Charlotte Mason & Classical Education Curriculum for 2024-2025 | My DIY Family Resource Picks

[@jessicaTX964]

The Smithsonian Channel has a series called "Ariel America" that is so good for giving that sense of what a state looks like and some of the history and unique culture of each state.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thank you for this!

[@lesleeq]

Idk if I am finally at the stage where our vision and plan for homeschooling is coming together and making sense. I am a mother of one and she has some special educational needs. I started by looking at classical education then was drawn to CM but I was just doing what everyone was doing. I felt like I just am not made for this no matter how much I desired it. I decided to just do something and learn as I go with my child. America, your videos make so much sense to me, even though this isn't new to us. I eagerly await your videos. There's something about you that makes me want to keep going and find our own rhythm. Thank you! May God continue to bless you. You are definitely a blessing to our family.❤

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

This is such a kind thing to say, and a huge encouragement to me. Thank you for sharing your journey with me. I am learning right alongside my children, as you said!🤍

[@katiedixon1756]

I'm so glad I found your channel. You have such a sweet, calming voice. We are going into year 7 of homeschooling, but our first year 100% CM. We absolutely LOVE Little Pilgrim's Progress. It's so, so good❤. I'd love to hear you talk a little bit more about notebooking. We have our nature journals. We will add in a book of centuries which I find very intimidating. I'm thinking I need to add a commonplace book for my 7 yr old and 10 yr old. I'm very much a "notebooker" but not in an organized way. I'm excited for you and your DIY curriculum! 🎉

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thank you for the suggestion! And I'm glad to hear Little Pilgrim's has been a hit for your family. Thank you for the encouragement & for watching 🤍

[@HumblyRootedHome]

You’ve inspired me to jump in and create a custom plan for my family next year. Currently we’re following AO (and I LOVE it) but I can see that next year we’re going to need to make some adjustments to fit our family’s needs. You’ve given some great tips here on how to get started! Thank you for the inspiration and I hope your school year is going beautifully.

[@intentionallymade]

We do a CM co-op so all our riches, nature study, handicrafts and art and Shakespeare are combined in that. Having an actual play to be part of has made our Shakespeare experience so fruitful. I highly recommend finding local plays in your area that you can attend if able. You can call ahead and see what their rated. We keep ours PG and cut things to fit our students. I have three versions of Shakespeare story books. Nesbit, lamb and Tina packer. I can do audio or read at home. The Tina packer one is great. It gives the cast of characters also and has some fun illustrations. Joy Cherrick recommended it. I let my ten year old read the lamb version independently since he hasn’t read all of them yet and since we focus on one play with co-op we use the stories as a family read still. I haven’t decided which version is my favorite but we like variety over here 😂 You have a good spread. Check out CM simple studies too. Crystal has done a great job with it and it has exposed us to a lot of good books. We are doing her Middle Ages one and america right now. She has one earth and sky that uses the earth and sky book as spine. They all come with coloring pages and narration prompts and every now and then activity ideas. But it’s true to CM and simple.

[@Hopelb]

I'd love to see how you are planning to schedule out the readings.

[@captain7471]

I love your choices! We do Story Of The World as well as AO Year One! I would recommend holding off for Robbin Hood until next year when you can do medieval times as it will flow more smoothly. Of course do what you want and make your own choices, but I try to keep our books as aligned as we can, of course it won’t always work that way but I adapt when I can and don’t worry too much when I can’t. Thank you for more ideas for our homeschool 😊

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thank you for the input!!

