Charlotte mason living books

[Ausmumof3]

What books do you have that fit this definition? We have a lot of books that are quite good, quite interesting, quite accessible to kids. But I feel from reading Charlotte mason that she meant more than that. The books were meant to be written by someone passionate about the subject and not necessarily aimed at a kiddy level.

 

If you were to try to teach science for example using these methods, what books would you use? What would you read for space, for biology, which for earth science?

 

We have a lot of dk or Usborne style books either on our bookshelf or at the library but while they often have beautiful and amazing pictures the text seems so dry.

 

I love chow and story of the world for history, I think they bring history to life so well. Are there books like this for science? Are there options like this for drawing or music or even language?

[LMD]

Ruth Heller does some beautiful grammar books, here's a previous thread about them:

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/32375-could-you-use-ruth-heller-books-as-a-stand-alone-grammar-program-for-a-2nd-grader/

 

There's heaps for science, especially early elementary. And there's quark chronicles.

[lorisuewho]

Adelectableeducation.com has a wonderful Charlotte Mason podcast. They have one episode just on what is a living book. Also under each episode on their podcast they list some of their favorite living books for each topic. Also sabbath mood homeschool has a large section on her website devoted to CM method of teaching science.

[hmvaughan4]

Beautiful Feet books has a History of Science guide. There's a list of books it uses on the site.

[HomeAgain]

For science we have the Potentially Catastrophic Book Of Science - it presents topics along a timeline to go with history studies.  We also have Jack's Insects, Magic School Bus, Born with A Bang trilogy (the story of the universe is written directly to the child), and shorter pieces like Some Plants Have Funny Names (an older book illustrated by Jan Brett)

 

For language arts our current selections are Grammar Land, The Greedy Apostrophe (and other similar titles like Punctuation Takes A Vacation), the First Whole Book Of Diagrams, and even The Phantom Tollbooth (which, not a LA book, is absolutely fantastic at introducing and reinforcing concepts).

[FO4UR]

What age?

 

And, don't get too hung up on what constitutes a living book. You'll get lost and waste time and end up losing out on some good things.

 

The best measure of a living book, ime, is if your child lives the book. For littles, the Read and Find Out series is one that my kids would set down and immediately go outside and see if these things are so. The main thing is timing reading about crickets when crickets are out, and so on.

 

Burgess animals & birds are an obvious CM choice. And, I will add in that it is a good thing to pair something like Burgess with the encyclopedia-like modern books with photographs. Read the narrative as a story. Let the child browse the photographs in the encyclopedias at their own pace, like a coffee table book.

 

Both/And.

 

And for science, I think BFSU is pretty close to CM. Nature study is the biggest chunk of science in a CM elementary education.

[Holly]

I found this post very helpful with decided whether a book is living or not.  It compares two science books on birds, and while it's mostly comparing newer books with older, I think it can apply to books of any time period!

 

http://www.livingbookslibrary.com/2012/04/is-new-always-better.html

 

As far as other subjects, we have a Childcraft encyclopedia from the 50s that does a great job with music.  There are biographies of several composers that they did really well.  Each is just a couple pages, but tells much of their life and music.  It focuses a good deal on their childhood, which is of great interest to my DC.  It also talks about what inspired their music, which is also interesting.  If we read the covers of the classical music CDs, we get a bare bones list of facts like where they lived, when they died, how many compositions they wrote, etc.  To me this is not living at all!  Childcraft gives the same information in the form of an enjoyable story.  Another great resource are the "Story of..." CDs.  They play snippets of their works, while telling stories about their lives.  My DC have really enjoyed these!  They don't take the place of listening to their complete compositions, but are a great biographical resource.  Opal Wheeler's biographies are great too, but these take more time than I prefer to spend on composers...I like a resource we can cover in one lesson period.  

 

For art, we've used books like Draw Squad or Drawing with Children, both of which I'd consider living, as each writer is very enthused about the topic!  I've yet to find a good artist biography living book like we've found for composers.   :(  We mostly use Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artists, but I'm not a huge fan of these.  

 

For science, our favorite is Natural Science Through the Seasons.  It has 100 units on nature science, some of which include quotes and additional resources. It's more of a resource than a living book that I would read to my DC, but I think it makes a great spine for our nature studies.  It also gives me some guidance when planning out activities.  Apologia's elementary books would fit the "living book" definition for me.  

Edited July 14, 2016 by Holly

[Kfamily]

I wrote a blog post about living books and what they are to me here:

 

Living Books: What Are They and Why Are They Important?

 

 

Some science authors that we like:

 

Donald Silver

Gail Gibbons

Arthur Dorros

Franklin M. Branley

Jean Craighead George

Gordon Morrison

Seymour Simon

Alvin and Virginia Silverstein

Ellen McHenry

Robert Gardner

David Macaulay

Isaac Assimov

Kathryn Lasky

Arabella Buckley

Margaret Williamson

Holling C. Holling

Jean Henri Fabre

Rachel Carson

Thornton Burgess

 

Edited July 14, 2016 by Kfamily

[Bluegoat]

There is also a division of sorts in science books, (and soe other types) for CM.  There are books like The Amateur Naturalist or other things by Durell, which are absolutly living books.  But there are also valuble books like field guides, which aren't really meant for just reading.  Those books are a support to nature study.

 

The thing to keep in mind I think is that Mason wants students to engage as directly as possible with the object of study.  So, rather than reading about pond life and looking at pictures in an Usbourn book, it would be preferable to actually go to a pond, often, and really experience pond life.  Within that context, a book with pictures that help identify what is seen there, or gives facts, even in a dry way, is just an aid to direct study.

 

Where the living science book comes in is in much the same way where you may be lucky to find a teacher who is really on fire about a subject and is able to translate that to a student, inspiring the student to engage with the subject itself.  I think you could say that really, it is about love.  THis is why single authors are so often reccomended - it is hard to get that kind of writing or experience from many text books or from a committee.  OTOH, if you read someone like Fabre, aside from all the concrete information and insight into his methods, you get a sense of him as a person, and the wonder he sees in the insect world, and he can pass that wonder on to the student because he is a person.

 

And in cases where it is impossible for the student to engage directly, (say, looking at polar life) the kind of information that comes in a living book is closer to the real experience than a test with facts and pictures.  In both cases, some person has decided on what points to include.  A good text will have all the right "facts".  But in the living book, you are receiving as much as possible a description of an integrated experience of that environment.  Part of science is pulling apart that experience and examining it, but that should not be pre-digested, or regarded as a substitute for having the experience.  Otherwise it is like learning about each of the components of a radio without seeing how they fit together, or actually experiencing a radio as a working whole.

[Kalmia]

These are two living books we used in science when my kids were K thru 3. Mostly as read alouds:

 

Plants and Their Children by Mrs. William Starr Dana/Theodora Parsons

 

https://archive.org/details/plantstheirchildpars

 

There is one original available on Abebooks. It is the one without a photo copyright 1876.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Mrs.+William+Starr+Dana&sts=t&tn=Plants+and+their+children

 

Reproductions are available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Plants-Their-Children-William-Starr/dp/153000232X/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468593973&sr=8-1-fkmr3&keywords=plants+and+their+children+1876

 

Dame Bug and Her Babies by Edith Marion Patch

 

http://www.edithpatch.org/sampler/publication.html

 

http://www.edithpatch.org/sampler/audio.html

[Rosie_0801]

These are lovely: http://www.amazon.com/Dianna-Hutts-Aston/e/B001HD0AIG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1468660985&sr=8-1