many resources to list in this email, but here’s a peek…

• Cindy Rushton’s ENTIRE Charlotte Mason Primer Seminar, which includes her book by the same name, seven audios, and many additional resources.
• LBC’s entire Colonial American History series (6 volumes)
• LBC’s entire set of very successful Holiday Helpers.
• Living books for science, nature study, world history, composer study, picture study, storytelling, citizenship, poetry, dictation, and lots, lots more.
• Audios (MP3s) on homeschool planning, classic books, and storytelling.

You can read about it here: www.charlottemasonhelper.com

Why is LBC doing it??

Jim and Sheila Carroll, owners of LBC, are raising funds for discipleship and teacher training in Nigeria. The trip is from November 16-27^th.  At the last minute, an opportunity to double their outreach has come up. However, the precious pastors and teachers coming need to be feed, housed, and given transportation. They need to raise these funds ASAP.

That‘s where you come in.

You can bring Charlotte Mason education into your homeschool and benefit the children of Africa by purchasing The Charlotte Mason Helper, an online library.

100% of your purchase price goes to LBC’s work in Africa.

Don’t miss your chance to…www.charlottemasonhelper.com

Recently a mother asked me for guidance in preventing “dawdling“.

Every mother knows what dawdling is. Dawdling is taking more time than necessary to complete a task. A parent can make the mistake of thinking the child is lazy, resistant, or even disobedient. Usually, none of these are true. It often means the parent needs to go back to first principles–habit formation.

To fuss at a child for dawdling reinforces the habit of not finishing one’s work. Not what is wanted at all!

Charlotte Mason called dawdling mooning (Home Education, p. 147) and wrote of the importance of securing a child’s full attention and establishing the habit of attention.

If your child is taking more time than necessary, try these:

1. Use 20-minute lessons. If a 20-minute lesson is too long, shorten it. Set a timer for your child, so he has a clear sense of how long the lesson is to be. It will keep you on track too.
2. Use material that is developmentally appropriate. A child cannot narrate what he does not know or understand.To test the appropriateness, require a short narration to discover whether you need to adapt the material or find other material for the work you want to accomplish.
3. Alternate disciplinary subjects with inspirationalsubjects. Charlotte Mason recommended a disciplinary subject be followed by an inspirational one. Dr. Jack Beckman, Professor of Education at Covenant College in South Carolina and a Charlotte Mason scholar reminds us that, “Inspirational subjects touch heart and mind and are reflective of things such as art, music, literature, history, etc.  Disciplinary subjects are those in which teacher-student interactions are necessary as students are unable to apprehend their concepts, content, and/or skills alone – mathematics, languages, handwriting, certain aspects of science, etc.”
4. Each new lesson should recall the last. When starting a new lesson ask your child to recall the lesson that came the day before. Recollection of the previous lesson gives a context for the new knowledge, which improves attention.
5. To break the habit of dawdling: Arrange something delightful and irresistable activity (not TV or video!) to follow the lesson. No need to promise a reward if the work is finished. The child learns that when the work is done something pleasant follows. He then has a better attitude towards the work.

Want to learn more about the habit of attention, visit Ambleside Online for an online version of  habit formation in Home Education, p.96-134.

I received an email from a homeschooling mom who wrote, “I printed your booklist and bought the books you recommend on Amazon.com, only cheaper.” Is it really better to get the books on Amazon? Or, is it better to purchase all or some of the books from LBC?  

I understand when a family is on a tight budget and one income. It can be tough. Having been a homeschooling mother, I know how it is to pinch pennies and still try to give your children a million dollar education. It is possible, though, to save a few dollars and miss receiving something of far greater value. Here are some reasons why you may want to consider purchasing from us:

Reason #1: Membership in LBC Family Circle

This is a big one worth hundreds of dollars. When you purchase a complete or continuing curriculum package, or one of our teaching guides and at least $200 in books, you automatically become a member of the LBC Family Circle. Here are the privileges of membership in  LBC Family Circle:

• Free email and phone support
  Many companies bill at the rate of $50 per hour or more. LBC does not charge you anything to offer you all the support you need to be a success at a Living Books education.
• Webinars to encourage and inspire you
  LBC Family Circle members are free. We have already done webinars on with such topics as: habit formation, narration, and nature study. (The cost of each webinar is currently $22.)
• Mommy Teatime
  The fourth Tuesday of each month you can call in and talk to other moms using our curriculum. There is no charge other than the long distance cost.
• Special discounts on your future purchases  
  This is a benefit that can amount to over a hundred dollars in savings.

