The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 3.1

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 2.2

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 2.1

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 1.3

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 1.2

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 1.1

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity. 

The Art of Narration - Defined and Demonstrated with Maryellen St. Cyr

Charlotte Mason called narration the ground-plan of education. Maryellen St.Cyr instructs in this art of telling back with students of varied ages. See how students exhibit the power of narration as they have read/listened to a single reading with attention and concentration and "have in every case reproduced what they have read in narration"

This is a series of Videos demonstrating Narration the videos demonstrations are located here.

Educating with the Brain in Mind Seminar Dr. Bill St. Cyr

"To be a teacher you just manipulate their sense experience in such a way as to write on the blank slate of the students mind. We cannot as Christians believe that's all there is to education. As Christians we believe you can know God. And that is not just the processing of sensory information."​ ~Dr. Bill St. Cyr @ Educating With the Brain in Mind Seminar 

Dr. Bill St. Cyr is a gifted educator, counselor, teacher trainer and conference speaker. Since 2001, he has partnered with his wife in giving leadership to Ambleside Schools International. Prior to becoming Executive Director of ASI, Bill taught high school at Ambleside of Fredericksburg and spent ten years in private practice as a pastoral counselor. His professional experience includes serving as a youth minister, providing leadership to a discipleship ministry on Capitol Hill, and serving as assistant to the Chaplain of the United States Senate. Bill's academic degrees include B.A. in political science (Louisiana State University), M.A. in theology with an emphasis in patristics (Catholic University of America), and M.S. and Ph.D. in pastoral counseling (Loyola of Maryland). 

NOTE: The use of "animal brain"or the "reptilian brain" makes reference to the oldest of the three that controls the body's vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance. The reptilian brain includes the main structures also found in a reptile's brain: the brainstem and the cerebellum.

Video here

Educating with the Brain in Mind Seminar Maryellen Marschke St. Cyr

"Charlotte Mason used the analogy as food for the mind as food for the body. What are we eating? What are our children eating? What is their mind food? Not just in the hours of school but in the hours of home. What are they feasting upon? Or what are they starving for?" ~Maryellen Marschke St. Cyr Educating With the Brain in Mind 

Maryellen Marschke St. Cyr M.Ed. A professional educator for more than 30 years, Maryellen St. Cyr has spent thousands of hours in the classroom and hundreds of hours observing other educators. Possessing a passion for a congruent, life-giving method of education, she has become one of the foremost experts on the "common sense" educational philosophy of 19th-century British educator, Charlotte Mason. Maryellen is a primary author of When Children Love to Learn and founder of Ambleside School of Fredericksburg and Ambleside Schools International. 

Video here

Education is 99% Habits and 1% Knowledge with Maryellen St. Cyr Part 2 [BASECAMP Live]

Classical Christian parents and educators are fond of saying “education is more than information – it is formation”… but what does formation really look like in a practical way? 100 years ago British educator Charlotte Mason wrote on how affections and habits are formed, noting what neuroscientists are now claiming as a new discovery!

Maryellen St. Cyr went through a dramatic shift in her understanding of education after spending time researching the British educator Charlotte Mason and now runs 21 schools around the world based on this philosophy of education. Mason’s insights on how children learn and how thoughts and affections are formed is a critical element often missing in our homes and classical Christian schools. Join us along with David Goodwin, president of the ACCS on this episode of BaseCamp Live.

Maryellen St. Cyr is the Founder of Ambleside School of Fredericksburg, Ambleside Schools International and Ambleside Homeschool. 
A professional educator for more than 30 years, Maryellen has spent thousands of hours in the classroom and hundreds of hours observing other teachers. Possessing a passion for a congruent, life-giving method of education, she has become one of the foremost experts on the “common sense” education philosophy of 19th-century British educator, Charlotte Mason. Maryellen is a primary author of When Children Love to Learn and shares insights into education here.

Education is 99% Habits and 1% Knowledge with Maryellen St. Cyr Part 1 [BASECAMP Live]

Classical Christian parents and educators are fond of saying “education is more than information – it is formation”… but what does formation really look like in a practical way? 100 years ago British educator Charlotte Mason wrote on how affections and habits are formed, noting what neuroscientists are now claiming as a new discovery!

