It's a Classical Life

  We have been having many discussions about education in our home recently. We haven't been all that pleased with the schooling that our two youngest children are receiving and have been discussing the possibility of switching to home-schooling. Charlotte Mason has been an inspiration to me for a long time and this quote of hers not only guides my beliefs as an educator, but also guides the premise of this blog.  My husband and I have both recently left our careers in teaching to go down a different path. Part of this came from burn-out, part came from a desire for a slower life, less dependant on the "system", and part of it came from a real disillusionment with the education system in our country today. Teachers are trying their best, but it's an uphill battle and very rarely do they win. And it's our children that are caught in the crossfires.  Our daughters are sensitive girls, they're well-read, eager learners and their growth - physical, intelle...

  I had a lot of fun compiling this list, and only used the classic books on our bookshelf that have been loved and read by three children (now all past age 5, but these books still remain!) As my idea to write a list for Classic books for children turned out to be a very long list, I decided to break it down into age groups. Here is the first group, for children aged 0-5. This is not, by any means, an exhaustive list. Please feel free to add your favourite classics in the comments below.  1. Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy, Lynely Dodd Source 2. Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown. This is such a favourite book of ours that we even have it in Spanish! Our children were raised bilingual and the simple language with the effective pictures was such an engaging read - in both languages. I always wanted 'a great green room'  of my very own. 3. The Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle. Another one that we have in both English and Spanish, as the children learned the days of th...