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CM Homeschooling Acronyms and Lingo Cheatsheet

Disclaimer : The following terms/acronyms often come up in CM circles (forums, blogs, comments, etc), but they do not all refer to purely Charlotte Mason resources (some are not very CM at all). This list is here to help you follow what is being discussed, not to recommend resources.

AAR : All About Reading

AO : AmblesideOnline

ADE : A Delectable Education (podcast)

AoPS : Art of Problem Solving

AYOPS : A Year of Playing Skillfully

BF : Beautiful Feet

BFIAR : Before Five In a Row

BOC : Book of Centuries

BYL : Build Your Library

CC : Classical Conversations

CHOW : A Child's History of the World (by Hillyer)

CIMT : Centre for Innovation in Mathematics (creators of MEP - see below)

CM : Charlotte Mason

CMEC : Charlotte Mason Education Center

CMI : Charlotte Mason Institute 

FB : Facebook

FIAR : Five In a Row 

FTCS : For the Children's Sake (by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay)

HOD : Heart of Dakota

HONS : Handbook of Nature Study (by Anna Botsford Comstock)

HUFI : Higher Up and Further In

IEW : Institute for Excellence in Writing

LBC : Living Books Curriculum

LLATL : Learning Language Arts Through Literature

LOE : Logic Of English

LOF : Life Of Fred (math story books by Dr. Stanley Schmidt)

MA : Mater Amabilis

MEP : Mathematics Enhancement Programme (free online British math curriculum)

MFW : My Father's World

MLLE : Math Lessons for a Living Education

MM : Math Mammoth

MMM : Making Math Meaningful

MUS : Math U See

OIS : Our Island Story (by H. E. Marshall)

OOP : "Out Of Print"

PLL : Primary Language Lessons (by Emma Serl)

PNEU : Parents' National Educational Union

RS : RightStart Math and sometimes, Rod and Staff

RSM : RightStart Math

SCM : Simply Charlotte Mason

SMH : Sabbath Mood Homeschool

SOTW : Story of the World (by Susan Wise Bauer)

SWB : Susan Wise Bauer

TCOO : This Country of Ours (by H. E. Marshall)

TOG : Tapestry of Grace

TWTM : The Well-Trained Mind (by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise)

TYCTR : Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

ULAT : Universal Language Acquisition Tool

WP : WinterPromise 

Terms/Lingo:

Here is a helpful video from Brandy Vencel where she talks through some Charlotte Mason lingo.

Living Books : See : What is a Living Book? (SCM) and ADE podcast episode : Why Living Books are Essential

Mother Culture : Mother Culture is, basically, a mother's continuing education - aimed at cultivating her own soul. See more here.

Parents Review Articles (PR Articles): Articles from a monthly magazine sent to parents/teachers in PNEU schools. Available here through AmblesideOnline.

Twaddle : Basically, twaddle is anything that is "dumbed down" for children - mostly when referring to books, but occasionally used in describing activities/toys/classes. Identifying twaddle is somewhat subjective, but for a good discussion on what constitutes "twaddle", see SCM's blog article, "What is Twaddle?"

The Saviour of the World : A series of poems written by Charlotte Mason inspired by Scripture. Available here through AmblesideOnline.

Sloyd (particularly Paper Sloyd) : Sloyd is the Swedish word for "craft". Paper sloyd is a systematic training of students in using paper/cardboard to make useful items. Charlotte Mason believed paper sloyd was among the most valuable handicrafts. Find more about it here.

Solfa/Solfege : From AmblesideOnline : "Solfa, (solfege in French), is a method to train the voice to sing on pitch and to identify notes and intervals by sight and ear." Read more here.

Spine (Especially History Spine) : From Letters From Nebby : "[Spines are] books which one uses, especially in history but possibly also in other subjects, to give a sort of backbone to one’s studies. That is, they give the whole story, though perhaps in less depth, and other books might be used to supplement and give more information on specific subjects of interest." Read more (including some examples of commonly used History Spines) here.

Swedish Drill : From AmblesideOnline : "[Swedish Drill is] a pre-Victorian era exercise regimen that has significant value when viewed through a modern health science lens". Read more here.

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