Thinking Love: Recent Episodes
Thinking Love
Amy and Leah are back for a special episode about habits for moms. Why and how do our habits make a difference when it comes to helping our children with their habits? How can we go about developing good habits?
We are excited to share our new workbook, Habits for a Mother's Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength. From May 7th to 9th, you can get this printable PDF workbook as part of the Simplified Year Bundle. Click through on our referral link for more info.
How do we guide our families through the holiday season in a way that is meaningful and restful? And how do we navigate all of the opportunities and good ideas that we have before us? Leah and Amy come back to Charlotte Mason's idea of habit and (its longer ranging cousin, tradition).
View the show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/12/07/christmas-traditions/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Just because you do school at home doesn't mean you have to do it all yourself! Co-ops, enrichment programs, private and charter schools offer ways to compliment your child's education. Amy and Leah talk about their experiences joining and even starting home ed groups, detailing the highs and lows, and offer ideas to help you figure out whether a group is right for you.
Read the show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/11/23/homeschooling-outside-the-home-co-ops-charter-schools-enrichment-programs-and-more/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
With countless courses, videos, tutorials, and books available for immediate download, how do we steward all the online resources available to us and our children? Charlotte Mason encourages us to spread a feast but is there a limit? In this episode, Amy and Leah talk about how they incorporate digital content in their homeschools, how they choose what to include, bad choices they've made, and basic principles for making the most of what we have.
Find show notes at: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/11/09/spreading-the-digital-feast/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
In the last episode of the podcast, Amy and Leah explored the ins and outs of Charlotte Mason nature study. While nature study is the foundation for the study of science, there is plenty more to this broad discipline, and so we decided to take an episode to deep dive into Charlotte Mason science. We talk about how to use living books, why we need to make science hands on, and how science is inspiring our own kids.
View full show notes on our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/10/26/inspiring-living-science/
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Nature study is a quintessential part of a Charlotte Mason education, but that doesn't mean that it looks the same for every family. In this episode, Amy and Leah talk about how they do nature study with their kids as well as why we do it at all. What are the principles behind observing the natural world and, once we're committed to nature study, how can we make it happen consistently?
View full show notes on our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/10/12/time-for-nature-study/
Mentioned in this Episode:
Exploring Nature with Children School Education (affiliate link) Why I love Non-photo blue pencils from John Muir Laws The Armitt Museum Diary of an Edwardian Lady Getting Kids Outside episode
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Even with the best of intentions, most of us look around at some point in the day and wonder how we ended up so busy. In today's episode, Leah and Amy chat about how to manage our time: how can we avoid procrastination, apply the discipline of habit, keep ourselves from dawdling, and just avoid finding ourselves in a tizzy? We definitely don't have perfect time management skills ourselves, but we share plenty of tips and ideas that might just make things a little bit calmer.
View the full show notes at our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/09/28/time-management-for-homeschool-moms/
Mentioned in this episode:
Google Keep for list making (digital option) Passionate Penny Pincher Planner (paper option) Freedom App for limiting access to distracting websites and apps (affiliate link) Mother Culture by Karen Andreola Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson
Do you have a way that you build margin into your days and weeks that allow space for the unexpected? Write into amy (at) thinkinglove (dot) education and we will send the answers out to our email list! Subscribe here: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Charlotte Mason died one hundred years ago this year and left behind a legacy that continues to impact countless people today. Amy and Leah launch the latest season of the Thinking Love podcast with a conversation about exactly how Charlotte Mason shared her ideas in a lasting and meaningful way, and consider how we might do the same.
You can find notes for the show on our website: https://thinkinglove.education/2023/09/14/continuing-charlotte-masons-legacy/
Never miss an episode! Sign up for email updates here: https://thinkinglove.education/newsletter
Join Amy and Leah as they wrap up this podcast season with a discussion on manners. How can we teach our kids to be polite? And while we're at it, how can we help them learn to be the kind of people who are thoughtful and considerate toward others?
As Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, our first inclination is to reach for a book - but with manners, that's not always the best option. We chat about making abstract manners tangible for our kids, doing the work of parenting, and helping our kids learn to live well with others - and when to pull in the books!
Read the full show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/12/01/teaching-manners/
Learn more about our habit training workshop: https://thinkinglove.education/habits
As our children learn to read and write, their first attempts at spelling are endearing. But at a certain point, we may start to wonder when and how to teach spelling.
With Charlotte Mason, learning to spell is integrated into many parts of the curriculum, including reading lessons, copywork, and dictation. Together, these lessons help our children learn how to spell by engaging with words in context and encouraging them to study the words closely. Join Amy and Leah as they untangle this multifaceted approach to teaching spelling.
Full show notes available at: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/11/10/spelling-copywork-dictation/
Charlotte Mason hoped that children, educated upon many, beautiful ideas and supported in good habits, would grow up to continue learning their whole lives. With that in mind, educating our children is a dynamic process that moves toward this big picture. We choose books, plan lessons, and teach our kids, but as they get bigger, we start working on habits of independent learning, too.
In this episode, Amy and Leah chat about why Year 4 gets a lot of attention in Charlotte Mason circles, why this doesn't mean we need to panic, and how we are helping our children grow as independent learners through reading their own school books and starting written narration. Leah also informs Amy about a slightly contentious topic in the Charlotte Mason world!
Full Show Notes available at https://thinkinglove.education/2022/10/27/raising-independent-learners/
Charlotte Mason believed that children should learn a second language from a very young age. She felt this was so important that teaching foreign language made it into the very short list of daily subjects for a child under six!
But if we have little or no knowledge of a second language, it's hard to know where to start.
In this episode of the Thinking Love Podcast, Leah and Amy chat with Adelaide Olguin of Talkbox.mom on how we can make learning a foreign language a family effort - even if we are starting from scratch.
You can read full show notes at https://thinkinglove.education/2022/10/13/charlotte-mason-foreign-language/
Check out the 30-40-50 sale from Thinking Love
For one week only, you will get 30 percent off the purchase of one product, 40 percent off the purchase of two products, and 50 percent the purchase of three! This sale includes our Habit training workshop, the Wise beginnings early years summit, and our Education is a life course. The sale ends on October 20th. Find out more at https://thinkinglove.education/sale.
Sometimes homeschooling doesn't feel very peaceful. Whether our kids are dragging their feet, or we're struggling with our own attitudes, it's worth thinking about how we can get our day out of a downward spiral and heading toward something better.
In this episode, Leah and Amy talk about what to do when our day is less than great. We turn to our tried-and-true friends, Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life to guide us.
Read the full show notes here: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/09/29/save-homeschool-day/
How are handicrafts going? Whether you are crafting up a storm or struggling with consistency, we hope that this episode will be helpful and encouraging. We chat about why handicrafts are part of a Charlotte Mason curriculum, what we need to think about when we choose handicrafts, as well as sharing what and how we've taught our children.
Read the show notes, including links.
The Thinking Love Podcast is back for a new season, and we'll be talking Everyday Homeschooling. First up: what do we do with some of the not-so-everyday homeschool days, like the first day back after a summer break? Amy and Leah talk about how we can keep family traditions genuine, rather than an attempt to keep up with all of the pictures we see in our feeds!
We also share where we put most of oureffort in preparing the first day back at school: scheduling, planning, and preparing spiritually and philosophically.
Find the full show notes, including resources we've mentioned in this episode at: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/09/01/first-day-of-school/
Eighteen months ago, Amy caught wind that Karen Glass had a new project around Charlotte Mason's Home Education. Karen was removing distracting, outdated references, adding back in some essays that had been moved to other volumes, and writing some study questions to help the modern reader see the principles behind Miss Mason's writing.
