Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning : A Story for Mother Culture

Product Description

Karen Andreola, best known for A Charlotte Mason Companion, has written a unique sort of book in the homeschool world. Pocketful of Pinecones is a teacher s guide to nature study cleverly disguised as a heartwarming story, written in the form of a mother s diary.
Woven into the story are:

More than130 examples of what to look for on a nature walk,
Latin names for the living things observed by the characters,
Study questions,
Nature poems and verses.

Other features include:

A supplement of selected quotations by Miss Charlotte Mason,
An annotated list of books with a nature theme, both fiction and non-fiction,
Nostalgic pencil drawings.

Yet Pocketful of Pinecones is also a story for Mother Culture®. It revolves around a mother named Carol. She is on her feet a lot – caring for her family. In her diary, Carol pours out her secret worries, hopes, joys, and disappointments. She also writes of the nature walks she enjoys with her children. Her goal is to safeguard their sense of wonder. Together they observe God s marvelous creation and the children record their finds in their Nature Notebooks. Carol reads Home Education by Miss Charlotte Mason and attempts to put the advice into practice. Designed to be a pick-me-up, each chapter is short enough to minister to a mother who has only snatches of time in which to nourish her soul. Carol s story continues in the sequel; Lessons at Blackberry Inn.

About the Author

Karen Andreola is the author of Mother Culture®: For a Happy Homeschool; A Charlotte Mason Companion; Pocketful of Pinecones; Lessons at Blackberry Inn; and Story Starters. She home educated her 3 children K-12.
RevivalKaren and Dean Andreola were largely responsible for igniting the modern-day revival of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education among home educators. While serving in a Christian literature mission in London, Karen began homeschooling in their tiny rented flat. In an age before the Internet, Karen asked Dean to find Miss Mason’s long-out-of-print writings. Astonishingly, none could be found for sale in the whole of England. As Providence would have it, an elderly bookshop owner told Dean of the Charlotte Mason College in the Lake District. Soon after, Dean made the trip. He received on loan from their archives all 6 volumes of CM’s Home Education series. Karen began reading. Experimenting through trial and error, she began adapting the principles to her home life. Upon returning to the States in 1987, the Andreolas arranged for the republication of the 6 volumes. They kept the pink books in print for 25 years.The Gentle Art of LearningTMIn the 1990s the convenience of podcasts, videos, blogs, and FB communities did not exist. Karen often felt alone. But help was on the way. One day she received on her doorstep 77 hardbound volumes of Parents’ Review from the CM College archives. The heavy cartons came with a big international freight bill. Thus began the years of sifting through articles some over 100 years old to find golden nuggets of wisdom relevant for today. Karen shared her discoveries and experiences: in homeschool magazines, her own magazine, and as key-note speaker at conferences. Her interpretation of CM’s philosophy, trademarked The Gentle Art of Learning, attracted many to the method. It gave parents the confidence to say, I can do this. Homeschool leaders privately acknowledge they first understood the ideas of CM through Karen’s book, A Charlotte Mason Companion.Freelance ReviewsFrom 1995 to 2014 parents looked forward to reading product reviews the Andreola family wrote for several Christian homeschool catalogs.Mother Culture® DiscoveryAn obscure article, anonymously written, was published in 1892. It lay quietly undisturbed in Parents’ Review until Karen discovered it. What was the article that intrigued her? It was titled “Mother Culture”. It struck a chord in Karen’s heart. As she considered how it might benefit mothers today, ideas bubbled over into her own mag