Reason #2: Your purchase provides Christian education to African children

LBC exists to establish and support our schools in Africa. Every penny of the proceeds of your purchase helps us put living books in the hands of children in desparate need of educational materials. Imagine being a missionary while still homeschooling.  To learn more, visit our tax-exempt, nonprofit: Education in a Box.

Reason #3: You get a CD valued at $77 with every Teaching Guide

Every Teaching Guide comes with a CD that is packed with templates, ebooks, articles, picture study, audios and more to help you give your children a living education—valued at $77.

Not convinced yet?

Reason #4: Greater success with CM education

One of the hardest parts of using the Charlotte Mason method is putting it all together. That was how Jim and I got started creating our own curriculum. No one else was doing it. LBC is the only complete Charlotte Mason curriculum that you can purchase and begin using right away. When you purchase the books and “go it on your own” you miss the consistency and organization and the benefit of  our thirty-plus years of educational experience.

Still have questions? Email me at lbcinfo@livingbookscurriculum.com. I would love to help.

A mother wrote me the following: ” We use unit studies along with a little Charlotte Mason and classical. Which grade level do you suggest when choosing your curriuclum?”

Another, on a well-known forum said, “I use Living Books, we go on nature walks and I have my children narrate–aren’t I pretty much already doing a Charlotte Mason education?”

For all my dear readers, please know that adding any component of a Charlotte Mason education will enhance the learning experience of your children, especially high quality literature and narration.

However, and this is a BIG however….

Unless you understand the 20 Principles and apply them to the best of your ability, you won’t get the kind of results seen in Miss Mason’s students. A Charlotte Mason education is one that fully embraces the principles as detailed in her books.

Charlotte Mason wrote in A Philosophy of Education:

The reader will say with truth,–’I knew all this before and have always acted more or less on these principles’; and I can only point to the unusual results we obtain through adhering, not ‘more or less,’ but strictly to the principles and practices I have indicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister had to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and appurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions of lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon’s antiseptic treatment; that is, from the substitution of exact principles scrupulously applied, for the rather casual ‘more or less’ methods of earlier days.(P. 19)

If you would like to see greater breadth and depth in your child’s learning, then consider giving CM a full year’s trial without mixing it together with other methods. You will never regret it. I promise.

To view our complete, ready-to-go Charlotte Mason curriculum packages.

How does a homeschooling mom use living books to teach fact-heavy science? Answer—science isn’t fact-heavy; it’s a body of truths systematically arranged. Charlotte Mason called it the study of “the great scheme of the unity of life” (School Education, p. 156).

What is the best way to teach science? A picture-packed, glitzy book filled with facts cannot teach “the great scheme of unity of life” because it is too fragmented. Books that express these truths in a literate way and are followed by hands-on experimentation can.

Charlotte Mason put it this way:

The only sound method of teaching science is to afford a due combination of field or laboratory work, with such literary comments and amplifications as the subject affords. For example, from Ethics of the Dust children derive a certain enthusiasm for crystals as such that their own unaided observation would be slow to afford. As a matter of fact the teaching of science in our schools has lost much of its educative value through a fatal and quite unnecessary divorce between science and the ‘humanities. (Philosophy of Education, p.223)

Ms. Mason was not opposed to textbooks, only to their exclusive use and that they are too often “dry and dumbed down.” 