[@thehomegrownsoul]

I am blessed by your homeschool videos! And I’d just like to say that I related so much to your comment on being the mom watching other moms homeschool videos and feeling inadequate. There is a specific channel/podcast that I listen because everything she says is such pure gold when it comes to a classical Charlotte Mason education, yet I leave the episodes feeling educated yet discourage. I don’t think it is on purpose but her content paints a picture of Charlotte Mason perfection, that her children are perfectly habit trained, that their lessons go flawlessly, etc. Rarely does she ever tell of relatable real life interruptions in her homeschool or with her family. It leaves this mom feeling like my homeschool could never measure up and that my children are missing out on a perfect education.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thank you for sharing that. Honestly, this is a huge reason I started this channel - because of content like that! We can hold ourselves to high standard of excellency in our homeschool and treat it with care and serious attention, but real life still happens, and we ought not get discouraged by what real life looks like! I want to share the balance of pursuing the excellence Mason, the classical tradition, and ultimately Christian parenting call us to, while still reminding myself and other mothers that perfection isn't attainable, and real life can and does still happen in the Mason home. I've had seasons where I've been tempted to give up Mason's ways altogether when I was in a spot of only hearing the highlight reel of someone else's homeschool journey. I felt burdened to share my experience with the CMEC and now I'm still sharing for the same reasons. Thanks for being here, Elizabeth! 🤍

[@JessicaJosie]

Looks really good and rich! We’re just entering into studying U.S. history. I would love if you did a video of more of what you did in the previous years for U.S. history.

[@simplebliven]

I too will be starting with US History and I would love more about that as well!

[@homeschoollifemom]

You did a beautiful job pulling together a rich, wonderful CM/classical feast. I really like how you pulled from both approaches for your resources. We are doing Simply Charlotte Mason’s Genesis-Deuteronomy study this fall. I’m hoping it’s a good fit, and we enjoy it.

[@SeleenaOtt]

We’re doing SCM Genesis-Deuteronomy too! May I ask what you are doing for enrichments? 🤍

[@homeschoollifemom]

@@SeleenaOtt I used Brighter Day Press’ morning time volume 1 this past year and loved it! It feels like a similar, but also more doable version of SCM’s enrichment studies. So we will be doing volume 2 this fall. I add in habit study, and I do still use SCM picture studies instead of using the pictures in the guide. I’m hoping to get to Shakespeare as well. I bought SCM Midsummer Night’s Dream to do last year, but we didn’t get to it. We’ve read some of the story versions of Shakespeare.

[@MaryBarfield]

Great video! We are going to be blending more of Charlotte Masons Philosophy into our classical (well trained mind) school year this year and I’m excited to add in all the riches! 🥰 this gave me great ideas for next year so thank you! 🥰

[@ezekielfenjavandehei3189]

Very excited to see how you schedule everything! Such a wide feast! I'm currently picking out what to do for our year and there's so many great resources! I would love to know how you decided on what you chose, how do you narrow down? Also Under the Home uses nesbit, maybe that would be helpful? Also the four books that don't fit the time period I think is totally fine and refreshing. I choose my read alouds based on habits or character qualities I want to focus on.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

I've never heard of Under the Home! What a treasure!! That's an excellent way to think of read-alouds. I appreciate the insight!

[@leslieomr4912]

What an excellent curated list of study!

[@brandi8510]

Your channel and this video are beautiful. Thank you.

[@JanaC923]

I love how you narrowed the books down! I’m studying Ancient History too with my kids so this was helpful. Thank you for sharing.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

It was so hard to narrow them down!

[@Hopelb]

So many great picks! What you are doing this year is what I did last year, starting with Ancients for history. I did keep my children in their own AO years for literature. I didn't finish Wind and theWillows and Little Duke with my second grader. . I think my daughter will enjoy it more in a year or two. My husband is reading Robin Hood to them now. All your choices sound wonderful! The last part I resonated with so much!

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thank you for watching! 🤍

[@emilyq3180]

Love all your choices! For Shakespeare, I have always seen it recommended to read a play from Nesbit or Lamb, then read the play together ( we follow along as we listen to a good audio version) then watch a quality acting of it. Midsummer’s night Dream is always a good one to start with or another comedy.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

That seems like a very logical sequence. Thank you for the suggestion!

[@dacoolfruit]

Wonderful! Such great resources and I appreciate that we can see all the titles you are using so we can see if they are available at the library or through thriftbooks.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thanks for watching!! I hope some of these work for your family!

