Simply Charlotte Mason

We started out homeschooling using a Charlotte Mason approach. It just seemed to fit our family's learning style and what I wanted our days to look like. Four years later we're still following it, mostly.

One of the biggest helps to me, and which I only recently found, is Simply Charlotte Mason. They have an excellent blog which walks you through all of Mason's ideas and how to apply them in your school. If you want to know what Charlotte Mason is all about, stop here first. They also have an excellent, and free, curriculum guide. There are many products to purchase as well, but I don't have any of those so I can't comment.

They also host a forum where you can ask just about anything related to homeschooling or CM and someone there will answer. (And sometimes that someone is me!) It's been such a blessing for me to have a place to go to talk with mothers who've been down in the trenches for years and can give some insight or wisdom or just a cyber shoulder to cry on.

For the first few years I put together all my book lists for history. It took many, many hours of pain and suffering and no sleep to do this, but golly we were having fun. After I found SCM I still created my own book lists because obviously their lists couldn't be as good as the ones I put together. And here's where I show that I was wrong....I was wrong. After moving for the 8th time in 7 years I decided that just this once I'd use their suggestions. And they have all been excellent. With a few additions I found from the TruthQuest guides I had history planned in a few hours and we've been enjoying some truly excellent books. I have learned my lesson - trust SCM.

Just wanted to pass on an excellent resource.  Long live Charlotte Mason!