Karen has now published her book, A Thinking Love: Studies from Charlotte Mason's Home Education. Congratulations, Karen, we love the title! We think it's a great time to re-release Karen's interview. It will be an encouragement from beginning to end.
Originally, we aired this as two episodes to keep consistency with the rest of our season, but for this special occasion we are sharing it as one long episode. Enjoy!
Get a copy of Karen's book.
Find the original show notes.
It's summer! Whether you follow a more traditional school schedule or school year-round, if you're in the northern hemisphere, it's time for some sun and hopefully some fun. In our season finale, Leah and Amy chat about what we do when we're not doing school and how our children (not to mention ourselves) can find living ideas to grow and inspire wherever we live.
Don't forget that our new self-paced course, Education is a Life is open for registration! It's a great way to get in some mother culture over the summer.
For full show notes, visit : https://thinkinglove.education/2022/06/02/charlotte-mason-summer/
Technological advances seem to happen faster and faster, and for many of us homeschool moms, we would prefer to tuck ourselves away with our book stacks and nature journals. But hiding from the Information Age could mean that we are missing opportunities to enrich our homeschools on one hand, and prepare our children for the world they will live in. Join us as we chat with Dachelle McVey about how to balance our concerns with technology and social media with taking advantage of the best it has to offer.
You can learn more about Dachelle at https://hidethechocolate.com/thinkinglove for some special freebies for our listeners, and at https://literaryadventuresforkids.com (her language arts curriculum).
Our new course, Education is a Life, is now open for registration after running in beta. We've made some tweaks and added some bonus content that we think you'll love. Head to our website to register!
For full show notes, head to: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/05/19/charlotte-mason-technology/
Is the Charlotte Mason method enough? In a world full of pressure to achieve and attain, most of us have asked this question. Perhaps it looms largest on the minds of parents of kids with special needs. But for education specialist and home educator Amy Bodkin, the answer is a definite, "Yes". If your child is a born person, the Charlotte Mason method is not only enough, but it is the foundation for an education that will let your child flourish. Join us as we talk with Amy about how the Charlotte Mason method comes to life in her family.
Learn more about Amy on her website and at Charlotte Mason Plenary.
Read the full show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/05/05/charlotte-mason-special-needs/
In this episode of the podcast, Amy and Leah circle back to the topic of habit training, but with a special focus this time on kids with differently wired brains. We explore how we might expand our understanding of "Education is a Discipline" and think about how to break habits down in order to help our kids learn and grow - starting right where they are. Join us as we break down Charlotte Mason's 'big three' habits (obedience, attention, and truthfulness) from the perspective of neuro-divergent children.
In this episode we mention our Habit Training Workshop as well as Leah's executive function cards.
For full show notes, head to our website.
In the last episode of the podcast, Amy and Leah explored what Charlotte Mason really said about kindergarten. Today, they are back with Jennifer Dowdy from Charlotte Mason Mama to talk about how and why we might want to create a kindergarten year for our younger children. Jennifer, a veteran Charlotte Mason homeschooler of thirteen years, shares incredible insight into how to make kindergarten a beautiful introduction to education.
Learn more about Jennifer and her curriculum, The Enchanted Kindergarten, at https://charlottemasonmama.com.
Read the full show notes at: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/04/07/charlotte-mason-kindergarten-how/
On the Thinking Love podcast, we love to bust Charlotte Mason myths and in this episode we're taking on kindergarten. While we firmly believe in 'gentle and quiet early years', Charlotte Mason never said that kindergarten is wrong, harmful, or off-limits. Tune in for a helpful conversation about how to approach the education of our five and six year olds.
This episode is sponsored by the Wise Beginnings Summit. If you’re thinking about your child’s early years and laying a beautiful foundation for their future learning, you can purchase the Wise Beginnings Summit through our website. Featuring Amber O’Neil Johnston from Heritage Mom, we each share practical advice and encouragement for the early years - Charlotte Mason style! Find out more at thinkinglove.education/wisebeginnings.
