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Minds More Awake (Revised Edition): The Vision of Charlotte Mason
To open the door to the treasures (and the treasuring) of knowledge is to set children on the journey to a purposeful, well-furnished life. This exploration of Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy (now in a reformatted and expanded edition) focuses on two "power tools," the Way of the Will and the Way of the Reason, and examines the ways in which Mason's principles are made practical.
- GenresEducationNonfiction
Kindle Edition
First published July 27, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
November 15, 2019
This book should be read with " for the children sakes " and right before diving in head first on Charlotte Mason 6 volumes.
Minds More Awake, is a great overview of the phisolophy of education but written with personal touches and in a way that makes you feel you are sitting in a coffee shop enjoying a chat with a close friend chatting over her experience of how Miss Mason has transform her life and her homeschool.
And like always, Anne has quoted some great books that I haven't read yet and my library has 8 holds for books that I can't wait to read now.
I will be recommending this book to all my Charlotte Mason meeting group and to many other homeschooling family I know.
Christmas is coming.... this will make the perfect gift to mothers of young children considering homeschooling.
Minds More Awake, is a great overview of the phisolophy of education but written with personal touches and in a way that makes you feel you are sitting in a coffee shop enjoying a chat with a close friend chatting over her experience of how Miss Mason has transform her life and her homeschool.
And like always, Anne has quoted some great books that I haven't read yet and my library has 8 holds for books that I can't wait to read now.
I will be recommending this book to all my Charlotte Mason meeting group and to many other homeschooling family I know.
Christmas is coming.... this will make the perfect gift to mothers of young children considering homeschooling.
December 3, 2020
Wow!
I really loved this. I've had it for years and kept putting it off - a decision I now regret.
It was great for a cursory read, but I'm going to start it again because I know there are depths to be plumbed.
Anne has written a lovely, thought provoking introduction to Charlotte Mason's ideas using PNEU materials, her own experience, and her own wide reading to bind ideas and practices together to give moms a view of what can be, of how to awaken minds - ours and our children('s).
She starts with what is generally considered the end of Mason's principles - the Way of the Will and the Way of Reason, then she goes back and introduces us to the wide room of treasures she introduces as Aladdin's Cave and slowly unfolds some of the treasures therein clearly showing how they fit in a CM paradigm.
The end goes back to the beginning and shows how those treasures have given the born person an awakened mind and a magnanimous character. She gives us CM from a different perspective than the traditional and it really works to help me see a fuller, more robust version. By modeling ideas as instruction, she not only preaches but practices as well.
This book is firmly, gently beautiful. White knows and presents what she knows in that authoritative through experience way, but not aggressively. Matter of fact, but lovely and lovingly.
Like I said ... I'm going to read it again right now. I commend it to you, too.
I really loved this. I've had it for years and kept putting it off - a decision I now regret.
It was great for a cursory read, but I'm going to start it again because I know there are depths to be plumbed.
Anne has written a lovely, thought provoking introduction to Charlotte Mason's ideas using PNEU materials, her own experience, and her own wide reading to bind ideas and practices together to give moms a view of what can be, of how to awaken minds - ours and our children('s).
She starts with what is generally considered the end of Mason's principles - the Way of the Will and the Way of Reason, then she goes back and introduces us to the wide room of treasures she introduces as Aladdin's Cave and slowly unfolds some of the treasures therein clearly showing how they fit in a CM paradigm.
The end goes back to the beginning and shows how those treasures have given the born person an awakened mind and a magnanimous character. She gives us CM from a different perspective than the traditional and it really works to help me see a fuller, more robust version. By modeling ideas as instruction, she not only preaches but practices as well.
This book is firmly, gently beautiful. White knows and presents what she knows in that authoritative through experience way, but not aggressively. Matter of fact, but lovely and lovingly.
Like I said ... I'm going to read it again right now. I commend it to you, too.
June 10, 2018
Excellent! I've had this since it was first released but it's taken me til now (3 years) to read it. Don't wait if you haven't read this and you are interested in the Charlotte Mason philosophy. It has its focus on the Way of the Will and the Way of Reason, showing how this relates to the whole of CM's goal and aim in education.
