Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Carnival, a list of excellent Charlotte Mason posts at blogs all over the Internet. If you’d like to submit an entry to the next carnival, click here. (Go ahead and do it before you forget.)

Living Books

• Becky at Golden Acorn Homeschool gives a good answer to the question What are living books?
• Robin Phillips lists some great authors atHistory, Nature, Geography, Reading: Rediscover Four Author-Illustrators – Crack the Egg.

High School

• Barb-Harmony Art Mom- shares her Charlotte Mason High School Daily Schedule.

History

• Mama Squirrel from Dewey’s Treehouse gives a defense of AO curriculum against the complaint that it has too much British history. Read her post Ambleside Online…isn’t that too much British history?

Narration

• Nadene shares how young students can use written narration with help. If you’ve got younger children, Mom ~ The Narration Scribe is a must-read.
• Melissa presents Narration in every subject posted at Bugs, Knights, and Turkeys In the Yard. She says, “I want to make certain that this ‘mental process’ of real thinking, digesting, and provocation of the imagination is taking place in every area!”

Artist Study

• Dawn shares her plans for a  Study of Leonardo da Vinci posted at my4sweetums. She’s got lots of books and activities outline. But my favorite part of her post is when she says “I tried to leave some room for rabbit trails that are sure to happen.”
• Lizzie at A Dusty Frame had the special opportunity to  see a Raphael painting in person. She blogged the experience at La Donna Velata The Woman with the Veil~Raphael . Her enthusiasm is obvious:

Then we stepped into the room where La Donna Velata hung. WOW! It was amazing. We were the only people in the room for quite awhile. It was fascinating to stand inches away from a painting done by Raphael in 1516.

Language Arts

• Looking for a spelling curriculum? Jeanne gives a CM review of Spelling Wisdom at A peaceful day. Here’s an excerpt to whet your interest:

To me, Spelling Wisdom is CM dictation the easy way. Today’s 6000 most frequently used words are presented in the words or great writers, and many are from books or authors Jemimah has studied: Robert Louis Stephenson’s poems; The Bible; Shakespeare; Hans Christian Anderson; Robinson Crusoe; Sherlock Holmes; Wind in the Willows; and more. Many of them, in fact, are the very same passages I would select myself if I were preparing dictation myself.

Nature Study

• Barb-Harmony Art Mom presents “From Cruelty to Kindness” posted at Handbook of Nature Study.
• Pamela takes a Slow Water Float Trip at Blah, Blah, Blog.  Ahhh.. just looking at her photos is relaxing.
• Laura Grace Weldon who blogs atRelentless Optimist offers an almost poetic post How to Make Spiders Your Teachers, Trees Your Guides.

It’s easier to think of nature as “out there” in the pristine wilderness. But we’re a part of nature every moment. It is air we breathe, plants we eat, birdsong we hear, weather slowing this morning’s traffic, our very cells dividing and yes, that high pitched whine signifying a mosquito is hovering nearby.

Handicrafts

• Keri delivers a beautiful post, as always, at Handicrafts. Don’t let the simplicity of this post fool you. Her four simple statements and a CM quote accompanied by gorgeous collages teach more than a complete essay.

Habits, Organization, and Mother Culture

• Nak at Sage Parnassus presents The PMEU? She is part of a group that “could be likened to the PNEU (Parents’ National Education Union) of Mason’s day in that we were all there to grapple with her philosophy, to grow and to learn how to offer our students the best that there is available.”
• Jennifer Lavender at The Princess Momma Chronicles presents the first post in a series of Home School Answers – Home School Answers – Isn’t Home School Expensive?
• Anna at Sacred Appetite discusses parenting and habit training in Feeding Children Made Easy: Parenting Sun-Style Instead of North Wind-Style.

At the dinner table, are you more like the North Wind or more like the Sun?
Don’t battle your child’s appetites and feelings, like the North Wind, but put them to work for you, like the Sun.

• Want to get to know another homeschooling mom and have a peek into her schedule? Amy in Peru gives you the opportunity in Fisher Academy: About Us.
• Laura Grace Weldon presents If Jane Goodall Were An Alien posted at Relentless Optimist.

Imagine someone with Jane Goodall’s observational powers coming from outer space to observe us for a few days. Let’s narrow this alien’s study down to something relatively simple. Childhood.

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