In Vital Harmony

Charlotte Mason looked at the world and saw that it was governed by universal laws, such as the law of gravity. Then she wondered. What if there were similar laws that governed the way people learn? If we knew what those laws were, we'd be able to pursue education along the most promising lines . She devoted her life to finding the key principles of education and then developing methods to make the most of them. The result is a comprehensive picture of living and learning that breathes life into education at every level--from babyhood to the adult years. It's not a rote system, but a flexible set of ideas that keep education in focus. These principles are for everyone concerned with teaching and learning. They are no more difficult to implement than the principle of gravity which allows you to walk, run, and even--when you know what you are doing--to soar.

Know and Tell explores some of the reasons that narration is such a powerful and effective tool in education. It also follows the progress of narration, step by step, from early oral narrations to developed writing. Itś full of narrations from real children so youĺl have an idea of what narration looks like at each stage, and youĺl be able to see how childrenś narration matures and develops.

For the first time, His Royal Highness Charles, the Prince of Wales, shares his views on how mankind’s most pressing modern challenges are rooted in our disharmony with nature. In the vein of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Van Jones’ Green Collar Economy, Prince Charles presents the compelling case that solutions to our most dire crises—from climate change to poverty—lie in regaining a balance with the world around us.

This is Charlotte Mason as you have not seen her before: Mind to Mind is her well-seasoned final work, originally titled An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education. Divested of outdated material, the essential philosophy is brought into sharp relief. Ms. Mason wrote, "The message for our age is, Believe in mind, and let education go straight as a bolt to the mind of the pupil." Our generation needs to hear that message more acutely than ever. Karen Glass, with deep respect for the original, has preserved the essentials in Ms. Mason's own words, while delivering the material in a format that speaks to today's readers. This book is an abridgment in the literal Latin sense of "to shorten." What has been shortened is not merely the length of the original volume, but the path between the modern reader and the mind of Charlotte Mason. In this book, Charlotte Mason presents the vital principles that underlie her methods, and with the confidence of many decades of practice behind her, recommends those methods to a wider audience. She wanted to reform and regenerate the educational practices of Great Britain in the early 20th century, but 21st century readers will find her ideas just as potent, just as penetrating, and even more refreshing than they were when they were originally penned. Her first principle is "Children are born persons": not machines, not animals, not accidental conglomerations of cells, but persons, with all the magnificent possibilities that personhood implies. The education we should offer a person is the education Charlotte Mason offers to us.

Why is life the way it is? Bacteria evolved into complex life just once in four billion years of life on earth-and all complex life shares many strange properties, from sex to ageing and death. If life evolved on other planets, would it be the same or completely different? In The Vital Question, Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solution to conundrums that have troubled scientists for decades. The answer, he argues, lies in energy: how all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a bolt of lightning. In unravelling these scientific enigmas, making sense of life's quirks, Lane's explanation provides a solution to life's vital questions: why are we as we are, and why are we here at all? This is ground-breaking science in an accessible form, in the tradition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

Winner of the 2015 Burt Award for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Literature! In a world without time and steeped in ceremony and magic, walks a chosen few who hold an ancient power: the Grey Eyes. True stewards of the land, the Grey Eyes use their magic to maintain harmony and keep evil at bay. With only one elderly Grey-Eye left in the village of the Nehiyawak, the birth of a new Grey-Eyed boy promises a renewed line of defence against their only foe: the menacing Red-Eyes, whose name is rarely spoken but whose presence is ever felt. While the birth of the Grey-Eyed boy offers the clan much-needed protection, it also initiates a struggle for power that threatens to rip the clan apart, leaving them defenceless against the their sworn ememy. The responsibility of restoring balance and harmony, the only way to keep the Nehiyawak safe, is thrust upon a boy’s slender shoulders. What powers will he have, and can he protect the clan from the evil of the Red Eyes? Check out “Grey Eyes in the Classroom,” the IndieGogo campaign aimed to donate copies of Grey Eyes to underfunded First Nation schools across Canada:

They're hallmarks of childhood. The endless "why" questions. The desire to touch and taste everything. The curiosity and the observations. It can't be denied-children have an inherent desire to know. Teachers and parents can either encourage this natural inquisitiveness or squelch it. There is joy in the classroom when children learn-not to take a test, not to get a grade, not to compete with each other, and not to please their parents or their teachers-but because they want to know about the world around them! Both Christian educators and parents will find proven help in creating a positive learning atmosphere through methods pioneered by Charlotte Mason that show how to develop a child's natural love of learning. The professional educators, administrators, and Mason supporters contributing to this volume give useful applications that work in a variety of educational settings, from Christian schools to homeschools. A practical follow-up to Crossway's For the Children's Sake, this book follows a tradition of giving serious thought to what education is, so that children will be learning for life and for everlasting life.

This collection of inspirational passages and anecdotes blends the common-sense thinking of western philosophy and the mystical wisdom of eastern disciplines. It is based on the belief that our journey through life is most peaceful and fulfilling when we learn to recognise and take charge of our chosen destiny, knowing when to direct the flow and when to yield to it. Organised in an easy-to-read format and grouped by subjects such as truth, chaos, freedom and wisdom, this book encourages each reader to freely discover his or her own road to inner harmony.