CHARLOTTE MASON FOR ALL

Welcome to our Global Mama Series! Today Erika chats with Patty who lives in Ghana.

We are headed to South America as we continue to journey around the globe meeting fellow Charlotte Mason Mamas! Today Mariana chats away with Janice who lives in Brazil.

We continue to journey around the globe meeting fellow Charlotte Mason Mamas! Today LaShawne chats with her friend Tara who lives in Guam.

We’re about to embark on a journey meeting fellow  Charlotte Mason Mamas Around the Globe!

Today Min chats with Krystle who lives in China.

Welcome to our series on Charlotte Mason Dads!

Join Mariana as she chats with Efrain Alicea, a.k.a as E. Efrain is the lead pastor of Elements Church, an urban church located in the South Bronx. He is also a writer, poet, rapper, musician, activist, and lover of God’s Word with a heart for His people, especially the marginalized and disenfranchised.

Efrain’s favorite titles, however, are that of husband to his beautiful wife, our own Erika, and father, to his amazing children, Jason and Isabel. And his title of grandfather to two lovely baby girls is the sweetest one yet.

Welcome to our series on Charlotte Mason Dads!

Join Erika as she chats with Anthony Coafield, founder of Living Books Press! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Living Books Press, it is a book company dedicated to reviving many lost living books that were hard to find or very expensive because the books were so rare. It’s because of Living Books Press that we can now easily find great books at an affordable price.

And what’s also just as great is that Anthony is a “Charlotte Mason dad!” We’re grateful to hear a bit about his story.

Welcome friend! We’re about to start a new series, Charlotte Mason Dads!

Have you ever wondered how CM methods can impact not only our children but also our spouses? This living and vivid education welcomes dads too. We’ll be talking with dads who have embraced this philosophy of education and we hope you’re encouraged by them.

Join Mariana as she talks with Art Middlekauff, a CM dad who has been homeschooling his children for quite some time! Art has also contributed immensely to the CM community with the work of the blog and podcast Charlotte Mason Poetry.

Welcome back to our Living Books with Living Authors series.  Our last 2 episodes focused on authors/illustrators of children’s books.  Today, this episode is geared towards living books for parents and educators as we have the pleasure of talking with Amber O’Neil Johnston, author of “A PLACE TO BELONG: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond”.

Welcome back to our Living Books by Living Authors series where we get to interview authors and illustrators of modern day living books.

We are so excited to have award winning author, Anika Aldamuy Denise, join us at Charlotte Mason for All.

You may know Anika as the author of some pretty wonderful picture books such as: “Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré,” “A Girl Named Rosita: The Story of Rita Moreno: Actor! Singer! Dancer! Trailblazer!,” “The Love Letter” and many more.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful conversation that Erika had with Anika!

Welcome to our Living Books by Living Authors series where we get to interview authors and illustrators of modern day living books.

We are so elated to have award winning illustrator and author, Eric Velasquez, in this special episode.

Some of you may be familiar with some of his books such as: “Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library,” “Ruth Objects: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” “The Other Mozart: The Life of the Chevalier Saint-George,” “She Was The First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm," "Grandma’s Records and Grandma’s Gift" and many more.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful conversation that Erika had with Mr. Velasquez!

Welcome back friend! We’re so excited to be talking about one of our favorite topics: LIVING BOOKS and all the living ideas that emanate from them.

Join Mariana as she chats with Nicole Cottrell, founder and curator of Stories of Color: a  community-led book recommendation source for diverse, multicultural living books.

SHOW NOTES:

"1. Children are born persons." ~Charlotte Mason, Volume 6

"19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need." ~Charlotte Mason, Volume 6

Resources Mentioned

Hey Friend! Sorry we’ve been a little MIA. ☺️⁣
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Life has been busy for the 4 of us in various ways. We appreciate the grace you’ve shown us during this time away. ⁣
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We’re happy to announce that we’re back for a new season and have some wonderful topics to share with you all, starting with one of our favorites: LIVING BOOKS!

Join Min as she chats with Sarah Kim, one of the founders of Biblioguides - a brand new, online, living book search platform that has numerous features "to those who believe what you read is just as important as reading itself... Biblioguides gives you the resources and tools to discover the right book for the right person at the right moment."