Maryellen St. Cyr went through a dramatic shift in her understanding of education after spending time researching the British educator Charlotte Mason and now runs 21 schools around the world based on this philosophy of education. Mason’s insights on how children learn and how thoughts and affections are formed is a critical element often missing in our homes and classical Christian schools. Join us along with David Goodwin, president of the ACCS on this episode of BaseCamp Live.

Maryellen St. Cyr is the Founder of Ambleside School of Fredericksburg, Ambleside Schools International and Ambleside Homeschool. 
A professional educator for more than 30 years, Maryellen has spent thousands of hours in the classroom and hundreds of hours observing other teachers. Possessing a passion for a congruent, life-giving method of education, she has become one of the foremost experts on the “common sense” education philosophy of 19th-century British educator, Charlotte Mason. Maryellen is a primary author of When Children Love to Learn and shares insights into education here.

How do we form a human soul? What Charlotte Mason knew about the art of education. [BASECAMP Live]

How do we make education a joyful discovery? Is it knowledge alone or do relationships have something to do with it? What kind of relationship does your child have with history, with their siblings, with math, with their teacher? If relationships are important, how do we shape the affections of what our children love? Perhaps the environment we create, and what we celebrate or criticize can have a huge impact. Learn more about what Charlotte Mason knew about children and how they learn as we welcome Bill St. Cyr, co-founder of Ambleside Schools International.

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 5: Questions and Answers

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 4: Additional Skills of Joy

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 3: The Skills of Joy

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 2: The Constituents of Joy

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 1: The Definition of Joy

Part 1 – The Definition of Joy

The first part of a four-part series, Dr. Bill St. Cyr, Executive Director of Ambleside Schools International gives us the definition of joy: providing examples of what it is and is not, contrasting it with happiness, and establishing it as a foundation of character.

Listen to Flourish Podcast for Free: Apple Podcasts |  Google Play Music | iHeart Radio |  RSS Feed

Watch on Youtube | Vimeo 

Method of a Lesson Part 2

The Method of the Lesson, as described by Charlotte Mason, is marked by five steps. Bill and Maryellen St. Cyr, of Ambleside Schools International, continue discussing the of the Method of the Lesson, describing the reading of an episode, narration, and the second talk. While the teacher points to ideas in the text, the children must do the work of thinking and learning.

”The children themselves must do the mental work. They must engage their minds - they must do the attending; they must do the reflecting; they must make use of the ideas.

Growth Focus

The heart of a child will shape how they live and how they experience life. “Growth means the formation of new habits, habits formed with the right kind of heart, the right kind of intrinsic motivations, which have to be cultivated relationally.” Dr. Bill St. Cyr, of Ambleside Schools International, speaks of the importance of maintaining healthy relationships between teachers, students, and texts. Charlotte Mason wrote, “The question is not, -- how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care?

Method of a Lesson Part 1

A renewing vision and philosophy of education must lead to an applied method. Bill St. Cyr of Ambleside Schools International discusses and gives examples of the first two steps of the 5-part Method of a Lesson used at Ambleside schools. It begins with a well-chosen text; this could be a book, a flower, or a musical composition. The relationship between the student and idea-rich texts is what Charlotte Mason meant by a living education.  “Just as the human body needs nourishment and exercise to flourish, so the human mind needs the nourishment of ideas, but it also needs exercise. In exercising, the mind attends, it reflects, and it uses that which it is learning.

Cultivating Relationships with Learning

In many school environments, children have to choose between subjects, and they are often drawn only to subjects they like. Charlotte Mason thought it should be otherwise. She envisioned an educational feast in which students develop wide relationships with this world. She called it our Great Inheritance. “As is often the case in traditional settings, people grow in the areas that they’re already interested in. And yet, what we’ve seen at Ambleside, is real joy and real delight in learning in a varied array of subjects.” Bill and Maryellen St. Cyr, of Ambleside Schools International, discuss the delight of children and adults as they experience a broad curriculum. “We must be very, very intentional and careful about the dynamics between teacher, taught, and the text, for only then will there be a life-giving education.