A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison
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Book Reviews of A Charlotte Mason Education
Book Review: For the Children's Sake is better
Summary: 2 Stars
This book gave a pretty good synopsis of Charlotte Mason's methods. I guess if you just want some quick ideas on how to get started it will give you what you're looking for. However, I believe everything she says can be found in For the Children's Sake, by Susan Schaeffer McCauley (in a section in the latter half of the book... no need to read all of the book before you start. You can just flip to the section that summarizes Mason's methods). And McCauley also has a wealth of other information on Charlotte Mason's philosophy and methods. So I'd say, save your money and buy McCauley's book - you'll be getting two for the price of one, so to speak.Book Review: Levison's Charlotte Mason Education
Summary: 2 Stars
I felt that this book was choppy and poorly written, even down to the fact that the author refers to the subject as "Charlotte" rather than Charlotte Mason or Mason. It does include a lot of information about the Charlotte Mason method, but does nothing to explain to me why I should use that method myself. I would have preferred her to get to the meat of one aspect of Charlotte Mason learning, rather than try to cover everything in one little book and really skimp on every topic. I wish I had gotten it at the library instead of buying it.Book Review: An ok intro but you'll definitely need more.
Summary: 2 Stars
The nice thing about this book is that it's short and a very quick read. But I found many of the chapters lacking details and leaving me wanting more information. (Some of the chapters were 2 or 3 pages long!) She does do a good job recommending other authors and books, so finding that information was certainly easy. I also could have done without all the Christian references in this book.Book Review: Another too-Christian homeschooling resource. Sorry.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book, like many other homeschooling books, has a misleading title. It should be called, "A Charlotte Mason Education: A CHRISTIAN Homeschooling How-To Manual". Seriously, sometimes I feel like I am the ONLY homeschooler who is not a religious zealot. First let me say that I do recognize that Charlotte Mason was a devout Christian. Fine. Mention that. Even talk about how she incorporated it into her schools. I don't care. But my gosh, did Levison have to point out that she once banned all Charles Dickens books because of "A Christmas Carol" (no ghost stories allowed in her home)?!?! I felt like she was continually dropping references to how "righteous" she is, always listing the Bible first in lists of books or subjects.
As someone who values great literature, I definitely can acknowledge the Bible in a list of good and influential books. But what if I wrote a similar manual from the perspective of, say, a Muslim (which I'm not--I'm agnostic)? You know, what if I listed the Koran first in every list? I bet it wouldn't fly with all the Christian readers. I find it a little disrespectful.
Basically, I really like Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy but I really, really, really wish I could find a good synopsis of it that was not so God-heavy. Karen Andreola is just as bad in "A Charlotte Mason Companion". Honestly, I don't mind a religious reference here or there. I really don't. But this book is actually painful for me to read because it pervades ever last sentence.
Oh, and also, Levison's writing lacks style and organization in a pretty serious way. It's just not a well-written book at all.
Book Review: Hardly a How-To!!
Summary: 1 Stars
If this is the "best book out there on Charlotte Mason" and has "the most practical application" of her ideas, as other reviewers have stated, then I'd have to say that Charlotte Mason is confusing, because this is a badly written book. I picked this up wanting to learn about Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education and what it looks like in the home school. I returned the book with a bad taste in my mouth. The author is VERY flighty, throwing out random ideas that are not well-explained or thorough. Many of the chapters, including those entitled "Composition" "grammar," and "spelling," are only two pages long! She randomly describes Mason's ideas for a scant paragraph, and then throws together some "How-To"'s that are bewildering. After reading this book I can say that not only do I not understand Charlotte Mason, but I have little desire to because of this author's bad work. This is NOT a book for those who aren't already Mason fans, nor for those who need detailed help in applying her philosophy.