SHOW NOTES: 

"A good definition of love is sustained, compassionate attention." -- John Muir Laws

"Knowledge is not instruction, it is not information, it is not scholarship, it is not a well stored memory." (What is Knowledge?, by Mary Hardcastle, Parents' Review)

“Knowledge is not a store but, rather, a state that a person remains within or drops out of.” (What is Knowledge?, by Mary Hardcastle, Parents' Review)

"Life in a state of knowledge – is it to be a pleasant saunter? You know enough about life and relationships to deny that. No one can enter the state of knowledge or advance an inch without two things, strenuous effort and reverence. When these two things are present there is joy and delight. I think the state of knowing is man in his wholeness wholly living." (What is Knowledge?, by Mary Hardcastle, Parents' Review)

Join Min Hwang as she chats with her fellow Children's Sunday School teacher, Temple Ary.

Temple is a retired NYC elementary school teacher, who heard about Charlotte Mason's philosophy and methods for the first time through Min when she brought it to Pascack Bible Church.

We hope you are encouraged to see that this paradigm of children is truly for all children in every setting, for all children are born persons, made in God's image.

Resources mentioned:

Join Erika and Mariana in a delightful conversation on how Erika started implementing CM's method in her own Sunday School.

Erika shares about how her teachers came on board and how the children in her church have enjoyed their Sunday School lessons, including narration, handicrafts and much more.

We hope you'll be encouraged by Erika's story!

Resources Mentioned

Join our own Min Hwang as she shares the "what" and "how" of her church's Children's Sunday School hour. In addition, she answers a few of the frequently asked questions that have been posed to her over the last several years.

Resources mentioned:

Welcome back, dear sisters!

We're so happy to be with you for Season 2 of the Charlotte Mason for All Podcast! And we're super excited to introduce our new co-cost, LaShawne Thomas, a former Navy Pediatrician turned Navy wife and full-time home-educator.

LaShawne truly loves spreading the feast of ideas found in the Charlotte Mason method within her home and with other families as the philosophy touches not only the “three R’s” (reading, writing & arithmetic), but all of life. We're blessed to have her share her experience and wisdom with us at CMFA!

Min, Erika, and Mariana also give some updates on their latest projects, including:

• a brand new multicultural artist study
• a new Portuguese publishing company in Brazil specializing in living books
• CM Sunday School resources
• the Charlotte Mason Tool Kit - a valuable aid to walk you through the basics of Charlotte Mason homeschooling

We're honored to be journeying with you again for another new season! Our Father is so good and faithful!

For the King and His kids,

Erika, Min, LaShawne, & Mariana

RESOURCES:

Welcome to our last episode in this first set of CM Mamas From Around the World!

Min had the honor of chatting it up with Amanda Coleman, a Charlotte Mason homeschool mom of 5 beautiful children, and together with her creative husband, a missionary to Ethiopia. As Amanda shares the beauties and challenges of learning and living in their home away from home, may your heart be encouraged to know our God is always at work, raising up a generation after His own heart.

WHERE TO FIND AMANDA:

Subscribe to their prayer newsletter by emailing ethiopia4610@gmail.com.

Welcome back to our Charlotte Mason mamas around the globe series!

Today Erika gets to interview a very good friend of ours all the way from the UK! Alberta Stevens is a proud boy mom (or mum, as she would say it), who beautifully implements the Charlotte Mason philosophy in her multicultural home in London. Originally from Sierra Leone, she’s passionate about spreading a life-giving and culturally diverse feast to all families through the wonderful resources she creates, as well through her podcast, "Homegrown Sunshine." She is a kindred spirit who inspires us with her work for the Lord. We are honored to have her share with us today.

WHERE TO FIND ALBERTA STEVENS

Meet our first “Charlotte Mason Mama Around the Globe,” Angelique Knaup!

Angelique is a globe-trotting wife and mother of three, currently living in her homeland of Zimbabwe. Her two older children have already graduated from their Charlotte Mason homeschool. She is homeschooling her youngest in high school. Join Mariana as we get a peek into God’s call upon Anglelique’s colorful, rich life of “spreading the feast” with her community in Zimbabwe.

FIND ANGELIQUE on Instagram @angeli.knaup 

Resources mentioned:

Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer MaCaulay

Welcome back to our “Many Faces of CM Mamas” series!

Join Mariana as she chats with our friend, SarahRuth, about the importance of honoring family traditions in the atmosphere of our homes and how SarahRuth honors her heritage as a Messianic Jew within her family culture.

Originally from NYC, SarahRuth is a former public school educator who wrote her final thesis on the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. 

She is mom to three boys and an adventurer with her husband. Together, they enjoy the Appalachian mountains of Georgia where they reside.

THE BEAUTIFUL FACES OF CM MAMAS series continues with Annette Dionisio -

"Will CM methods work for my child with special challenges?" This might be a question that has been asked when considering a CM education for a precious child with special challenges.