Charlotte Mason recommended Fairy-Land of Science* by Arabella Buckley (1840 -1929) in several of her books. Buckley was a science editor and writer. Ms. Mason felt her works of a high literary quality and used them often in her schools. In Buckley’s preface to Fairy-Land of Science she wrote:

I have promised to introduce you today to the fairy-land of science –a somewhat bold promise, seeing that most of you probably look upon science as a bundle of dry facts, while fairy- land is all that is beautiful, and full of poetry and imagination.  But I thoroughly believe myself, and hope to prove to you, that science is full of beautiful pictures, of real poetry, and of wonder-working fairies; and what is more, I promise you they shall be true fairies, whom you will love just as much when you are old and grey-headed as when you are young; for you will be able to call them up wherever you wander by land or by sea, through meadow or through wood, through water or through air; and though they themselves will always remain invisible, yet you will see their wonderful poetry at work everywhere around you. 

 Here is a sample from Fairy-Land of Science for you:-)

The Life of the Primrose

In a few hours I will be on an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean winging my way to Nigeria–thanks to many of you.

Let me explain….

Three weeks ago I offered anyone who would donate $25, $50 or $100 towards the establishment of the teacher training center a thank you gift of one or more of our premiere teaching guides. Many of you took me up on the offer and I am thrilled to say we exceeded our goal of $5050.

Living Books Curriculum (aka Worldwide Educational Resources) exists to provide curriculum not only for all you wonderful homeschooling moms and dads, but also for children in Africa who have not access to learning.

That’s right. The proceeds of LBC support our work in Nigeria and elsewhere. If you would like to learn more go to our sister site: www.educationinabox.com .

Check this blog from time to time and get an update on my trip.

I have an important story to tell you:

 One spring morning in neighboring villages in Nigeria, two boys were born. They were very much alike, these two. Both had better than avenge intelligence, both were warm and personable and both were filled with dreams for the future.

These boys grew to be men. They were still very much alike. Both married. Both had children. But there was a difference. One of the men continued to farm as his parent’s had; growing root crops and being cheated by unscrupulous buyers. His children were often sick due to the poor water supply.

The other was able to get the laws enforced that forbid price fixing in the markets. He was also able to teach the people of his village how to grow their crops more productively. He became an elder, conducted Bible studies and adult literacy classes. And, he worked with the villagers to hand dig the well that brought clean water.

What Made the Difference?

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference in people’s lives? It isn’t always native intelligence, talent or dedication. It isn’t that one person wants success and the other doesn’t.

The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she makes use of that knowledge. In a word—education.

Education is what Jim and I are committed to bringing to children in remote places, such as rural Nigeria. Because the need is huge,  I am writing to you. UNESCO reports there are 118 million boys and girls who have no access to education, yet within them is the potential to be history makers and nation builders.  

Living Books Curriculum exists to help educate not only homeschooled children but impoverished children in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Shortly I will be leaving to to train the teachers of our four schools in the use of the Charlotte Mason educational method—a literature-based, learn by doing approach that avoids the pitfalls of a dumbed down curriculum often seen with workbooks and textbooks.

An important part of the trip is the establishment of a training center at the site of our lab school, near Lagos. The training center will be a prototype of many more to come.

Check in from November 15 through the 15^th for updates from Nigeria.

Depending on how you look at it, homeschooling can be cheap–or expensive.

Let’s say you spend $500 per child per year. When you compare that with the public school system which spends $5000-8000 per child each year, that’s cheap. What if you are a one income family, as most homeschooling families are, and you have 3-5 children? That might seem expensive.

Michael Farris of the Homeschool Legal Defense Fund says:

The average cost per student in the public school is $6,000 per year. What does it cost to homeschool a student? In 1996 national survey found that the average family spent $546 to homeschool their child…principally for curriculum materials…homeschoolers save U.S. taxpayers about 7.5 million dollars per year.

One of the delights of a Charlotte Mason education is the cost. It is so affordable. The homeschooling family buys high quality literature that become part of the family library and have a long-term relationship with the books, rather than a textbook or workbook that will be tossed out or sold at the next curriculum sale. 

In contrast, one author on the topic of the cost of homeschooling argued that parents must make sure their child can compete with public school children:

The actual cost of educating a child at home is surprisingly high. Up-to-date textbooks, course materials, a library, computing equipment, lighting, specially designed furniture all cost money.

