CHARLOTTE MASON & CLASSICAL EDUCATION || How To Combine || Ambleside Online & Well Trained Mind

[@heathercox5801]

My kids loved the Mary Pope Osborn's "The Odessey Part 1 & 2". She does great at telling or retelling the story.

[@MaryBarfield]

I’ve heard such great things about these books! We have enjoyed some of Mary Pope Osbornes other books, so we are excited for next years Ancient History!

[@captain7471]

It’s so wonderful to hear another mom doing the same things I’m doing! We use math with confidence, AmbleSide online and I used as much of the Well Trained Mind books and resources as i can! I’m excited to do this along with you even if we don’t know one other 😂 something I added in as completely separate but I love is the McGuffey readers but I used them how they used them in the 1800s, where they pull their copywork from (most of the time I use that, other times I pick or will let my child pick, it just depends on the day), the child reads it all week so they learn how to spell all the words and they learn all the grammar and punctuation and meaning for using them. It’s been a wonderful language arts resource for us

[@MaryBarfield]

Aww yay! You’re right! It’s so comforting to find others who are doing the same “mix-up” of curriculums! And funny story, I haven’t mentioned it in my videos yet, but my youngest is trying out Mcguffeys Eclectic Primer reader this summer and she is loving it! So we may be adding that in a few days a week for her phonics/reading lessons this year! 🥰

[@emilieelizabeth3831]

We are similar in the sense we combine Charlotte mason and neoclassical (well trained mind). Although I came into it from a more Charlotte Mason side personally. Glad to see someone else doing similar to us.

[@MaryBarfield]

It’s funny how many of us are out there! Some of starting fully with classical and others with Charlotte Mason but we all end up meeting in the middle with different blends of both 🥰. Glad there are others like us!

[@angelique00angelique]

Your such a wealth of information! It’s even daunting hearing all of it 😅 my kiddo just turned 3 but going through some homeschool videos (mostly yours) to get some ideas and to learn myself. Do you have recommendations on books about classical education? The CM books you mentioned in another video are on my to-read list.

[@MaryBarfield]

Aww thank you! Although, don’t feel overwhelmed! It’s not as much as you think it all is once you start homeschooling and you are getting a head start since your kiddo is 3. I started researching everything as I was doing it when we started with a 4 and 6 year old so the first year or so has been a journey. However, I feel like we are finally fine tuning our style and finding our curriculums we want to stick with long turn! 🥰 My #1 recommendation for learning about classical education is The Well Trained Mind. It is literally the only book you will need and is a wealth of information 😂

[@MrsPerdueArt]

LOVE hearing your thoughts on merging Classical and CM! You're planning to use Build Your Library, right? I've been using BYL for awhile, and then went on a deep dive into CM and Classical education... only to realize that BYL is a pretty perfect curriculum for merging classical and CM! There's a story-based history spine (classical)... but Emily Cook schedules the BEST living books, biographies, and tales/mythology to go along with the history. I also love how she values an inclusive worldview and perspective- a lot of CM resources are just terribly outdated and Eurocentric! Not to mention, it makes no sense that only old books are "good"... I truly believe Charlotte Mason would totally take advantage of modern resources! Anyway, I'm so excited to follow along and see how your homeschool year goes!! 😍

[@MaryBarfield]

Yay! Thank you for following along and I’m glad you are enjoying my videos! We are using BYL 0 around the world this year and then I plan to continue to use at least parts of Emily’s curriculum (book lists in particular) for following years! If you couldn’t tell, I don’t like just using one curriculum and like to take bits and pieces from multiple 😂. BYL 1 is actually where I found out about Mary Pope Osbornes Tales of the Odyssey books and the Roman and Egyptian diary books! Such good newer books on her ancients list! 🙌

[@OurThaiLife]

Hi Mary, thanks for the book recs for the Egyptian and Roman kids; haven't seen those before! I've heard you mention American Girl history in other videos as well...do you use a specific curriculum or program with those, or just read them? I kept all of my boxed sets from the 90's and definitely want to do them with my daughter!

[@MaryBarfield]

That's so awesome that you have kept all your original boxed sets! We are using a set curriculum from Little School of Smiths. It's technically 8 individual unit studies that are 4 weeks long (1 unit study per girl), but if you do them back to back in chronological order, it creates a full year's American History from 1760s-1950s (technically 32 weeks altogether). I have a video I did on the curriculum that you can watch for more details: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6CQnGRpZcxsj9Esi=UWTwiW2uj08w1RTM

[@OurThaiLife]

@@MaryBarfield Thank you so much!

[@ashleymorris12]

We have used all of the "Diary of a...." books in our house, specifically the oversized picture book versions. My daughter LOVED the pictures, and I appreciated the richness of the stories, but please pre-read them! The books deal with some heavy topics for littles such as murder of parents, attempted assault, and LOTS of war and death. Rightly so as they are historical fiction dealing with ancient times! Some of the pictures are gross, scary, and violent. I'm not trying to scare you out of using them, but they definitely took me by surprise and I don't tend to censor my readings.

[@MaryBarfield]

Oh thank you so much for the heads up! 🥰 Something I started doing this summer is pre-reading and I’m realizing now why it’s so important! So I’m not having to edit on the fly while reading/showing the girls a book for the first time 🥴.

[@victoriasbooktalks8882]

I wasn't aware that the sciences rotated just like history. Do you have any curriculum recommendations for a science curriculum that does the rotations?

[@MaryBarfield]

Yep! It's actually very interesting how it comes full circle to have the four year rotation of history match the sciences that were being discovered in those eras! :) We plan to use Elemental Science next school year (25-26) starting with their Biology for Grammar years and as long as that fits well with our family, we will continue with that until senior year! That is the only curriculum that I have found, that follows the 4 year rotation through High School. Another curriculum is REAL Science Odyssey (this is what we would try if Elemental Science isn't a good fit for us). However, it only follows the 4 year cycle completely for the grammar years and starts into middle school. I hope they plan to make more curriculum for the rest of middle school and high school as it would be nice to have a second long term option! :) Beyond those two curriculums, you could pull from the multitude of science curriculums out there individual subjects each each to fit the 4 year rotation schedule: Biology -> Earth Science/Astronomy -> Chemistry -> Physics. Hopefully that was helpful and answered your question! :)

[@baileycumpson5169]

Layers of learning does a great job with the 4 year rotation and history, geography, science and art all dovetail together which for my brain is just perfection haha it just makes sense!

[@MaryBarfield]

@@baileycumpson5169 ooo I haven’t heard of layers of learning! I will have to check them out!

[@baileycumpson5169]

@@MaryBarfield we are trying year one this year! I’m hoping it’s a fit for us because I love the idea of it. You can make it your own, it’s so flexible so you can pull all the living books in, as well as the classic literature. I am really looking forward to it!

[@jaimewolf9036]

How are you tying all of this in? Do you have a planning video?

[@MaryBarfield]

The video I am posting this Saturday morning will be a planning video for this upcoming school year (specifically I will show you how I do it in Trello)! So stay tuned for it!

[@jaimewolf9036]

@@MaryBarfield Thank you so much! I’m a full time working mom and even though you are newer to homeschooling yourself, your videos have helped me so much! I have watched hundreds of hours 😆

[@MaryBarfield]

Lol aww I’m glad they have been helpful! I’m still learning as I go, but I figure that also helps for y’all learn from my mistakes! 😂