[@tathimitchell]

My son (13) just finished Black Ships Before Troy (AO year 6 book) and he really enjoyed it!

[@handsathome]

Great job, mama! What a wonderful feast! We will be studying the same time period and will be using a lot of what you have chosen.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

🎉 awesome!

[@seasonsofwonder]

Loved listening to your thoughts and curriculum picks. I love classical and Charlotte Mason methods of teaching! 🙌☺️

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thanks for watching!

[@TheBookCourt]

We are not even doing ancient history now, but you have added to my book list. And Robin Hood is featured in the next level of SOTW, so if you did want to wait that would work out well.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Very good to know, thanks for sharing!

[@Naturallyemilyy]

I am so happy I found your page! I have some questions and I was wondering if you could guide me at all. We were doing an island story Form 1A for groups through ambleside along with the little duke. That I think is technically middle ages. I dont know if that was the best place to start...I want to look into creating my own curriculum fit for us but I'm not sure if we should change our cycle of history since we've already started. I love the idea of adding a narrative and biography from that time piece!

[@dacoolfruit]

What a rich feast you are laying!

[@dacoolfruit]

My eldest is going on 7, so much if this will be for future years, but I will be putting some of these titles on my master list for the future!

[@adventureswiththemacs8066]

I would love to know your thoughts on beautiful feet books vs story of three world vs peaceful press. Hahaha I’m in analysis paralysis 🥴

[@SNF122784]

What a beautiful description at the end of why you chose what you did and why teaching history is so important in our homeschools! Im loving your content btw. I am also a former CMEC user- we used it last year and while I did love certain aspects about it, it was lacking the structure that I personally need at this point. And some of the book choices were lacking for me and were hard for my child to narrate. We are trying the Alveary this year and if that’s not successful, I’ll probably try what you are doing and curate our own curriculum plan! Best of luck to you and I look forward to more videos of your journey this coming school year!

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thank you for the encouragement! I really hope you have a great year with the Alveary!

[@Lrschristy]

This is wonderful! Thank you for sharing.

[@ashleyashley4694]

New homeschool mom here . I love all your book choices , but someone new to homeschool and charlotte mason, would you be able to show what a day of homeschool looks for you ? How do you use these books daily ? Do you get through these books quick or is this over a a year of time ?

[@NivesScott]

What a rich curriculum and I can only imagine how much time you spent researching and gathering everything! I’m still deciding which way to go when we start formal ed, thankfully I have one more year to do so but knowing how particular I can be, building my own curriculum may be in the equation. ❤

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thanks for watching, Nives! I relate to being particular haha!

[@SeleenaOtt]

I really love your videos!! They’ve been so helpful. I’ll be doing something super similar this year with my kids! I’m excited to see how it works for you guys 🫶🏽 blessings!

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Thanks so much for being here!! 🤍

[@emilyq3180]

I would love to hear more about music with miss Mason!

[@holistic_Ology]

I jave both Bestoeing the Brush and Lily & Thistle. I am loving the former but my children prefer the latter. 😅 It is what it is. I am happy with both.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Wonderful! I will look into the other one as well!

[@CherylKirkpatrick]

This all looks great! I will also be using The Story of the World with my incoming 3rd-grade daughter. We will only be using the Ancient Egyptian section. My older kids still remember mummifying a chicken from the activity guide! I have created lesson plans for the Ancient Egypt portion. I would be happy to send them to you., if you like!

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Sounds so fun!! I would love to take a look 😁

[@daniellecarlisle7194]

I really love hearing your thought process and your selections. I think that age is great for reading Robin Hood. I don’t think it has to perfectly match what you’re studying history. I think that kids are great at drawing their own scientific relations between things that they may study now that relate to another time period that they you may study later.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

You are so right, thank you for the reminder! We can trust that they'll be able to build their own Science of Relations!

[@elizabethroelandts1427]

Great video! Do you have a list of documentaries that you plan to use for the 50 states? Do you use KZbin for that?