And of course, don't forget to register for our new course, Education is a Life!
Amy and Leah are back for a new season of the Thinking Love Podcast. Our theme for the next few months is Charlotte Mason in the Real World because sometimes we struggle when our ideals meet our reality. To kick off this season, we are chatting about one of the most practical Charlotte Mason ideas: narration. Narration seems so simple, but it's not always straightforward, so we dig into what it is, why we are doing it, and how to help our kids if they are struggling.
The beta version of our new course, Education is a Life, starts on April 4th. Register now for a special discounted price!
Find show notes here: https://thinkinglove.education/2022/03/10/charlotte-mason-narration/
The word "joy" has a strong association with the Christmas season. The angels bring good tidings of great joy. One of the Advent candles represents joy. The word joy is often printed on decorations and Christmas cards! In this episode, Leah and Amy ask what joy really is, and how we can have more of it in our homeschools. We hope that this conclusion to our 'Art of Homeschooling' season encourages you to cultivate joy in your home this Advent and Christmas season.
Find the full show notes on the Thinking Love website.
As homeschoolers, we often focus on what we do: the curriculum we use, the books we read, the co-ops we join. Charlotte Mason, however, reminds us that our children's most important lessons often have nothing to do with us. In this episode, we explore masterly inactivity - how the art of doing nothing allows atmosphere to play its part in the lives of our children.
For full show notes, visit: https://thinkinglove.education/2021/11/18/teaching-without-words/
Join Amy and Leah as they chat with Cindy Rollins about her new book, Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love. The conversations roams from what morning time is, how it fits into a Charlotte Mason homeschool, how morning time cultivates a family culture, and even what to do when your children try to sabotage your plans!
For full show-notes, visit https://thinkinglove.education/2021/11/04/morning-time/.
You can find Cindy, including information about her book and her Patreon, at https://morningtimeformoms.com. She is also a host on the Literary Life Podcast: https://theliterary.life.
Charlotte Mason wrote that "music is a necessary part of education." While she recommended that students learn to sing and play an instrument, at the core of Charlotte Mason music learning is enjoyment. That's right - the best thing we can do for our kids is to put on music and enjoy it with our kids.
In this conversation, Amy and Leah talk through the three main points of Charlotte Mason music, share some of their favorite resources for incorporating music into their homes, and divulge some of their favorite (silly) musical family pastimes.
For full show notes, please visit: https://thinkinglove.education/2021/10/21/charlotte-mason-homeschool-music/
Mentioned in the show:
Hoffman Academy (for piano lessons)
Clap for Classics
Singing Made Easy (affiliate link)
In this episode of Thinking Love, we are joined by Dallas Nachtigall from Bestowing the Brush to talk about the art of teaching homeschool art. Dallas has thrown herself into researching art instruction in Charlotte Mason's schools and, as an artist herself, now helps homeschool moms bring art instruction into their homes. We had a great conversation about teaching art Charlotte Mason style and how to keep a positive atmosphere around art in your home (especially if you don't count yourself as 'artistic').
Find full show notes here: https://thinkinglove.education/2021/10/07/teach-charlotte-mason-art/
Find Thinking Love Merch or register for our Habit Training Workshop here: https://thinkinglove.education/shop
A homeschool schedule can help us bring our big picture ideas into daily life, but that doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, bridging the gap between our plans and our reality might be one of the most challenging parts of homeschooling. In this episode, Leah and Amy discuss the art of scheduling a Charlotte Mason homeschool. How do you make plans that flex and adapt when you get hit with a curveball, whether it's dawdling over lessons or a toddler who needs some extra attention?
For full show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2021/09/23/homeschool-schedule-real/
To learn about our habit training course, our early years summit, or to check out our Charlotte Mason inspired merch: https://thinkinglove.education/shop
In this season of the Thinking Love Podcast, Amy and Leah are talking about homeschooling as an art, beginning with what Charlotte Mason means when she says that we need a method, not a system. Join us for a conversation about the temptations of system-type thinking (and where that shows up), where we might want to use a system, and how to keep our homeschools making progress toward our long-term goals.
