A Charlotte Mason Education for All

Category: Stonechats (Page 1 of 2)

[Stonechats 15] Holiday Edition

Join Marjorie, Miriam and Jennifer as they reflect on routines, rituals and stress over the holiday season and share some of what has worked for their families.

(This session was pre-recorded last year in December 2019.)

NB: Possible Santa Claus Spoilers

You can also check out the video version this podcast on YouTube.

The Team
Marjorie Lang – https://juniperpines.com/
Miriam Hur – https://wildwoodbeginnings.weebly.com/
Jennifer Gehman – http://connectionsforlearning.ca/
Laurie Connor – https://www.connerorchards.com/

[Stonechats 14] Reading Problems with Kim Stoddard Part 2

Join us part 2 of our chat with reading specialist Kim Stoddard from Born 2 Read about reading problems, dyslexia, and strategies that parents can use when they and their children are struggling.

Links for some of the items referenced in this episode:

Orton Gillingham System
All About Reading
Logic of English
Barton Reading
Pride Reading Program

Is my Child Ready for Barton? Barton Student Screening Test

Foundations in Sounds - if a child cannot pass the screening test


Check out our other episodes here.


[Stonechats 12] Reading with Melisa Nielsen

Today Marjorie, Miriam and Jennifer discuss reading with Melisa Nielsen of Waldorf Essentials. Melisa is a Waldorf educator, parent coach, and homeschooling mother of 5 children, two of whom have spectrum struggles. The Waldorf approach to early education  is very similar to Miss Mason's own approach. Both methods are developmental, experiential in nature and honor the individual child. Melisa comes with a wealth of ideas for helping parents teach reading.


  • 1:00 - Introduction to Melisa Nielsen
  • 2:55 - An overview of Melisa's Waldorf-centric way to teach reading
  • 6:39 - Shellie Davidow readers
  • 7:45 - Is there a reason you introduce vowels after consonants?
  • 9:18 - What if a young child wants to read?
    - Jodie Mesler's Living Music program
  • 10:15 - How do you actually teach the letters?
  • 15:07 - What is the best age to start? What do you do with young children wanting to learn to read?
  • 17:43 - What are the most common problems moms come to you with and what is your advice?
  • 27:23 - At what point do you say you need outside help?
  • 43:05 - What non-reading parts of the day should you definitely not skip that would support reading indirectly ?
  • 46:14 - What are your recommendations for children who are reading very early?
  • 51:04 - Nature Minutes

[Stonechats 11] Singing with Crystal Hosea

Marjorie, Jennifer and Miriam are joined today with Crystal Hosea, creator of Legends of the Staff of Musique, a comprehensive music curriculum inspired by the unique environment of home education, and incorporating movement and art alongside the voice.

  • Introduction - Crystal explains how Legends of the Staff of Musique explores music in a holistic way through singing and movement.
  • 3:50 - How do you bring singing to your children if you are not a confident singer yourself?
  • 6:33  - If you feel you sing off-key all the time, should you still sing to your children or will you be teaching them to sing off-key?
  • 8:30 - How do you incorporate singing into your day rather than having it just be a lesson time?
  • 15:00 - What is the purpose of learning folksongs versus pop songs and what is, any is your personal preference?
  • 24:45 - What if your child of whatever age is resistant to singing and think it's lame or dumb?
  • 38:30 - How is brain development affected by singing?
  • 43:40 - Why did you incorporate art into your music curriculum, Legends of the Staff Musique
  • 49:30 - Nature Minutes 

[Stonechats 9] Singing, Solfa and Kodaly with Guest RaeAnna Goss Part 2

On Part 2 of our discussion about singing and the Solfa, we continue our chat with RaeAnna Goss, singing teacher, homeschool graduate, homeschooling mother, and Charlotte Mason follower, who has created Solfa Sofa, an early years approach for introducing singing in a CM-friendly way. (Part 1 can be found here.)

We were also joined by Crystal Hosea of The Legends of the Staff of Musique, but we invited Crystal back for another episode about her own CM approach to combining story and music, which will air in a couple of weeks.

Recorded April 15, 2019

Show Notes:

[Stonechats 8] Singing, Solfa and Kodaly with Guest RaeAnna Goss

On this 2-part episode, we were joined by RaeAnna Goss, singing teacher, homeschool graduate, homeschooling mother, and Charlotte Mason follower, who has created Solfa Sofa, an early years approach for introducing singing in a CM-friendly way.

We were also joined by Crystal Hosea of The Legends of the Staff of Musique, but we invited Crystal back for another episode about her own CM approach to combining story and music, which will air in a couple of weeks.

Other ideas and resources mentioned in the podcast:

  • 0:00 Introductions
  • 4:25 The Curwin approach, Tonic Solfa, and the Modulator
  • 9:50 Difference between Curwen and Kodály, and why Raeanna supports Kodály
  • 11:15 What is the Kodály approach?
  • 14:30 What would a singing lesson look like in CM’s time?
    • 3 minutes of voice training
    • 5 minutes of modulator practice
    • 3 minutes of sight singing
    • 7 minutes of rhythm work
    • 4 minutes of ear training
    • 8 minutes to practice songs
  • 17:58 John M. Feierabend and Conversational Solfege
    • “Children should be tuneful, beatful, and artful.”
  • 20:28 An overview of the progression of singing through Forms 1 and 2
  • 24:25 Resouces at Solfa Sofa that can help with early years
  • 26:30 Forms 3 (part-songs and rounds), and higher (descants, classical repetoire)
  • 28:55 Losing joy in singing and moving more into theory and other music approaches (PNEU article: A Few Remarks on Teaching Music by W.H. Leslie)
  • 33:14 Perfect Pitch and Moveable Doe
  • 35:05 Shortening Form 1 lessons and help them find their singing voice

[Stonechats 7] Writing (extended)

Marjorie and Jennifer share with Miriam an overview of Miss Mason’s approach to writing and then tell their personal stories of struggle in the difficult area of composition.

[Stonechats 6] High School

Marjorie and Jennifer reflect back on what a CM education looked like for their high school students.

[Stonechats 5] Grammar Thoughts

Miriam wonders why Wildwood introduces the study of formal grammar later than many other approaches.

[Stonechats 4] Ahead and Behind

Today we muse on what it means to use a CM education with advanced and struggling children, and eventually reflect on how we can reframe what it means to be ahead or behind.

« Older posts

© 2024 Wildwood Curriculum

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