Homeschool Curriculum Packages: Living Books

The living books method of homeschooling is an approach based primarily on reading high quality literature, or "living books." The idea being the living books approach is that children learn more from reading/listening to material that is enjoyable than they do from dry-as-dust textbooks.

There is no formal definition of what constitutes a living book. The primary criterion is that the book sparks the imagination of the student. Living books never talk down to children or dumbs things down. A living book needs to be of high quality to serve as an example for the student. Finally, a living book promotes what is noble and good.

The phrase "living books" was coined by Charlotte Mason, a nineteenth century British educator. Miss Mason believed that the best method of teaching children was to use the highest quality literature. She derided simplified versions of literature for children, calling such books "twaddle." She argued against the use of textbooks which she said contained "miserable scraps of information about persons and things that have little connection with one another and little connection with ourselves!"

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