About Catherine

First Book

This straightforward and easy-to-read book concentrates on how to implement the Charlotte Mason method in real life and is the best choice for new homeschoolers or those who are less experienced with this method. The chapters are titled by school subjects as each one is dealt with individually. It is brief and originally written in 1996. This book is written by a busy homeschooling mom to a busy homeschooling mom. My target audience is those who want to know exactly "what" to do on Monday morning and only have one weekend to learn.

In the early 1990s, an acquaintance of mine introduced me to a functioning Charlotte Mason school (in Washington State) and provided me with out-of-print "how-to" articles (from the Library of Congress) written by CM and her fellow teachers. After years of reading and trying these techniques with my children, I offered my first all-day how-to workshop. I conducted this free of charge, and it turned out to be a very ambitious undertaking. This was the pre-Google era. There was no Wikipedia, no fast internet searches, and no other book like it. Had there been, I would have purchased it and used it.

As it is, this book has been very successful due to its brevity. I have boxes and boxes of fan mail for this book from grateful mothers who were writing to me before any of us had email. Now, I have a full inbox with even more good feedback. It is very quick to read and intended to be reread. I wrote it for myself, thinking I would reread it from time to time if I lost my way and slipped into nonproductive homeschooling full of burnout and drudgery. I'm happy that it helped others.

Chapter Titles: Charlotte Mason, The Method in Brief, Narration, Literature, Poetry, Composition, Handwriting, Spelling, Foreign Language, Grammar, Science, Math, Art Appreciation, Music Appreciation, Free-Time/Handicrafts, Bible, History, Geography, Citizenship and Morals, The Formation of Habit, Sample Schedules & Bibliography.

Second Book

This sequel to A Charlotte Mason Education is just what the title implies, more. The content does not repeat information given in the first book; instead, it goes into further detail while still concentrating on how to implement this valuable method. You'll find it concise, practical, and realistic. It is much larger than the first book at 196 pages. The writing style is better if that matters to you, but it is not off-topic at any point. Like the first book, my audience is still the busy mom who wants to know "how" to use CM techniques quickly. I wrote it because I had a lot "more" to say and had been doing so in my own quarterly magazine and via articles for other publications. Plus, I had more experience with the CM method, both in my home and with homeschooling convention work. Being on the road meant I was homeschooled Monday through Thursday and often caught a plane on Fridays. I would give all-day, how-to CM workshops, or I would be a keynote speaker or workshop presenter at a homeschool conference. I'd fly back on Sunday and start all over again. These experiences taught me what further questions homeschoolers had that my first book did not cover in-depth. This is my favorite of the two and is best suited for someone who has either been homeschooling for some amount of time or perhaps they've already read some information on the CM method, and they are ready for more.

Chapter Titles: Charlotte Mason the Person, An Overview of the Charlotte Mason Method, What are the Liberal Arts, How Short Lessons are Applied, Segment Planning, Keeping a Century Book, A Sample Term, Curriculum Choosing, High School, Coping Strategies, Book Selection, Charlotte Mason Method in the Classroom, Questions and Answers, Learning Styles, Transitioning, Frugal Homeschooling, Avoiding Twaddle, Drilling, Math, Poetry, Charlotte Mason Support Groups, For Further Study, Sample Schedules, Suggested Supplies, Recommended Book and Resource List & Bibliography.

Third Book

This is subtitled An Annotated Book List, and it's designed to stand alone or as a follow-up to my first two books, in which I concentrated on "how" to teach children. Here, I'm providing an answer to "what" interesting books to use because that became THE question. Mothers were learning how to use CM techniques at my workshops or through my other books, and now they wanted to know "what" materials to get.

I wrote this in an easy & quick-to-use format, which includes book descriptions, ISBNs, publisher and copyright date & suggested reading ability levels. The entries are categorized by subject & they were selected to help create "well-read" students. Scope and sequence according to grade level are also included.

In the Charlotte Mason method, we read aloud to our children a lot!!! We choose the best books we can locate, and we don't use babyish books. We read adult-level books to our students so that they can be exposed to a larger vocabulary and because the plots are much better than many books written "down" to a child's level. Keep this in mind when using "A Literary Education" because most of the books there are intended to be read aloud, and I helped by providing the reason these are good selections and at what age a child might want to hear the book read. I created an IRL, meaning an "independent reading level," for only one purpose. That would be for the times when a child read the book themselves, and you were not reading it to them. A few did not understand the purpose of the IRL. It's simply an added feature so that you'll know if any of your children might be capable of reading that book unaided. Again, if you are reading it to them, then feel free to use any book suggested there (unless I've specified not to for certain reasons that are provided) regardless of what age your child is currently. That is how we "stretch" the mind, as Mason would say. We help advance their minds through adult-level reading. They may not be old enough to read it themselves, but they are old enough to understand the content when read to them.

Fourth Book

This is a departure from my other books because this is not about homeschooling. I know this book will be enjoyed by homeschooling families and perhaps even used as part of the homeschooling plan, but the audience for this book is much wider, as anyone will enjoy reading it.

The idea for this book was sparked by interesting conversations. Those are often rare times when thoughts are exchanged in a few moments, but the concepts stay with you for years. I learned how to draw people into deeper topics by using questions that made them comfortable and yet led them to the types of topics we seldom discuss.

In order to write an interesting book, I had to find diverse people. I did not interview everyone I met. Instead, I patiently waited and looked for those who were from many different countries and held vastly different beliefs. While it was a tremendous amount of work that took nearly twelve years, it was also highly enjoyable. I was able to sit down and partake in these conversations, savor the accents, and observe the reactions of each person included.

I am pleased with how this book reads. I find it to be fun and entertaining, even though the topics are among some of life's most important issues. Some very serious ground is covered, yet the book is not foreboding in any sense. I'm confident that readers will enjoy the opportunity to really get into someone else's mind. I sincerely hope this book will spark many conversations for all who read it.