"Children come into the world with a natural appetite for all the material of knowledge; for interest in the heroic past and in the age of myths; for a desire to know about everything that moves and lives; about strange places and strange peoples; ... Therefore...we endeavor that he shall have relations of pleasure and intimacy established with as many possible of the interests proper to him; not learning a slight or incomplete smattering about this or that subject, but plunging into vital knowledge, with a great field before him which in all his life he will not be able to explore." 

     In other words, Charlotte Mason believed that education was much more than knowing lists of information or being able to fill answers in blanks.  True education is an intimate knowledge of a subject, gained through the actual interaction of minds (via people and books), nature, and discipline of habit.  

     Charlotte Mason promoted ideas such as using "twaddle-free" literature to teach subjects, the use of "narration" to organize thinking, the importance of free play to the imagination, and the helpfulness of developing good habits such as attentiveness and responsibility. One of Charlotte Mason's greatest passions was that of nature study.  

     Instead, Charlotte Mason encouraged the use of whole books (not portions of books) and primary resources to teach youngsters everything from history to reading. She believed that a child, having read well-written literature containing noble ideas would remember his lessons for a lifetime. 

      The Tanglewood Curriculum emphasizes the use of "living" books to teach subjects such as history, science, and literature. This means that instead of teaching primarily from textbooks, we utilize well-written books that capture a child's imagination.  For example, while studying the Renaissance time period, the 3rd grader will be read to every day out of the "anchor" book, Our Island Story, by H. E. Marshall, which covers information in chronological order.  (All of our "anchor" books have been chosen according to their literary value as well.  The events of history are related in the form of stories rather than in the 'facts-inserted-into-an-outline' format.)  Supplemental books, such as the classic Scottish Chiefs or the 'for fun' Shakespeare Stealers will  give the student deeper insight by letting him live vicariously in that time period getting to "know" the movers and shakers, learning the causes and effects of events, and experiencing the culture of the day. A student, having "lived" through the Renaissance, will have a much greater understanding and empathy for the time than if he had simply read a few paragraphs in a textbook.

     "Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life."   

"The child who does not know the portly form and spotted breast of the thrush, the graceful flight of the swallow, the yellow bill of the blackbird, the gush of song which the skylark pours from above, is nearly as much to be pitied as those London children who 'had never seen a bee.'"

    "The power to classify, discriminate, distinguish between things that differ, is amongst the highest faculties of the human intellect, and no opportunity to cultivate it should be let slip;"

    "Children... should pick out half a dozen trees...and take these to be their yearlong friends."