It is written simply so that the reader isn't intimidated by educational jargon, without dumbing down the relevant information to be had. Anne White has a somewhat subtle (perhaps?) sense of humor that I felt was much like reading Charlotte Mason's volumes. I really appreciate the inclusion of books or quotes other than the "usual;" such as Jean Vanier and Vaclav Havel (through Os Guinness). At least they weren't usuals for me when reading an education related book. I definitely recommend this book to gain more insight into "the vision of Charlotte Mason." Or "holistic-synthetic-organic learning." ;)
It is written simply so that the reader isn't intimidated by educational jargon, without dumbing down the relevant information to be had. Anne White has a somewhat subtle (perhaps?) sense of humor that I felt was much like reading Charlotte Mason's volumes. I really appreciate the inclusion of books or quotes other than the "usual;" such as Jean Vanier and Vaclav Havel (through Os Guinness). At least they weren't usuals for me when reading an education related book. I definitely recommend this book to gain more insight into "the vision of Charlotte Mason." Or "holistic-synthetic-organic learning." ;)
August 7, 2015
This is the brilliant Anne White's contribution to the Charlotte Mason genre and it is a lovely picture of her own efforts and reasons for pursuing a CM education with her children starting with her stumbling upon For the Children's Sake in a church nursery one day. Anne is a treasure and I hope her contributions will be valued in the CM community for a long, long time.
May 9, 2017
This book is excellent. A perfect blend of the philosophy and being practical. I enjoy Anne's writing style and this book is no different. An excellent addition to the books on Charlotte Mason. This will be my go to book for anyone wanting to learn more about the CM method.
May 4, 2017
Lovely book, Anne White. Thank you for writing it.
Quotes will be entering my quote book and I will share them on Goodreads when I get a chance.
Very helpful and timely.
Quotes will be entering my quote book and I will share them on Goodreads when I get a chance.
Very helpful and timely.
November 29, 2021
What an encouraging book! “The world may not need (or think it needs) more “C.M.” It may not want more homeschooling. However, it does need more magnanimity, more imagination, more humanness, more wonder. If that is what we’re able to give our own children, that’s good. But if we could find a way to pass it on even further…wouldn’t that be amazing?” —from the final chapter, which left me very inspired and hopeful.
September 24, 2016
Anne White did a wonderful job sharing her thoughts on Charlotte Mason's methods and making it more relevant. Mason's methodology is more than a list of books as most of us already know. I chose this method for our family because it spoke to my heart and now, after reading this book, the method has taken deeper root. I knew education was a lifestyle and I wanted my family to be life long learners. Now I'm more awake to opportunities not only in my home but outside. I'm inspired to share the love and inspiration. I'm so grateful that Charlotte Mason share her observations and opinions and her beautiful friends supported and created this new way of seeing the world and education. "The world may not need (or think it needs) more "C.M." It may no want more homeschooling. However, it does need more magnanimity, more imagination, more humanness, more wonder. If that is what we're able to give our children, that's good. But if we could find a way to pass it on every further... wouldn't that be amazing?"
February 20, 2021
I really enjoyed this look at the Charlotte Mason education. I read about 10 mins every morning and it was challenging enough to give me pause to think but so very understandable and helped me put practical application on so many of the big areas of CM, like Plutarch, language, and math. I would recommend for any CM momma who needs something lighter than the volumes for a time but still very true to Mason's work and method.
September 8, 2021
Refreshing summer read. It helped me prepare for the upcoming school year. I just ordered her other book, "Ideas Freely Sown." Can't wait to read it.
January 27, 2022
It helped me through a homeed crisis when my mind needed some nutrients and my soul some rest. It took me a bit to get to the marrow but a very inspiring content giving insights into C. Mason’s writings on education.
February 1, 2019
"We can't learn for a child. We are not to think for him. And we are not to rob him of any opportunity that he has to put in his own real effort, personal power, into moral action, whether that is remembering to close the door or keep his temper in check. The more practice he gets, the more those muscles will develop -or not. He needs to work on saying yes or no to "initial ideas". Taking time to help. Standing up for someone weaker. Being brave instead of complaining."
"Education gives us minds more awake, and a life that is more than just passing time."
"Education gives us minds more awake, and a life that is more than just passing time."
August 27, 2017
Ann White and done an excellent job in sharing some of CM philosophy of education how she used it in her own home. This is one that I would come back and read again after I finish the original 6 vol of CM.
I find that A Charlotte Mason Companion gives a bit more practical ideas for implementing a CM Education.
I find that A Charlotte Mason Companion gives a bit more practical ideas for implementing a CM Education.
