Charlotte Mason Poetry

Olive Norton: The Recording

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two weeks ago we met Olive Norton, the homeschool mother who taught her daughter at home all the way through the secondary level. Then we learned that...

Olive Norton: The PNEU Teacher

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Last week we shared the remarkable story of Olive Norton, the homeschool mother. Her testimony as a mother-teacher...

Olive Norton: The Homeschool Mother

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In December 1962, an extraordinary article appeared in The Parents’ Review. Entitled “A P.U.S. Home-Schoolroom...

A Father and Son Look Back

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty-two years ago I was a young father with a little boy, my first child, aged two. My father-in-law called me aside. “How are you going to educa...

The Carol of the Three Brothers

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Frances Blogg (1869–1938) served as the Organising Secretary of the PNEU from 1896–1901.[1] During this time s...

Conversation Piece

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In April 1890, the third issue of a fledgling periodical entitled The Parents’ Review was delivered to subscribe...

Joy to be Bought

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Back in March we shared a 1961 article entitled “Joy to be Shared” by a schoolteacher named Donald Beswick. He...

A Home-Schoolroom in Madeira

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff “Many interesting letters from all parts of the world have been received at the Office,” stated the annual rep...

The Relativization of Classical Education

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In July 2019 I had the privilege of attending the CiRCE National Conference. The topic that year was “A Contemplation of Form,” and the event was ...

Three Educational Idylls

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Merriam-Webster defines an idyll as “a simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic life or...

High School Roundtable

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When do children outgrow the Charlotte Mason method? The firm belief of Charlotte Mason and the PNEU was that they never do. That’s what we believe ...

Education in The Parents’ Union School

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Jennifer Talsma On December 6, 1935, over 50 people from around Ireland gathered to attend a meeting of the PNEU’s Dublin Branch...

A Measuring Line

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Elsie Kitching served as Charlotte Mason’s personal assistant for many years before succeeding her as editor of ...

The P.U.S. Work in a PNEU School

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In January 1931 “the largest P.N.E.U. School in England” was at Burgess Hill. At that time, the school had bee...

Boys’ Preparatory Schools

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff The Craig Preparatory School of Windermere was founded in 1899 and led by William Snow, its first headmaster, unti...

The PNEU and Public Examinations

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In 1931, a letter appeared in The Times Educational Supplement. “Dear Editor,” it began, “I have been asked ...

The Theology of the Great Recognition

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“The great recognition, that God the Holy Spirit is Himself, personally, the Imparter of knowledge, the Instructor of youth, the Inspirer of genius....

Education And Life

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Vera Pim attended the House of Education in 1926, where she received distinction in the subject of teaching.[1] Af...

Thomas Aquinas and the Great Recognition

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Two years ago I had the privilege of visiting the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria Novella in Florence,” wrote Rose Amy Pennethorne in 1935. “I wa...

The Parents’ Union in a Secondary School

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff When do children outgrow the Charlotte Mason method? The firm belief of Charlotte Mason and the PNEU was that they...

The History of an Idea: Children Are Born Persons

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Upon first hearing the foundational principle of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, ‘Children are born persons,’ I couldn’t have been less impr...

The First Steps of Education

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Rhoda M. Harrison was a student at the House of Education in 1928.[1] After graduating, she served on the staff of...

What Is Education?

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In 1897, the Women’s Institute was founded in Saltfleet, Ontario.[1] Ethel Somers describes its origins: The wom...

Where Virtue is the Goal

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the ultimate purpose of education? What are we trying to accomplishing in our homeschools and our schools? In the final analysis is education ...

The Only Child

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

by Sheila Fawcett (C.M.C) The Parents’ Review, 1957, pp. 71-73 Even in childhood I looked forward to the time when I should have children of my own....

Education of Conscience

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Florence Mary Parsons (1864–1934) was an accomplished author and acknowledged expert in 18th-Century literature ...

What is a Liberal Education?

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1917, the Times newspaper published a letter by Charlotte Mason in which she made four bold claims: (a) That our people are capable of receiving a ...

Jesus’ Bible Lessons

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Bible lesson is a unique, wonderful opportunity to dialogue over the Living Word with your child. Jesus had such discussions himself with some of ...

The Book of Centuries and How to Keep One

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Gertrude M. Bernau studied under Charlotte Mason at the House of Education in 1894. By 1906, she was the principal...

Three New Educational Common Factors

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Rose Amy Pennethorne studied at Charlotte Mason’s House of Education in the class of 1898. She remained involved...

The Way of Reason

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff England in the late 1950s had not yet forgotten about Charlotte Mason. In fact, many educators still wanted to lea...

Character Training

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In April 1936, “418 members and friends of the Parents’ National Educational Union, and 268 children being edu...

Charlotte Mason and the Spirituality of Motherhood

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A paper submitted to Dr. Bruce Hindmarsh in fulfillment of the requirements for the Graduate Diploma in Christian Studies from Regent College April 20...

The Conflict of Philosophies

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In 1936, Elsie Kitching wrote a book review for The Parents’ Review, the journal she edited from 1923 to 1949. P...

