Sonya Shafer
210 episodes listed below
Charlotte Mason guidance for the long road.
Simply Charlotte Mason Homeschooling translates Charlotte Mason principles into concrete home-education decisions. Recent episodes focus on high school credits, transcripts, independent work, living books, family rhythms, and preparing children for adulthood.
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Simply Charlotte Mason Homeschooling is an education show centered on applying Charlotte Mason principles in ordinary home-school decisions. Its tone is patient, organized, and parent-facing. Recent episodes spend significant time on high school, a stage that can feel newly formal after years of narration, living books, and learning without grades. The show explains credit hours, grade point averages, transcripts, assignment deadlines, and independent work in plain language. It does not treat those requirements as the heart of education. Instead, it keeps returning to growth, knowledge, habits, attention, and the student’s gradual practice in self-education. That balance gives the show its usefulness. It can talk about official records and college expectations, then turn back toward learning for its own sake. Book recommendations are another major strand. Episodes describe living books for ancient times and early modern history, with attention to narrative style, primary sources, biographies, historical fiction, maps, narration prompts, and whole-family study. The show favors history that feels human rather than a string of battles. It also gives older students room to read independently while keeping them connected to family study. Shorter moments widen the focus beyond academics. Conversations about launching children into adulthood bring in home atmosphere, hospitality, sibling relationships, conflict resolution, daily rhythms, discipline, and the art of living. The guidance is concrete. It names schedules, check-ins, routines, course completion, and dedicated work spaces. It is also careful about attitude. Parents are encouraged to stay engaged, be firm about deadlines, and respond to stumbles calmly rather than personally. The result is a steady companion for Charlotte Mason families trying to preserve a rich philosophy while handling the paperwork, planning, and maturity required in the later school years.
Made for: For homeschooling parents using, considering, or adapting the Charlotte Mason method, especially those approaching middle school or high school. It suits families who want practical structure without reducing education to grades and checklists.
What sets it apart: The show joins philosophy to logistics: living books, narration, habit training, transcripts, credits, and deadlines are treated as parts of one educational life. Its high school guidance is concrete while still rooted in Charlotte Mason principles.
The weekly Simply Charlotte Mason homeschooling audio podcast with Sonya Shafer
Shakespeare can wait; Sonya Shafer helps you plan the homeschool your family can actually carry.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm, practical case for letting family capacity shape the homeschool year.
Planning a homeschool year can stir up excitement and plenty of doubt, but this episode keeps the focus on a more grounded question: what can a family actually fit into the time set aside for education?
A practical curriculum rethink shows how family feedback reshaped Bible, history, and geography planning.
Simply Charlotte Mason's curriculum revisions open on the practical work of tables, Post-it notes, and a deceptively plain question: what still needs to be created through high school?
Ruth Smith shows how flexibility can reshape homeschooling with a first grader and preschoolers.
Homeschooling with preschoolers is treated here as a matter of proportion, especially when the oldest child is only beginning formal lessons. Sonja Schaefer draws out Ruth Smith's experience of starting with a six-year-old, a four-year-old, and a one-year-old, and of discovering…
Homeschooling talk for real family seasons.
Practical homeschool talk for real family learning.
Sonya Shafer and Karen Smith give practical planning advice for families using a Charlotte Mason homeschool approach.
Sonya Shafer presents seven ways for high school students to assume responsibility for their own habits before leaving home.
Sonya Shafer argues that high school students need independent assignments without being left adrift.
Sonya Shafer and her daughter Ruth compare chronic illness to "energy poverty," a permanent limit on energy, time and mental clarity, which differs from a temporary hard "season." Ruth's strategies include year-round schooling, a realistic plan adjusted daily, audio books when reading aloud was impossible, and afternoon lessons when mornings were her worst hours.
This episode introduces two living books for studying ancient times as part of the Pageant of History curriculum, focusing on making history engaging and accurate for family learning.
This episode discusses how Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy helps parents prepare children for adulthood, focusing on the 'art of living' and transitioning from home to independent life.
This episode recommends living books as engaging alternatives to dry textbooks for teaching early modern history to high school students, starting with a specific book example.
This episode recommends living history books for 5th to 8th graders covering the early modern period (1550-1850) as part of the Pageant of History curriculum.
This episode reviews 10 favorite living books for elementary students studying early modern history (1550-1850), focusing on titles used in the A Pageant of History Early Modern curriculum.
Sonya Shafer discusses the benefits of studying American history alongside world history and recommends books for the early modern period.
Simply Charlotte Mason host Sonya Shafer and curriculum writer Katie Thacker retell how, just over two years ago, a routine planning meeting turned into a full rewrite of the company's homeschool curriculum through high school.
Sonya Shafer shares top book picks for high school students studying the Middle Ages in a Charlotte Mason homeschool.
Sonya Shafer recommends nine living books for middle school students studying the Middle Ages in a Charlotte Mason homeschool.
Sonya Shafer recommends five living books for elementary students studying the Middle Ages, part of the Charlotte Mason homeschooling approach.
Sonya Shafer introduces family books for studying the Middle Ages using the Charlotte Mason method.
An interview with an adult who was homeschooled using the Charlotte Mason method, reflecting on her experience.
Sonya Shafer explains the Charlotte Mason approach to memorization, contrasting it with traditional rote learning.
This episode explores the educational tool of notebooking, highlighting its benefits for memory, creativity, and self-directed learning, with historical examples from figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Marie Curie.
Sonya Shafer discusses the power of narration as a tool to solidify knowledge, using a personal anecdote about forgetting a restaurant location.
This episode introduces the tool of observing as a key skill for students to learn independently, using the Charlotte Mason approach.
This episode discusses how to instill good habits in children without using rewards, exploring the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy's perspective on bribes and motivation.
Sonya Shafer and Amber O'Neill Johnston discuss the concept of living ideas in a Charlotte Mason education.
Sonya Shafer offers five practical Charlotte Mason-inspired practices to refresh and motivate homeschool parents feeling stale.
An interview with the author of the Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series about the story behind the curriculum.
Sonya Shafer introduces the concept of narration in homeschooling, comparing it to learning baseball, and offers five tips for helping students begin narrating successfully.
A homeschooling parent shares a personal story about organizing books to illustrate practical time management and project planning strategies for implementing the Charlotte Mason method in 4th grade education.
Sonya Shafer and her daughter Ruth discuss how to cultivate a love of nature in children through Charlotte Mason's nature study approach, rather than focusing solely on nature notebooks.
This episode explains how to teach spelling naturally using the Charlotte Mason approach, integrating it with reading and word-building activities.
Sonya Shafer discusses the natural progression of teaching handwriting using the Charlotte Mason method, starting from children's early drawing experiments.
Sonya Shafer explains how the Charlotte Mason Method teaches reading step by step, emphasizing a natural progression without pressure.
Sonya Shafer explains the Charlotte Mason approach to language arts, emphasizing the importance of good books and natural progression in hearing, speaking, reading, and writing.
Sonya Shafer and Rochelle Baborina discuss how to help children remember numbers during oral math work in Charlotte Mason arithmetic.
Sonya Shafer and Amber O'Neill Johnston discuss overcoming intimidation about nature study in a Charlotte Mason education, sharing personal struggles and practical advice.
Ruth Smith explains how starting formal homeschool with a six-year-old, four-year-old, and one-year-old made a carefully planned school day difficult to sustain.