For full show notes: https://thinkinglove.education/2021/09/09/charlotte-mason-homeschooling-method/
To learn about our habit training course, our early years summit, or to check out our Charlotte Mason inspired merch: https://thinkinglove.education/shop
We close out our wisdom season with a conversation with Min Hwang talking about why Charlotte Mason's view of humility wasn't entirely complete, and what we can do to gain knowledge without pride.
FInd out more about Life-Giving Motherhood (referral link).
Register the Wise Beginnings Summit!
Let's discuss geography, what it looks like in our homeschools, and how it can help us to have wisdom about the wider world.
In the second part of our interview with Karen Glass, we discuss Mrs. Glass's preferred method of reading Charlotte Mason's volumes, the importance of seeking out her principles, and a word of wisdom for young homeschooling moms.
We talked to Karen Glass about principles and why it's important to draw them out of Charlotte Mason's volumes. She also told us about her new project, which we're so excited for!
How do wisdom, knowledge, and facts all fit together? How are the goals of public education and homeschooling different?
Amy and Leah discuss Charlotte Mason's volumes, plus other books about the philosophy or that reflect it.
Amy and Leah talk to Crystin Morris of Delightfully Feasting about Bible lessons and wisdom.
In our Wisdom season, Amy and Leah discuss what wisdom is and how to pursue it in our homeschools. Our first episode addresses, "What is wisdom?"
When our children learn to decode the words in front of them, they aren't necessarily readers...yet. What can we do to support them from reading with support to reading independently?
What is mother culture? This is not actually a term that Charlotte Mason used in her volumes, but Amy and I are getting down to its roots and meaning in this episode. It means so much more than "self care."
A shocking answer to this question: yes, your homeschool child can get behind, but we have to be careful to whom we compare them.
We continued our chat with Leah Boden and talked about the practicalities of adding the riches to our homeschools.
Amy and Leah talk with Leah Boden from A Modern Miss Mason about adding poetry, art, and music into our homeschools.
Here's the short truth: the curriculum you choose won't make or break your Charlotte Mason curriculum.
Erika from Charlotte Mason City Living, discusses how to add in multicultural studies into a Charlotte Mason education, and explains why Charlotte Mason encouraged them more than a century ago.
In this episode, we'll discuss a Parents' Review article on obedience. If you associate obedience with harsh, authoritarian parents, this episode might surprise you.
Amy reads M. MacEacharn's Parents' Review article entitled Obedience. This article will be discussed in the final episode of season three.
Amy and Leah talk not only about what a Charlotte Mason homeschool schedule entails, but the principles behind the schedule.
Amy and Leah discuss a PNEU article about Dads and education, and share their experiences about involving their husbands in their homeschools.
Reading aloud is important, even when you follow Charlotte Mason's philosophy. But why don't we talk about it much in the CM community?
Amy and Leah discuss Charlotte Mason's approach to math, and what makes it different than other approaches.
Charlotte Mason's Method of a lesson, from Home Education, is seldom talked about. But, if we followed this method, we would probably never say the words, "My child just didn't like the book!" Preparing living-book lessons can make book reading more engaging and meaningful. Don't miss Amy and Leah's free printable cheat sheet for your homeschool binder.
In this special podcast, we catch up on what habit training looks like in our homes right now. As it turns out, we are both seeing how habit training our children really starts with ourselves: we need to find the inspiration to cultivate discipline in our own lives in order to help our kids with their habits.
Be sure to check out the Habit Training Workshop! We are hosting a live seminar and following up with four weeks of encouragement, accountability, and Q&As so that you can find your feed with habit training and start using it in your home. FInd out more at https://thinkinglove.education/habits.
What is Christmas like in a Charlotte Mason home? How can we focus on Christ and not the excess? Amy and Leah address these questions in this episode of the Thinking Love Podcast.
In episode 13, Amy and Leah discuss Charlotte Mason's 20th principle. If everyone believed this one, it could transform or homeschools, and our relationships with others!
In our last episode, we discussed preparing the ground for reading. Now, Amy and Leah talk about reading instruction the Charlotte Mason way. Head to the show notes for a sample lesson.
We often assume that waiting for formal lessons until the age of six means that there is nothing to do to help our child prepare for reading. However, Charlotte Mason gave many suggestions for "preparing the ground for reading" in her first volume, Home Education.
Are Charlotte Mason's views on authority outdated? Your hostesses at Thinking Love don't think so. The idea of being in authority over our children is Biblically based, and also supported by modern research.
Charlotte Mason urged us to be authoritative parents because God put us in authority over our children. He didn't do this because we are amazing or capable, he did this because we are mothers and homeschoolers.
When we understand that we're under authority, out parenting changes. We no longer cave where we used to and we give up fighting some unnecessary battles. We find that current research says that children with a "firm but fair" disciplinarian thrive.
The season two opener of the Thinking Love podcast circles back around to the first Charlotte Mason quote that we used in our very first episode: "The mother is qualified."
Homeschool moms often receive this question like nails on a chalkboard; How are you qualified to homeschool if you don't have a teaching degree?
But Charlotte Mason says that we ARE qualified. Even if a university hasn't qualified us, God has.
Having a teaching degree is not necessary for homeschooling. But our journey doesn't end with a qualification - Charlotte Mason sets out the duty we have before us to prioritize our own education.
In our final episode before summer break, Amy and Leah discuss how getting our little ones outside builds a foundation for their future education. We talked about a guiding principle for time outdoors, and how we handle less-than-ideal circumstances.
In this episode, Leah and Amy discuss the Charlotte Mason idea of masterly inactivity, and how we navigate this "letting alone" in a helicopter-parent world.
Many people come to Charlotte Mason's philosophy because they are book enthusiasts. And, after following her wisdom for awhile, non-enthusiasts are quickly swayed. Charlotte Mason used the term living books to describe books filled with life-giving ideas that feed the mind. In this episode, Amy and Leah discuss living books, how to recognize them, and how to choose them.
Amy and Leah discuss Charlotte Mason habit training, combined with modern habits research.
Children will form habits, whether they are good or bad. Instead of just allowing them to develop habits on their own, we can help them develop good habits. It's important to cultivate those habits starting in infancy.
While this isn't a complete list, some of the habits we can work on include:
- habits of a spiritual life
- social habits
- mental habits- i.e attention
- prompt obedience
- habits of order and neatness
What are the areas where we as parents make active choices to structure our kids’ time? Having a plan for the early years is important. While young kids don’t need strict schedules, having a daily rhythm is helpful for many children and their families. We want our children to build relationships: with the natural world, with their family, with the community they live in. Fortunately, Charlotte Mason gives us lots of suggestions for what to incorporate into those rhythms in order to prioritize our children’s opportunities to make meaningful connections.
In this episode, we discuss many of Charlotte Mason’s ideas. We do move quickly because there is much to cover! Be sure to listen for comments on outdoor play, reading together, foreign language, singing, and handicrafts.
Charlotte Mason believed that young children didn't need formal lessons - that academic study could wait until the age of 6. As it turns out, a lot of modern research agrees! If you want to understand why it's great to wait, be sure to tune in.
While we often think about providing our children with a Charlotte Mason education, the philosophy can also inform how we view and raise our infants. After all, children are born persons.
What does it mean to utilize a thinking love in home education? How do we accept and reject ideas to create a homeschool that is truly led by the Holy Spirit and unique to our family's needs? This and so much more in the first episode of Thinking Love.
A new podcast just for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. Meet your hosts, Leah and Amy, as they share their background and their hearts for home educating the Charlotte Mason way.