Simply Charlotte MasonWhen I first began studying homeschooling methods, I kept coming across the name Charlotte Mason. To be honest, I really didn’t get her method of homeschooling. It just didn’t click. I didn’t understand what made her style of educating different, or what was meant by using “real books.” Then I came across a site that has become one of my favorite sources on the Web for homeschooling: Simply Charlotte Mason.

Veteran homeschoolers Sonya Shafer, Karen Smith and their families have created a site dedicated to encouraging other homeschoolers in the Charlotte Mason method. Their site offers several FREE e-books that explain the method. I especially liked Sonya Shafer’s book, Education Is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life. It is a great condensed introduction to what Charlotte Mason actually wrote in her original series.

Simply Charlotte Mason offers several other FREE helps that I return to time and time again. Its free curriculum guide, complete with living book suggestions, is a wonderful resource. SCM has also added short teaching videos to its site where Sonya Shafer offers tips for things like scheduling, teaching and more.

Even today, I had questions about teaching spelling to my child. I’m not interested in buying a complex spelling curriculum with an arbitrary collection of word lists. I would prefer to have our spelling studies come out of our reading. Watching Shafer’s video, Prepared Dictation, gave me the guidance I needed.

The Simply Charlotte Mason forum is also very encouraging and active. Shafer is often available to answer questions and regularly offers feedback to visitors. I also appreciate that when I receive newsletter emails from this company they offer more than spam for their latest product, a pet peeve of mine with some other homeschooling sites. Instead, Simply Charlotte Mason includes relevant, interesting and useful information in their newsletters. Of course, not everything on the website is free, but the products that are for sale are reasonably priced.

So there it is, my glowing recommendation for Simply Charlotte Mason. I promise, I’m not getting a kick back for this. I’m just very appreciative to these two fellow homeschoolers and their families. They have helped me understand and implement the Charlotte Mason method into my home school, and I’m sure they can do the same for you.