Charlotte Mason was a British educator who spent much of her life improving the
quality of children's education. She believed that parents would be greatly
helped if they understood some basic principles about bringing up children. This
belief led Mason to give a series of lectures, which were later published as
Home Education,(1886), a book explaining how to
apply her principles to children from birth to nine.


The book Home Education is actually six of
Charlotte Mason's lectures about the raising and educating of young children (up
to the age of nine), for parents and teachers. She encourages parents to spend a
lot of time outdoors, immersed in nature and handling natural objects and
collecting experiences on which to base the rest of their education. She
discusses the use of training in good habits such as attention, thinking,
imagining, remembering, performing tasks with perfect execution, obedience, and
truthfulness, to replace undesirable tendencies in children (and the adults that
they grow into). She details how lessons in various school subjects can be done
using her approach. She concludes with remarks about the Will, the Conscience,
and the Divine Life in the Child. 

I have used a number of
her teaching methods with my own children and within my classroom before I
retired from being a public school educator.  I highly recommend reading what
Charlotte Mason has to say.  Many homeschool parents embrace her methods but I
truly believe that public school and private school teachers would find her
teaching methods a wonderful to approach educating the students in their
care.

This book, I feel, is a good introduction
to the Charlotte Mason approach to learning.  Once you've read this book you
will probably want to buy her entire home school series.  The set runs a bit
over $40.00 so buying thi one book will be a cheaper investment if for some
reason you don't want to read more.  If you decide to buy her entire series
click on the book icon below.