Join Mariana as she speaks with Annette, our dear IRL friend and a CM homeschooling mama who is devoted to providing a Charlotte Mason home and homeschool for her 3 young children, one of whom has special challenges arising from ADHD, and various processing and developmental delays. We are deeply thankful to Annette for sharing her journey with us - both the heartbreaking difficulties, as well as the beautiful triumphs, as she intentionally implements the Charlotte Mason philosophy and methods.

“Mothers owe a 'thinking love' to their Children.––"The mother is qualified," says Pestalozzi, "and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; ... and what is demanded of her is––a thinking love ... God has given to the child all the faculties of our nature, but the grand point remains undecided––how shall this heart, this head, these hands be employed? to whose service shall they be dedicated? A question the answer to which involves a futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee. Maternal love is the first agent in education."

"We are waking up to our duties and in proportion as mothers become more highly educated and efficient, they will doubtless feel the more strongly that the education of their children during the first six years of life is an undertaking hardly to be entrusted to any hands but their own. And they will take it up as their profession––that is, with the diligence, regularity, and punctuality which men bestow on their professional labours. That the mother may know what she is about, may come thoroughly furnished to her work, she should have something more than a hearsay acquaintance with the theory of education, and with those conditions of the child's nature upon which such theory rests.” - Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, p. 2

Resources mentioned and others Annette has found helpful over the years:

THE MANY BEAUTIFUL FACES OF CM MAMAS

Today's episode is for those mamas who may not have started homeschooling from the beginning. Maybe you're struggling wiht the transition from traditional school to homeschool or maybe you're contemplating removing your child from their current school in orer to home education them.

I've been there before and it is by no means an easy endeavor or transition. Our guest today has also been down this road before, which is one of the may things that drew me to her.

THE MANY BEAUTIFUL FACES OF CM MAMAS

With all the beauty motherhood and homeschooling has to offer, there are moments when life doesn't go according to plan. But God's grace is sufficent and helps guide us through those trying times.

THE MANY BEAUTIFUL FACES OF CM MAMAS

Have you wondered if working outside the home while homeschooling can be done?

Mariana and Min would like to extend an invitation to a special community - OFF of social media - with like-minded, Gospel-reliant mothers from around the world.

Listen in as they share the vision, mission, and description of this unique space in the online world.

With all that is expected of us as mothers on a daily basis, is time with God wasted time? Join me as I share what God spoke to my heart on the necessity of my quiet time with Him and the impact it had on my child (or what I was modeling for my child).

For the King and His kids,

Mother culture/education chats continue with Mariana and Min!

Join us as we share how "mother culture/education" differs from "self-care." We also discuss how this time changed from when our babies were young until now, how we intentionally plan "mother culture/education" into our daily lifestyle, and how we spend this time.

Finally, there is some exciting news. :)

Hey sister! Join us as we share our thoughts on "mother culture" today. Then in the next episodes, each of us will interview the other to give you  details on how we engage in "mother culture" and "mother education," in order to equip ourselves to continue the Kingdom work our Father has "prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10)

“There is no sadder sight in life than a mother, who has so used herself up in her children's childhood, that she has nothing to give them in their youth… Then, when her children come to that most difficult time between childhood and full development she is nonplussed; and, though she may do much for her children, she cannot do all she might, if she, as they, were growing! Is there not some need for "mother culture"? But how is the state of things to be altered? So many mothers say, "I simply have no time for myself!" "I never read a book!" Or else, "I don't think it is right to think of myself!" They not only starve their minds, but they do it deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice which seems to supply ample justification. There are, moreover, unfortunately, only too many people who think that sort of thing so lovely that public opinion appears to justify it. But does public opinion justify anything?” - Mother Culture by A. (Parent's Review, Vol. 3, no. 2, 1892/93, pgs. 92-95)

“If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children… we should have happier households. Let the mother go out to play! If she would only have courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a day, out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in a picture gallery… or in bed, without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents. The mother would be able to hold herself in 'wise passiveness,’ and would not fret her children by continual interference, even of hand or eye- she would let them be.” - Charlotte Mason

As we continue with our “Foreign Languages in our Multicultural Homes” series, in this episode Mariana chats with Celeste Cruz from "Joyous Lessons."

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9,10

Join us, Erika and Min, as we discuss the WHY and HOW of foreign language studies in our own multicultural homes.

Last week, Simone and Mariana shared how they, as native speakers of their children's "foreign language," they approach foreign language study.

In contrast, Erika and Min are second generation speakers of their parent's native language. Thus, their children are the 3rd generation. 

Being non-native speakers, and without a "pure accent," they are needing to approach the teaching of foreign language quite differently in their homes.

We hope you'll join in the conversation! We would love to hear from you too. Please go to charlottemasonforall.com if you'd like to share with us.