Specially designed furniture? Up-to-date textbooks?

Nothing could be further from the tenets of a Charlotte Mason education. The furniture of the home is the best possible for a child. Of course, the table may have to be adapted for writing, but a large dictionary works just fine.

“Up-to-date” textbooks are not what they seem. They are generally acknowledged to be dumbed down to in order appeal to the lowest common denominator. William J. Bennetta, author of The Textbook Letter, says:

Of course, schoolbook companies can’t promote these books by saying outright that the books are aimed at backward students and dullards, so some companies have taken to using a code-phrase. The phrase is all students, as in “This is a book for all students.” Knowing that all students means the least capable and worst-prepared students.

So, if you don’t buy into glitzy textbooks and workbooks, the cost can be quite modest.

Where does this leave us regarding the cost of homeschooling? Right where we should be, if we faithfully follow Miss Mason’s methods. A CM homeschool should have a few math books, penmanship and copy books, perhaps a science or language book for the later grades, paper and pencil, craft supplies, lots of inspiring art and music. The rest should be captivating, well-written, well-told books that delight and refresh.

Living Books Curriculum strives to provide such books. In fact, our curriculum packages usually contain at least 40 books–all carefully chosen. The cost of our curriculum, which includes all standard academic subjects (except math), is less than $2 a day. The literature becomes part of a family’s permanent collection, and the sharing of music, poetry, art and nature study build family closeness that lasts a lifetime.

What is the real cost of a Charlotte Mason education? Priceless.

I have been thinking lately about Philippians 4:8 where Paul writes:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

I take Paul to mean that we should always “think on these things”. The Amplified Bible translates it as “think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].” In other words, make a habit of considering the good, the true and the beautiful.

It reminds me of what Charlotte Mason said in Home Education, that “… education is the formation of habits” (p. 97).

Education forms habits, habits shape character and character is destiny. Could this be the intent of Paul’s words?

Why do we homeschool? Isn’t it to nurture truthful, honest, justice-loving, pure, lovely children of good repute? It is not to produce academically sound minds, but to develop persons who are ”these things”.  Such a person will succeed not matter what they do.  

How can we be sure our children will have these qualities? How can we have children who “think on these things”? First, is the study and memorization of the Word of God.

Next, we have to look at what children study and how they spend their time. That is when it dawned on me that Charlotte Mason was right. Children must have many books of high quality with living ideas. If children are given living books that inspire and delight with great and noble ideas, then these ideas form habits of mind and habits of well-doing.

What’s more–Picture Study and Composer Study, poetry, recitation, narration-all of these are a form of “thinking on” truth, honesty, justice, purity, loveliness and those things of good report.

Charlotte Mason’s would say that the purpose of education is to make it possible for children to grow in habits of body, mind and spirit. I think the apostle Paul would agree.

We had a wonderful webinar last night on Nature Study for the Whole Family. If you couldn’t make it and still want to learn, contact me at lbcinfo@livingbookscurriculum.com .

Dara, a mom of  two, wrote the following this morning after the webinar:

You’ll be proud to know that today I took my two children to the “mog” as my husband calls it. It’s a stream/ small river that flows through town. We went to the portion just on the outskirts of town, which is surrounded by plenty of prairie grasses that we collected and compared to each other. I had never paid attention to the many different kinds of grass seeds there are. We saw baby ducks, a snake, red-wing black birds and a turtle. It was a very successful first visit. I promised the kids that we would visit again soon and bring some paper and paint brushes to better record our visit. Thank you for the inspiration.

Here are a few tips for a nature study lesson from our webinar:

Begin with what your child is already familiar.
Give abundant observations, few inferences ( if you have to talk, make observations, don’t give explanations).
Study a subject under natural conditions (reading about a natural topic is okay but no substitute for the real thing).
Discovery of a principles at work in nature is strengthened by oral expression (let your child talk about what he sees, rather than have you explain what you see.).

Five kinds of nature walks
Inside your house 
Yard
Nearby woods or other natural place
Park, Nature Center, botanical gardens, any organized display
Family vacations or outings to special areas