As a girl growing up on the plains of the Midwest, most of my ideas about the mountains

were informed by the children's classic Heidi, the story of a little girl raised by her

grandfather in the Swiss Alps. To me, the mountains were the place where heaven and earth met,

filled with birdsong, happy friendship,

and flowers nodding gently in the breeze. Years later, I would again marvel at the magnificent

heights with Heidi, this time reading her adventures aloud to my own children.

As they breathed in the mountain air and drank in the golden sunlight of the imaginary mountains,

I recalled that Charlotte Mason described mathematics as a mountainous land,

one that rewarded the climber.

Using her approach, we can make the math lesson every bit as vigorous, delightful, and health-giving to our children as the Swiss Alps were to Heidi.

We do so by focusing on ideas.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.

I'm Rochelle Babordana.

Today we are closing out a series on the atmosphere, discipline, and life of math lessons.

We've already talked about how we can create a healthy atmosphere and how we can encourage

good habits during our lessons.

If you've missed either of those episodes, check the show notes for a link.

Today, let's turn our attention to the third part of this series, Life in Our Math Lessons.

A living teaching of mathematics is direct and humble, opening a realm of beauty and truth for a child to explore.

By avoiding anything that clouds the simple, underlying ideas found in the science of numbers,

a mountain view can unfold in our very own homes, beginning with the very first lesson and

the formal introduction to the number one.

...