Episode 298: Balancing Expectations
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
Release Date: 04/04/2025
Episode 298: Balancing Expectations
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
Often when we encounter a difficulty in our Charlotte Mason education, the problem lies not in the books and materials, but rather in a mismatch between our expectations and the reality we see before us. In this episode of the podcast, we explore the unbalanced expectations we consciously and unconsciously embrace that are at odds with the outcomes Charlotte Mason expected. In returning to the principles of our educational method, we can find balance, and thereby, peace. "If we realise that the mind and knowledge are like two members of a ball and socket joint, two limbs of a pair of...
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Episode 297: Balance of Educational Philosophy
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
Charlotte Mason viewed all educational possibilities as fitting into one or the other of two schools of philosophy: Materialism and Idealism. Instead, she offers a "middle way," a new path that draws on the strengths of both schools. The portion of Parents and Children where she discusses these ideas is dense. In this episode of the podcast, Jessica Becker guides us through what Miss Mason had to say, and, more importantly, why it is essential for parents and teachers to find balance between these two educational extremes. Parents and Children (Volume 2), Charlotte Mason,...
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Episode 296: ADE Book Club--Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
Charlotte Mason firmly believed that novels are our greatest teachers, hence why she included them as a major serving in the feast that nourishes our children's education. This episode was recorded live at the ADE At Home conference, February 7, 2025, with Nicole, Emily, and Liz leading a discussion with attendees who had read the book and come to what they gleaned from Miss Gaskell's groundbreaking and somewhat controversial novel, Ruth. If you have read the book, you will enjoy listening to what we all gleaned from this story, and if you have not, you will be inspired to read it. ...
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Episode 295: Finding Balance in Community with Angie Cole
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
This season, as we explore finding balance in the Charlotte Mason Method, we are interviewing people who have been able to find balance in their various contexts. This episode is an interview with Angie Cole, a home-educating mom from Arizona, who has cultivated unique learning communities for herself and her four children. We understand the need for balance in determining how to incorporate social time and group learning while homeschooling and protecting morning lesson time. Angie has a lot of wisdom and experience to share with us! Use code "delectable" at check out to...
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Episode 294: Balance in Transitions
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
It goes without saying that life is full of transitions, and a Charlotte Mason Education is no exception. From beginning school lessons with one child to adding subsequent students, moving into higher levels, or bringing older students into the Method for the first time, this episode discusses the multitudinous transitions we, and our students, make over the course of our education and how to avoid pitfalls while seeking balance. -- See what subjects CM assigned for each Form (grades) level, and find the relevant podcast episodes on each subject. : Gaining Independence ...
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Episode 293: Voices from the Conference: Homeschooling Around and Through Major Transitions with LaShawne Thomas
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
In today's podcast episode, we bring you a session from the 2024 ADE at HOME {Virtual} Conference. LaShawne Thomas presented a session full of ideas and possibilities for navigating homeschooling when seasons of transition arise (and sometimes hang around) in our lives. A long-time Charlotte Mason educator and former Navy wife, LaShawne has experienced her fair share of upheavals and transitions and has much wisdom to share with us. -- Our Season Sponsor ADE's
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Episode 292: Balancing Time--School Schedules
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
This week on the podcast, we are discussing the principles behind Charlotte Mason's School Schedules. First we look at the whole year's schedule, why three terms, and options we have for today's students. Then, we turn our focus to the daily schedule and how we can bring much needed balance to our education. We hope you take away principles, rather than rules, and gain clarity on how our seemingly mundane choices have such a large impact on our students. “It is impossible to overstate the importance of this habit of attention. It is, ..., ‘within the reach of everyone, and should be...
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Episode 291: Finding Balance in High School and Beyond with Helen Swaveley
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
This season, as we explore finding balance in the Charlotte Mason Method, we are interviewing people who have been able to find balance in their various contexts. This episode is an interview with Helen Swaveley, a seasoned home-educating parent, as she offers her perspective on how the Charlotte Mason's method gives balance to our students in high school and beyond. Use code "delectable" at check out to receive 10% off your order ADE's ADE's
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Episode 290: Bringing Older Children into the CM Method
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
This Charlotte Mason podcast episode is a re-aired, re-visit to a common question we receive: bringing children into the Mason method from previous school experiences. What are the approaches that help children of various ages transition, what are realistic expectations, and how do we help them adjust to a different way of doing lessons? "The success of such a school demands rare qualities in the teacher––high culture, some knowledge of psychology and of the art of education; intense sympathy with the children, much tact, much common sense, much common information, much 'joyousness of...
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Episode 289: CM Graduate Panel with Jono Kiser
A Delectable Education Charlotte Mason Podcast
A perennial question those interested in the Charlotte Mason Method want to find out is how children raised in the method fare as they move on from homeschooling. At the 2024 ADE at HOME {Virtual} Conference Jono Kiser talked with three former CM students about their adjustment and experience. We bring you the audio from this interview as part of our occasional Voices of the Conference series. -- Our Season Sponsor ADE's
info_outlineOften when we encounter a difficulty in our Charlotte Mason education, the problem lies not in the books and materials, but rather in a mismatch between our expectations and the reality we see before us. In this episode of the podcast, we explore the unbalanced expectations we consciously and unconsciously embrace that are at odds with the outcomes Charlotte Mason expected. In returning to the principles of our educational method, we can find balance, and thereby, peace.
"If we realise that the mind and knowledge are like two members of a ball and socket joint, two limbs of a pair of scissors, fitted to each other, necessary to each other and acting only in concert, we shall understand that our function as teachers is to supply children with the rations of knowledge which they require; and that the rest, character and conduct, efficiency and ability...take care of themselves." (6/241)
"We need not ask what the girl or boy likes. She very often likes the twaddle of goody-goody storybooks, he like condiments, highly-spices tales of adventure. We are all capable of liking mental food of a poor quality." (3/168)
"It is a wide progamme founded on the educational rights of man; wide, but we may not say it is impossible nor may we pick and choose and educate him in this direction but not that...Our part it seems to me is to give a child a vital hold upon as many as possible of those relationships proper to him." (6/157)
"Therefore, if the business of teaching be to furnish the child with ideas, any teaching which does not leave him possessed of a new mental image has, by so far, missed its mark. It is not too much to say that a morning in which a child receives no new idea is a morning wasted, however closely the little student has been kept at his books." (1/173)"If it is the best a child can do and shows interest and effort, then it is satisfactory or 'good'" (Exam Pamphlet)
Episode 272: CM on Children Liking Their Books
Notes of Lessons: Sample lessons from CM trained teachers in her training college
Episode 233: Method of Lessons
Examination and the P.U.S.Pamphlet
ADE's Exam Planner: A Teacher Help for preparing and executing exams for all Form Levels