Obedience

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff N. McLeod enrolled in the House of Education in 1914[1] before heading up a PNEU school in Richmond, Surrey from a...

Why Small Things Matter

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In November 1909, the 13th Annual PNEU Conference was held in Birmingham.[1] On the morning of the second day, a p...

Ask Art #5 — The Motto

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Only eternity will reveal how many lives were changed, hearts inspired, and works completed because of the motto of Charlotte Mason. Four powerful ver...

A Talk to Nurses on “The Child as a Person”

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note by Haley Struecker Today, we continue our short series of recommended reading from the Occupations leaflet with another article by Cha...

Thought-Turning

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff “Dr. [Helen] Webb was one of the oldest friends of our dear Founder, Miss Charlotte Mason,” recalled Elsie Kit...

My Sensations Sweet

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I cannot tell you how often the aroma of freshly baked bread, or the smell of rice cooking, or the scent of wet grass transports me to my childhood, a...

Miss Mason’s Principles In Character Training

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Antoinette Devonshire was born in 1893 and arrived at the House of Education in 1915.[1] As a student of Charlotte Mason herself, Ant...

Work: Partakers of His Resurrection

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Essex Cholmondeley (1892–1985) is mostly remembered today as the biographer of Charlotte Mason. She also wrote the impactful bookle...

Occupations for Children Under Schoolroom Age

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Haley Struecker In the second part of her article “Children Up to School Age and Beyond,” Elsie Kitching clarified for parents...

Joy to be Shared

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Donald Beswick was born in 1928 near Manchester. “After two years at a Teacher Training College and one year at Trinity College of ...

The Advanced Montessori Method

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The appearance of Maria Montessori’s first book in English in 1912 greatly alarmed Charlotte Mason and the PNEU. Mason’s response...

Three Habit Hacks

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thoughts and Encouragement for Habit Training Probably one of the first principles of Charlotte Mason I encountered when I started reading and researc...

Habit

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: In 1919, a set of students at Charlotte Mason’s House of Education were each invited “to write an essay on some subject suggested...

The First Centenary

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: This year we are celebrating the Charlotte Mason Centenary — the one-hundred-year anniversary of Charlotte Mason’s death. However...

Family Bickerings

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note. Lucy Barnes was born in 1805 as the first of four children of the poet and philologist William Barnes. She recalled that she and her ...

The Work and Aims of the PNEU

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note. “Just before the summer holidays [in 1887],” reminisced Charlotte Mason, “a few persons met in a neighbouring drawing-room to d...

In Praise of Romanticism

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

My early childhood memories are of me running barefoot on a farm in South Africa. My grandparents had a small piece of land where we milked cows by ha...

The Playroom Leaflet

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: A letter dated February 15, 1935 from Elsie Kitching to Henrietta Franklin included a tantalizing line: Thank you very much for your ...

Charlotte Mason and the Child Who Loves To Learn

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Which seems more interesting to you? Reading stories of Greek and Roman heroes, or sitting in a dim classroom all day memorizing historical dates? Whe...

Mother Culture

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: By Dean and Karen Andreola In an episode of Wodehouse’s humorous stories of Wooster and Jeeves, the servant Jeeves ruefully remarks...

Children Under Six

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note by Richele Baburina In 1942, the hundred-year anniversary of Charlotte Mason’s birth, a special Centenary edition of The Parents’...

Education And Responsibility

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Last week we shared Dr. R. Bryce Gibson’s February 1915 article “Education and Personality.” Gibson was a professor in Melbourn...

Education And Personality

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: In Charlotte Mason’s day, The Parents’ Review reached the ends of the earth — or at least, the ends of the English-speaking ear...

Introducing Rudolf Eucken

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: In 2009, Dr. Benjamin Bernier completed his groundbreaking book entitled Education for the Kingdom: An Exploration of the Religious F...

The Mother Who Teaches Her Own Children

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: On June 18, 1926, Henrietta Franklin welcomed parents and teachers to the 28th Annual PNEU Conference in Caxton Hall, Westminster. Sh...

Our Founder: Charlotte M. Mason

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The January 1936 issue of The Parents’ Review opened with this announcement: It is fifty years since Miss Mason published Home Educ...

Letters from Mothers

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We live in a world where homeschool families are often far away from relatives. They do all the work of teaching themselves, without tutors or help. A...

After Fifty Years

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Our fifth article in the Elsie Kitching Series brings us to 1936. That year was the fiftieth anniversary of the Charlotte Mason metho...

Home Education Under Six

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Haley Struecker Miss Ellen A. Parish was known in Ambleside as a woman of constant bravery, and such a reputation must have befitt...

Too Wide A Mesh

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: On January 5, 1927, a PNEU Meeting was held in London in conjunction with the Conference of Educational Associations. The subject und...

Two or Three Witnesses

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The December 1926 issue of The Parents’ Review was subtitled “Of Little Children” and said that “This number has been prepare...

A Great Inheritance

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Jennifer Talsma On April 14, 1925, Miss Elsie Kitching delivered the opening address to “The Parent’s Union School Gathering a...

A Code of Education in the Gospels

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Several years ago, a good friend of mine told me that he had been asked by his church to teach a class for some of the children. He had never done any...

Notes and Queries by Elsie Kitching

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The closing pages of the very first Parents’ Review in 1890 contained a short section entitled “Notes and Queries.” Charlotte M...

The Place of Science in the Education of Children

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Dawn Rhymer On the plane bound for the Living Education Retreat, I was trying to read through several Parents’ Review articles o...

Moral Training

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The December 30, 1955 issue of The Times included an obituary with the title “Disciple of Charlotte Mason.” The article surveyed ...

Two Educational Ideals

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The Fourteenth Annual PNEU Conference was held in July 1910 in London. Charlotte Mason was not present, but the conference opened wit...

The Story of Formation of Character

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

1906 was a big year for Charlotte Mason. It’s the year that she completed the Home Education Series! In that fateful year Mason published the fifth ...

Of Such Is the Kingdom

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: When the reader of Charlotte Mason’s first volume has reached only the twelfth page, he or she is struck by Mason’s bold hermeneu...

Critical Thinking Through Narration

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The following thought exercise is based on a true story. Imagine that you get a call from your oldest daughter who has just started her first semester...

Letter From a Scientist

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus famously wrote: God … either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is...

Using Technology Well

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In most schools today, technology is king. All students are given tablets and everyone learns to code. We are told that this approach gives kids an ad...

Self-Education

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: In May of 1913, the PNEU held their 17th annual conference at Caxton Hall in London. It was a fitting venue for a gathering of educat...

To Overcome Fear

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve dealt with fear my whole life as a mom. I was so excited about the process, but fear spoke to me constantly, telling me lies about my capabilit...

The Mason Method of Teaching

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Harlow College in Essex was established in 1862 and enjoyed a proud history until it was closed in 1965.[1] The years 1904–1935, ho...

Scouting — The Joy of Discovery

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up in public schools I somehow caught the idea that discovery was for the professional. For the explorer or the scientist or the mathematician...

Godly Sorrow, Worldly Sorrow, and Joy

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

El artículo está disponible en español. In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes that “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation an...

Songs For Children

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note, by Heidi Buschbach In the days of the PNEU, experts would come and speak about topics of interest. Their presentations would be trans...

Idyll Challenge IV

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

El artículo está disponible en español. “Miss Mason’s philosophy and methods are very fully set forth in her books, but the books are written w...

Decoration of the Nursery

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Many a student who came to Charlotte Mason’s House of Education came because she wanted to become a professional teacher. Some, how...

Charlotte Mason on the Authority of Scripture

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last year I received an email from a friend that included the following: When you have a moment, I would be very interested in your thoughts on this f...

Charlotte Mason and Worldview Formation

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a Charlotte Mason education, we rely on books—not a teacher or a set of “tools” or textbooks—not only to inspire interest in the subject bu...

Nursery Games For Children

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Lady Hankey’s “introduction to the P.N.E.U. was the discovery of Miss Mason’s book Home Education, and this happened when [her]...

The Great Recognition Mason Brought To Florence

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We all know the story. A young, impressionable Miss Mason travels to Florence. With guidebook in hand, she beholds a glorious fresco, the embodiment o...

Pestalozzi: The First Modern Educator

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: When Charlotte Mason famously wrote in Home Education that “Mothers owe ‘a thinking love’ to their Children,”[1] she was quot...

The Approach to Poetry

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Karen Andreola’s 1998 A Charlotte Mason Companion introduced a generation of parents to the Charlotte Mason philosophy. Her encyclo...

Living Memories of Emeline Steinthal: An Interview

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richele Baburina speaks with the great-granddaughter of Emeline Steinthal, Charlotte Mason’s dear friend and colleague, who brings the PNEU to life ...

Religious Teaching in the Home

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: Mary Alice Douglas (1860–1941) was the daughter of a rector and was “educated at home by a governess in [a] tight-knit, deeply re...

Susan Schaeffer Macaulay Interviews Joan Molyneux

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1984, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay published her groundbreaking book For the Children’s Sake. For many of us, it was our first introduction to the Ch...

My Experience with Charlotte Mason in Sunday School

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During most of the past six years I have volunteered helping with the pre-school and elementary aged children at our church. Although our church famil...

Influence

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note by Richele Baburina Without the influence of Emeline Steinthal, the Parents’ National Education Union might never have come to be. A...

Do Charlotte Mason’s Ideas Still Work?

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“When Miss Mason was alive, for example, children were instinctively more obedient and respectful than they are today.”[1] As I have studied Charl...

The Teaching of Citizenship

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note. The first article I ever read by House of Education graduate Eleanor Frost is her 1913 “Bible Teaching in The Parents’ Union Scho...

The Source of Miss Mason’s Teaching

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What was Charlotte Mason’s source for her philosophy of education? It is a question that I have discussed and debated at length over the past severa...

Education is a Discipline

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: The PNEU motto was “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”[1] This motto encapsulated what Charlotte Mason saw as...

Managing Multiple Forms

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Editor’s Note: One of the most common questions we hear is how to handle a homeschool situation where there are multiple children in multiple forms....