LIVING BOOKS

"Guard the nursery (schoolroom); let nothing in that has not a true literary flavour; let the children grow up on a few books read over and over, and let them have none, the reading of which does not cost an appreciable mental effort. This is no hardship. Activity, whether of body or mind, is, joyous to a child.

"I think we owe it to children to let them dig their knowledge, of whatever subject, for themselves out of the fit book; and this for two reasons: What a child digs for is his own possession; what is poured into his ear, like the idle song of a pleasant singer, floats out as lightly as it came in, and is rarely assimilated."

"..the choice of books, which implies the play of various able minds directly on the mind of the child, is a great part of that education which consists in the establishment of relations."

Mr. Fisher says, "there are books and text-books," and the day is at hand when we shall all see that the latter are of no educational value. We rarely use text-books in the Parents' Union School but confine ourselves as far as possible to works with the imaginative grasp, the touch of originality, which distinguish a book from a text-book." Charlotte Mason


The Savoring of Books

Violence in Children's Books

The Children's Hour

How is Your Read Aloud Voice?

Making Books With Children

Should I Read All My Children's Books?

In Praise of Plutarch

Enjoying Beowulf or The Pros and Cons of Literature Guides

What if they Still Don't Care for their Schoolbooks?

How to Handle Mythology

What About Hard Books and Uninterested Children? 

Tips on Getting Children Interested in Hard Books