For the King and His kids,

Simone, Erika, Mariana, & Min

WHERE TO FIND US:

Is foreign language a part of your child’s curriculum? 

We hope so, but, if not, take heart, friend! We hope that through our discussions on how foreign language study occurs in our multicultural homes, you'll find encouragement, practical help, and resources, to make the study of foreign languages a delight in your home.

In Part 1, Simone and Mariana share how they teach their children their own native language of Portuguese as a foreign language.

Thank you for joining us!

For the King and His kids,

Erika, Min, Simone, Mariana

WHERE TO FIND US:

Happy New Year everyone! We pray you had a restful break and wonderful family time during this holiday season.

The start of the new year is always a great time to reflect on the previous year and reboot for the upcoming year.  For this episode, we’ll be sharing some brief sentiments on 2020, how Advent was celebrated in our homes, and some exciting projects, hopes and dreams for the year ahead.

We had a wonderfully refreshing break, but now we're happy to be back with you for another season!

Because of grace,

Erika, Mariana, Simone, and Min

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

As we begin to connect on this motherhood journey together through this podcast, each of us would like to share more of our story and heart with you - to invite you in to what God has been doing in HIS narrative of which we all are a part. In so doing, it's our hope that you might find YOUR story reflected in some way, and that you would find fellowship with us in this pilgrimage, and in this holy task of raising intelligent, disciples of JESUS.

Meet Min Hwang!

Do you relate to any of the following?

• Child of immigrant parents
• Pastor's Wife
• Wanted to be a celibate missionary
• Lived overseas
• Homeschooling her own four, plus two of her friend's children
• Knew she wanted to homeschool (and husband did too)
• Found CM online through websites and blogs, then "For the Children's Sake" by Susan Schaeffer MaCaulay
• Heart for apologetics & working on an apologetics course/book for children and families to do together
• Creating a keepsake journal to accompany "Ourselves Book I" by Charlotte Mason
• Aspiring, self-taught artist & encourager of moms to cultivate their creativity through carving out mother culture time
  

We have been greatly encouraged by your messages and your reviews! We read each and every one. Please keep them coming!

For such a time as this,

Simone, Erika, Min, & Mariana

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

As we begin to connect on this motherhood journey together through this podcast, each of us would like to share more of our story and heart with you - to invite you in to what God has been doing in HIS narrative of which we all are a part. In so doing, it's our hope that you might find YOUR story reflected in some way, and that you would find fellowship with us in this pilgrimage, and in this holy task of raising intelligent, disciples of JESUS.

Meet Simone Moradi!

Do you relate to any of the following?

• Former private school teacher
• Immigrated to the U.S. as an adult
• Blended family 
• Found CM through a friend (Mariana!)
• Working from home while homeschooling
• Spontaneous personality, working on consistency :)
• Helping to build a CM community in her home country
• Mom of girls
  

We have been greatly encouraged by your messages and your reviews! We read each and every one. Please keep them coming!

For such a time as this,

Min, Simone, Erika, & Mariana

WHERE TO FIND US:

As we begin to connect on this motherhood journey together through this podcast, each of us would like to share more of our story and heart with you - to invite you in to what God has been doing in HIS narrative of which we all are a part. In so doing, it's our hope that you might find YOUR story reflected in some way, and that you would find fellowship with us in this pilgrimage, and in this holy task of raising intelligent, disciples of JESUS.

Meet Mariana Mastracchio!

Do you relate to any of the following?

• Bilingual homeschooler
• Found CM online
• Did not know anyone who homeschooled (until she met Simone)
• Helping to build a CM community in her home country
• Mom of boys
  

We have been greatly encouraged by your messages and your reviews! We read each and every one. Please keep them coming!

For such a time as this,

Min, Simone, Erika, & Mariana

WHERE TO FIND US:

As we begin to connect on this motherhood journey together through this podcast, each of us would like to share more of our story and heart with you - to invite you in to what God has been doing in HIS narrative of which we all are a part. In so doing, it's our hope that you might find YOUR story reflected in some way, and that you would find fellowship with us in this pilgrimage, and in this holy task of raising intelligent, disciples of JESUS.

First up is Erika Alicea!

Do you relate to any of the following?

• did not homeschool from the beginning (and has regrets)
• never expected to be homeschooling
• one spouse wants to homeschool and the other doesn't
• grew up bi-culturally
• lives in the city
• co-pastoring a church with her husband
• raising an only child
• former public school teacher

We have been greatly encouraged by your messages and your reviews! We read each and every one. Please keep them coming!

For such a time as this,

Min, Simone, Erika, & Mariana

WHERE TO FIND US: