How do we guide our families through the holiday season in a way that is meaningful and restful? And how do we navigate all of the opportunities and good ideas that we have before us? Leah and Amy come back to Charlotte Mason's idea of habit and (its longer ranging cousin, tradition).
View the show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/12/07/christmas-traditions/
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Just because you do school at home doesn't mean you have to do it all yourself! Co-ops, enrichment programs, private and charter schools offer ways to compliment your child's education. Amy and Leah talk about their experiences joining and even starting home ed groups, detailing the highs and lows, and offer ideas to help you figure out whether a group is right for you.
Read the show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/11/23/homeschooling-outside-the-home-co-ops-charter-schools-enrichment-programs-and-more/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
With countless courses, videos, tutorials, and books available for immediate download, how do we steward all the online resources available to us and our children? Charlotte Mason encourages us to spread a feast but is there a limit? In this episode, Amy and Leah talk about how they incorporate digital content in their homeschools, how they choose what to include, bad choices they've made, and basic principles for making the most of what we have.
Find show notes at: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/11/09/spreading-the-digital-feast/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
In the last episode of the podcast, Amy and Leah explored the ins and outs of Charlotte Mason nature study. While nature study is the foundation for the study of science, there is plenty more to this broad discipline, and so we decided to take an episode to deep dive into Charlotte Mason science. We talk about how to use living books, why we need to make science hands on, and how science is inspiring our own kids.
View full show notes on our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/10/26/inspiring-living-science/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Nature study is a quintessential part of a Charlotte Mason education, but that doesn't mean that it looks the same for every family. In this episode, Amy and Leah talk about how they do nature study with their kids as well as why we do it at all. What are the principles behind observing the natural world and, once we're committed to nature study, how can we make it happen consistently?
View full show notes on our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/10/12/time-for-nature-study/
Mentioned in this Episode:
Exploring Nature with Children
School Education (affiliate link)
Why I love Non-photo blue pencils from John Muir Laws
The Armitt Museum
Diary of an Edwardian Lady
Getting Kids Outside episode
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Even with the best of intentions, most of us look around at some point in the day and wonder how we ended up so busy. In today's episode, Leah and Amy chat about how to manage our time: how can we avoid procrastination, apply the discipline of habit, keep ourselves from dawdling, and just avoid finding ourselves in a tizzy? We definitely don't have perfect time management skills ourselves, but we share plenty of tips and ideas that might just make things a little bit calmer.
View the full show notes at our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/09/28/time-management-for-homeschool-moms/
Mentioned in this episode:
Google Keep for list making (digital option)
Passionate Penny Pincher Planner (paper option)
Freedom App for limiting access to distracting websites and apps (affiliate link)
Mother Culture by Karen Andreola
Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson
Do you have a way that you build margin into your days and weeks that allow space for the unexpected? Write into amy (at) thinkinglove (dot) education and we will send the answers out to our email list! Subscribe here: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Charlotte Mason died one hundred years ago this year and left behind a legacy that continues to impact countless people today. Amy and Leah launch the latest season of the Thinking Love podcast with a conversation about exactly how Charlotte Mason shared her ideas in a lasting and meaningful way, and consider how we might do the same.
You can find notes for the show on our website: https://thinkinglove.
Never miss an episode! Sign up for email updates here: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Join Amy and Leah as they wrap up this podcast season with a discussion on manners. How can we teach our kids to be polite? And while we're at it, how can we help them learn to be the kind of people who are thoughtful and considerate toward others?
As Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, our first inclination is to reach for a book - but with manners, that's not always the best option. We chat about making abstract manners tangible for our kids, doing the work of parenting, and helping our kids learn to live well with others - and when to pull in the books!
Read the full show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/12/01/teaching-manners/
Learn more about our habit training workshop: https://thinkinglove.education/habits
As our children learn to read and write, their first attempts at spelling are endearing. But at a certain point, we may start to wonder when and how to teach spelling.
With Charlotte Mason, learning to spell is integrated into many parts of the curriculum, including reading lessons, copywork, and dictation. Together, these lessons help our children learn how to spell by engaging with words in context and encouraging them to study the words closely. Join Amy and Leah as they untangle this multifaceted approach to teaching spelling.
Full show notes available at: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/11/10/spelling-copywork-dictation/
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.
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!
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.
In the last episode of the podcast, Amy and Leah explored what Charlotte Mason really said about kindergarten. Today, they are back with Jennifer Dowdy from Charlotte Mason Mama to talk about how and why we might want to create a kindergarten year for our younger children. Jennifer, a veteran Charlotte Mason homeschooler of thirteen years, shares incredible insight into how to make kindergarten a beautiful introduction to education.
Learn more about Jennifer and her curriculum, The Enchanted Kindergarten, at https://charlottemasonmama.com.
Read the full show notes at: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/04/07/charlotte-mason-kindergarten-how/
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