With our Kickstarter currently running for our venture into Charlotte Mason’s Home Education series, we’ve been getting lots of great questions about our older Smidgen Press Charlotte Mason project from 2023, versus the series we’re beginning now in 2025.
Here are several photos and some detailed comparisons … which we hope are enough information and not too much!
Summarizing the main differences in editions
Our previous release by Charlotte Mason was her Volume 6, Philosophy of Education. This older edition is the one currently available on our store.
Since this project was released 100 years after Mason’s passing, we labeled that 2023 book our Centenary Edition. (More back story and info in posts here and here.)
Now, for the series, we are adjusting Volume 6 and adding Volume 1. Here is the main roundup of feature comparisons.
Book features
Our Smidgen Press Mason reprints have these features requested by readers:
- Comfortable book size with plenty of thumb room
- Original page numbers from earlier editions, preserved in the margins
- Professionally proofread and re-typeset from scratch in an easy-to-read classic font
Book size
There is a slight size difference between the 2023 and 2025 editions.
- The 2025 series books are slightly smaller than the 2023 Centenary Edition—5.5×8.5 vs. 6×9.
The back story: We intended our 2023 edition to be the foundation for any future Smidgen Press Charlotte Mason projects.
But reader feedback caused us to make a few changes. The Centenary page size was almost exactly the same as the First Edition, First Printing that we consulted—6″x9″ in US measurements—but we kept hearing that readers felt like it was just SO big.
Thus the series editions will be just slightly smaller.
Bonus content
Our editions to date have bonus content that is not currently available in other editions.
Volume 6 was so fun to put together based on Mason’s notes of her project vision. See the blog posts linked above for more details, but here is a summary of Volume 6, Philosophy of Education:
- The 2023 Philosophy has one bonus chapter by Mason, completing “Part III,” and also adds an Appendix with student evaluations and results.
- The 2025 series Philosophy version keeps the Part III chapter but omits the Appendix for space considerations.
As we add Home Education to our catalog, we’re carrying on our tradition of adding bonus content by restoring an Appendix that was cut after the 3rd edition.
- The 2025 Volume 1 contains “The Imperative Demand,” sermons by Eugene Bersier with commentary by Mason.
Click here to look inside Home Education (best viewed on a computer screen):
What other questions can we answer?
Please find us on social media or email hello@smidgenpress.com with any questions, comments, or suggestions.
We’re glad you’re here!