October 17, 2023
A good, short read summarizing & discussing some of Charlotte Mason's main ideas/principles.
A few quotes:
"Nature gives us certain dispositions of mind which we can get from no other source; and it is through these right dispositions that we get life into focus, as it were; learn to distinguish between small matters and great, to see that we ourselves are not of very great importance...we become prepared by the quiet schooling of nature to walk softly and do our daily duty towards man and towards God."
[Charlotte Mason, Ourselves, p. 98]
"If Education is the science of relations, alienation is the utter failure of education."
Charlotte Mason described delight as a chief object of education--delight in knowledge, and delight in life.
Character is the result not merely of the great ideas which are given to us, but of the habits which we labor to form upon those ideas.
[Charlotte Mason, School Education, p. 99]
A few quotes:
"Nature gives us certain dispositions of mind which we can get from no other source; and it is through these right dispositions that we get life into focus, as it were; learn to distinguish between small matters and great, to see that we ourselves are not of very great importance...we become prepared by the quiet schooling of nature to walk softly and do our daily duty towards man and towards God."
[Charlotte Mason, Ourselves, p. 98]
"If Education is the science of relations, alienation is the utter failure of education."
Charlotte Mason described delight as a chief object of education--delight in knowledge, and delight in life.
Character is the result not merely of the great ideas which are given to us, but of the habits which we labor to form upon those ideas.
[Charlotte Mason, School Education, p. 99]
December 11, 2020
Beautifully written and very encouraging. I'm not sure if it is because of the virus and the drag of life, ironically being very busy, or it being our tenth year homeschooling, or perhaps a combination of all of those things, but homeschooling, which I have always loved, has become suddenly much harder. This book encouraged me to keep on, that what we are doing here at home is so much bigger than Education. It's about Ideas and learning to truly appreciate life with wonder.
It's a great book for someone new to CM's ideas, but also great as a refresher for those of us who have been at this for a long time!
It's a great book for someone new to CM's ideas, but also great as a refresher for those of us who have been at this for a long time!
July 19, 2017
I appreciated Anne White's perspective on Charlotte Mason. The book was readable and gave me some bits to ponder. She also makes an excellent case for why Mason valued Plutarch, and I think I might give it a go for my own sake. White has guides for Plutarch, and I will seek those out.
Book recommended for others who have interest in Charlotte Mason and are looking for some refreshment and practical ideas.
Book recommended for others who have interest in Charlotte Mason and are looking for some refreshment and practical ideas.
November 11, 2020
I’m glad I read this book. I sometimes found the layout and progression of ideas confusing. I started reading it with some friends who are very new to hearing about Charlotte Mason and they really struggled with it without a prior understanding of CM principles. But I loved the excerpts and quotes and some of Anne White’s stories and examples of a CM education in their real life.
January 22, 2021
A fantastic introduction to Charlotte Mason
The first book anybody should read who wants to know more about the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling and Charlotte Mason herself.The book is filled with great quotes and examples. It was an absolute joy to read given the author's experience, knowledge and great writing.
The first book anybody should read who wants to know more about the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling and Charlotte Mason herself.The book is filled with great quotes and examples. It was an absolute joy to read given the author's experience, knowledge and great writing.
July 4, 2024
Great Ideas
Anne White always has great insight into the philosophy of the Charlotte Mason method. This book brings you back to selections from Mason’s volumes and applies them to our visions for our own modern homeschools. I will certainly put this one on my re-read pile to revisit the ideas in a future season.
Anne White always has great insight into the philosophy of the Charlotte Mason method. This book brings you back to selections from Mason’s volumes and applies them to our visions for our own modern homeschools. I will certainly put this one on my re-read pile to revisit the ideas in a future season.
October 3, 2017
A wonderful mix of theory and practical application. A book to read slowly and thoughtfully and then to reread. I particularly appreciated the way Anne White stimulated my mind to ask questions and think deeply about so many different aspects of learning, life and children. Highly recommended!
April 13, 2018
This is an excellent, inspiring book about a Charlotte Mason education. I have underlined so many passages, and will put them in my new commonplace book this week. I would recommend this to someone who is a little intimidated by the original CM series. It is very accessible.
May 20, 2021
With minds more awake, we are searching not for bare facts, but for principles. Examples of wisdom, or maybe of mistakes we don’t want to repeat. “Imagination will bestir itself,” Mason repeated, and “opinions come as knowledge grows.”