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

I don't have a comprehensive list yet but here's what I've got so far: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZK7couknN2mjposi=fzJv5BF2-XlxkONP www.pbs.org/video/kids-motion-50-states-gr-2-5/ kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqinh6CGdpqBmcUsi=yho38XsEvBOMMnH2 And I'm considering a subscription to this: virtualfieldtrips.org/

[@elizabethroelandts1427]

Thank you!

[@maite8828]

I feel that when I read aloud a history lesson it takes me 15-20 minutes and it doesn’t leave the kids appropriate time to write. How do you balance your minutes?

[@Breanna18.3]

I love the idea of a USA day. Does this country of ours require other complimentary books? Or is that your choice? Thank you!

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

It doesn't require anything additional; we just prefer picture books or to dig deeper into certain concepts as we see fit :)

[@JessicaJosie]

There is a really neat pop-up Shakespeare book your youngest might like Pop-Up Shakespeare: Every Play and Poem. And there is a kids book called A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories. Neither of those are probably CM purists type books but they look like a good introduction for my littles (4 and 6yo).

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

I will look into those! Thank you for the recommendations!

[@shannonunrau1610]

I was wondering where you got those map coloring books?

[@handsathome]

Can’t wait!!

[@CullenClan]

I would leave Robin Hood for medieval studies

[@raising_arrows_mama]

So many great book choices! Always love seeing others book choices! We loved Boy of the Pyramids, and are currently on our third time through Little Pilgrims Progress (we do it roughly every three years as my littles get older and join in). My kids still talk about that YWAM! Lillian Trasher made a big impact on our family! I might encourage pre-reading Wind and Willows, if you haven't before, it was a no for our family due to our Christian beliefs.

[@ezekielfenjavandehei3189]

I'm curious about wind and the Willows would you mind sharing why?

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

I'd also love to know your thoughts on Wind in the Willows; I haven't heard anything negative and it's been recommended by many Christians so I'm curious! I'm so glad to hear that Lilian Trasher was a good read for your family! That makes me even more excited to read it! And Boy of the Pyramids! I'm looking forward to this one big time.

[@raising_arrows_mama]

@@ezekielfenjavandehei3189 The general attitude and way that some of the characters talk, but especially the chapter with "Pan" weighed heavily on my conscience.

[@LionWolverine]

Before anyone throws out Wind in the Willows, there is an entire episode on the literary life Podcast explaining the Pan chapter ❤

[@raising_arrows_mama]

@@LionWolverine yes, it was also the attitude of the characters and way they spoke to one another that was a hard no for me. Pan just put it over the edge

[@adventureswiththemacs8066]

I may have missed it… how many days will you be doing ancient history?

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

2x per week!

[@rachelavery968]

What’s the name of the co-op where you do swim and gymnastics and basketball? I’d love to know. We are with our second year in our Schole Community! We LOVE it. Also going into ancient history there as well. I’ll definitely look for your video on how you schedule all this out because I’m new to CM and classical education and it’s a bit overwhelming to me.

[@adventureswiththemacs8066]

I’m overwhelmed. Seems like SO much… maybe I’m just not doing enough.

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

Oh nooo, please don't feel like that!! These are all the books for the whole year - so we won't be doing each of these every day or every week! One of my upcoming videos will be about how I'm scheduling, and you'll see that it breaks down into very reasonable pieces, where we're only reading out of 2 or 3 books per day. And if it turns out to be too much (it very well could turn out that way since it's my first time doing my own thing) then I will drop things with no guilt! Pleaseeeee don't feel like what you're doing is inadequate. Your school picks and mine may look totally different in number and area of study, but if we can both still be feasting!!

[@MaryBarfield]

Great video! We are going to be blending more of Charlotte Masons Philosophy into our classical (well trained mind) school year this year and I’m excited to add in all the riches! 🥰 this gave me great ideas for next year so thank you! 🥰

[@AHeartForHomeEducation]

I;m so happy to hear this! Thank you for watching! I hope you have a great CM and classical year!