October 8, 2020
A really helpful little book about Mason's philosophy.
April 26, 2024
Beautiful, encouraging, and thought-provoking!
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September 1, 2024An excellent, succinct overview of CM philosophy with some practical applications points and relevant stories.
March 8, 2017
Excellent!
Excellent read. As a Homeschool Teacher who is both new to Homeschooling and Charlotte Mason, I found Anne's insights helpful. I appreciated how she was able to organize and convey the heart of a Charlotte Mason education, covering much of the philosophy without being long-winded. I have a better understanding and feel more confident as I begin the journey that Anne has nearly completed.
Excellent read. As a Homeschool Teacher who is both new to Homeschooling and Charlotte Mason, I found Anne's insights helpful. I appreciated how she was able to organize and convey the heart of a Charlotte Mason education, covering much of the philosophy without being long-winded. I have a better understanding and feel more confident as I begin the journey that Anne has nearly completed.
August 28, 2015
Anne White, veteran Charlotte Mason educator and one of the developers of the comprehensive (and free) Ambleside Online curriculum had a few questions. She wondered,
“…what is it that children need to be taught in order to grow into critical thinkers, problem solvers, decision makers? How do they develop the attentiveness to fix their minds on a problem, and the creativity to solve it?”
These are, of course, basic questions for every teacher. Over a century ago Charlotte Mason, an influential British educator whose ideas were endorsed by the Queen Mother, pondered these issues. Many have written about her thoughts since then, and in Minds More Awake Anne has added a unique, godly, and practical voice to the discussion. This new book summarizes and comments on Charlotte Mason’s ideas through the lens of a quotation from St. Augustine’s Of the Teacher:
“Whether you know the names of these parts now does not matter. I want you to see them.”
Anne wrote her book to discuss the questions, “How did Charlotte Mason’s approach to nature study, to teaching reading, even to mathematics, evolve from this idea of knowing a thing by seeing it? How would it lead to growing maturity and character? And as this concept of education brings us to a fuller relationship with the world and its people, how does that relate to our spiritual lives?”
...
Do you need Minds More Awake for your homeschool? If you have absorbed the writings of Charlotte Mason and her contemporaries, you will not need it. However, if you are a Charlotte Mason homeschooler and do not have all that wisdom and knowledge at your fingertips, I highly recommend the book, both for the practical advice and the sheer inspiration Anne brings to education. Even if you do not follow Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, you will find enough gems in it to make a difference to your homeschool.
--
Read my complete review at http://anniekateshomeschoolreviews.co...
“…what is it that children need to be taught in order to grow into critical thinkers, problem solvers, decision makers? How do they develop the attentiveness to fix their minds on a problem, and the creativity to solve it?”
These are, of course, basic questions for every teacher. Over a century ago Charlotte Mason, an influential British educator whose ideas were endorsed by the Queen Mother, pondered these issues. Many have written about her thoughts since then, and in Minds More Awake Anne has added a unique, godly, and practical voice to the discussion. This new book summarizes and comments on Charlotte Mason’s ideas through the lens of a quotation from St. Augustine’s Of the Teacher:
“Whether you know the names of these parts now does not matter. I want you to see them.”
Anne wrote her book to discuss the questions, “How did Charlotte Mason’s approach to nature study, to teaching reading, even to mathematics, evolve from this idea of knowing a thing by seeing it? How would it lead to growing maturity and character? And as this concept of education brings us to a fuller relationship with the world and its people, how does that relate to our spiritual lives?”
...
Do you need Minds More Awake for your homeschool? If you have absorbed the writings of Charlotte Mason and her contemporaries, you will not need it. However, if you are a Charlotte Mason homeschooler and do not have all that wisdom and knowledge at your fingertips, I highly recommend the book, both for the practical advice and the sheer inspiration Anne brings to education. Even if you do not follow Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, you will find enough gems in it to make a difference to your homeschool.
--
Read my complete review at http://anniekateshomeschoolreviews.co...
February 15, 2016
This is a great treatment of Charlotte Mason's belief that all students deserve an education that awakens their mind and allows them to make connections among the bits of knowledge to which they are exposed.
August 20, 2016
If you haven't read about Charlotte Mason Education, this is an easy book to get through. Anne White has a lot of wisdom. But there are better books out there if your time is limited.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews