How to Homeschool with the Charlotte Mason Method

July 15, 2024
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Elementary Homeschool, Homeschool High School, Homeschool Planning, Homeschool Resources, Homeschooling - Getting Started

Charlotte Mason style of education is based on the teachings of Charlotte Mason. Mason was a British educator in the nineteenth century. This approach to education emphasizes good habits and noble ideas. Mason’s teachings and writings were especially geared toward parents, governesses, and other child-care providers. Read on for personal advice from two experienced homeschool moms!

Charlotte Mason is Living Education

Charlotte Mason’s philosophy views the child as a person. Good habits and noble ideas help shape them. Not just their minds, but their whole persons and their whole lives. Her motto for students was “I am, I can, I ought, I will.”

  • I am: I am a person of great value
  • I can: I am able to do everything required of me
  • I ought: I ought to be of service to others
  • I will: I will choose to do what’s right even if it’s not what I want.

Each child is encouraged to do his best in everything. Learning is a lifestyle with its own reward built in. Education develops the character habits for a well-lived life. Parents nurture and inspire the student’s education. But, the duty to learn belongs to the child–and is called “self-education.”

charlotte mason and Jean Rudd

Jean Rudd has been homeschooling her three sons since they were born. Trained in mechanical engineering, she has been a manufacturing engineer specializing in automation and process improvement, a technical writer and software trainer for proprietary systems, an instructional designer, and a web designer and trainer back when the internet was invented. For the past 20 years, she has been focusing on educating the next generation. She now blogs at Self Educating Family.

 

When I started with Charlotte Mason (CM) homeschooling, I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed.  Twenty years later, I wish I knew then what I know now. Whether you are a veteran or a novice homeschooler, it’s good to take a step back to evaluate your homeschool plan. Here are some tips that I’ve learned to keep your homeschool year on track with Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

Remember: Method vs. Curriculum

In her “20 Principles” from the preface of Towards a Philosophy of Education, Volume 6 of the Charlotte Mason Series, Charlotte Mason says, “In saying that ‘education is a life,’ the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.”

This “generous curriculum” sometimes translates into more than 15 subjects being covered as early as the elementary years. It can get overwhelming. First, let’s remind ourselves that Charlotte Mason homeschooling is a method, not a curriculum.

But I Have a Charlotte Mason Curriculum

It’s a great question, and I know it because I used the most popular free CM curriculum out there.  It’s a fantastic curriculum.  But I wanted to complete ALL of it.

Two Great CM general curriculums out there:

  • Ambleside Online says that “AmblesideOnline is a free homeschool curriculum that uses Charlotte Mason’s classically-based principles to prepare children for a life of rich relationships with everything around them: God, humanity, and the natural world.”
  • Simply Charlotte Mason boasts “An enjoyable and complete Charlotte Mason curriculum” focusing on a six-year history cycle and teaching most subjects as a family.
  • Also, there are lots of great single-subject curriculums that use CM methods, like:
    • Our Journey Westward: No Sweat Nature Study series
    • Sabbath Mood Homeschool: Living Science series.

There are so many more lovely curriculums. These few I mentioned are by no means an exhaustive list. The issue is not about the curriculum.  The underlying methods and principles are what make Charlotte Mason-style homeschooling.

Getting Bogged Down in Charlotte Mason Curriculum

Here are some common problems when you think a particular curriculum is going to be the answer to all your issues.

  • It’s too much.  Especially true for those new to Charlotte Mason homeschooling, we see a list of 15+ subjects that “have” to be taught!  Multiplied by the number of children in the house!  In my first years of homeschooling with these methods, I would often cut back to the “basics” and skip everything else.  It was a bit discouraging.  But the reality was that I didn’t understand the methods and principles at first.
  • Too much pressure with so many subjects. Following the curriculum without using the principles can make you feel pressured.  In the beginning, I constantly felt like I was doing it “wrong” because I could never finish the list!
  • A key idea of “Short lessons” can become an issue. For example, I had 20 minutes a day scheduled for 2nd-grade math for my twins. What if it takes you 20 minutes just to get your math materials out?  I’m not saying that it ALWAYS took us a ridiculous amount of time to shift subjects, but it was noticeable at first.
  • What if there is never time for “fun” subjects? This made me sad. The so-called “extra” subjects are actually the key part of making a generous and full curriculum.
  • What about the demanding years – if you have toddlers or young learners in with your older learners?  How can you help anyone if everyone is begging for your time?

Underlying Methods of Charlotte Mason Homeschooling

Learning how to homeschool with CM methods is key to keeping curriculum overwhelm under control.

Methods include the use of:

Living books
Short, varied lessons
Narration
Copywork and dictation
Habit training
Nature study
No slipshod work – only quality work
Building observation skills
Building useful handicraft skills
Building self-motivated learners
Masterly inactivity
Connections of all knowledge to an understanding of GodInterestingly, even without this single fundamental thread that tied all of Charlotte Mason’s ideas together, the other methods work so well that non-religious homeschoolers can use CM methods very successfully.

My Experiences with Charlotte Mason

Ironically, one underlying method that drew me to this method of homeschooling was “short lessons”.  I had 3 boys under age 8 and short lessons seemed the way to go with active children and short attention spans. Yet when I tried it, I couldn’t pull it off at first.

In hindsight, of course, I had been trying to do much, too much with such young people.  And I don’t mean that I had been trying to do too many subjects – I mean that I had been trying to “teach” and “lecture” too much. It’s time for Folk Song? Great.  Here’s a brief lecture on the origin of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad and three theories of just who Dinah is.

NO!  Just sing the song. End of lesson.

My controlling perfectionism was beginning to make my boys dependent on me rather than on themselves for learning.  I needed “masterly inactivity”.

Masterly Inactivity

Charlotte Mason Scheduling
Example Charlotte Mason Schedule

A quote from Charlotte Mason’s Volume 3, “We ought to do so much for our children, and can do so much for them, that we begin to think everything rests with us and that we should never intermit for a moment our conscious action on the young minds and hearts about us. Our endeavors become fussy and restless.”

Once I understood how to let fussiness and perfectionism go, and once we developed some better habits about the logistics of how we did lessons, formal lessons got much easier.  Short and varied lessons became doable.

One homeschool mom I know summed it up when she said the light bulb went off in her head when a veteran mom told her, “Folk Song? It’s only 5 minutes!”  All those little “extras” take so little time but are woven into your children’s lives in a rich curriculum when you use the methods and principles.

Why Is a Full Curriculum So Difficult?

Due to my ideas about education coming from a public school background, I wanted to make sure I always covered the “essentials” of math, science, history, and English.  It was sometimes hard to leave the afternoon open.

Charlotte Mason Schedule ExampleSo we often had a hard time incorporating those subjects that might be considered “non-core” – nature study, artist & composer study, Shakespeare, folk song, hymns, poetry, recitation, handicraft, and eventually Plutarch.

My advice to you is to guard the afternoon time as closely as you guard the morning time.

I tried a number of solutions for fitting in all these wonderful pieces of a Charlotte Mason homeschooling curriculum.  If you have trouble fitting the various subjects into your day, I’ve included a reference chart with Solutions for Scheduling Charlotte Mason Subjects.

 

 

 

 

Kim and Charlotte Mason Homeschooling

Kim Andrysczyk is a secular homeschool veteran, homeschool group leader, coffee addict, sarcasm expert, and an accidental blogger. She’s the self-appointed busybody of homeschooling in South Carolina, always on the lookout for new connections to people, places, and resources. Find her at The South Carolina Homeschooling Connection.

Charlotte Mason Food for the Mind

Just as a body hungers for nutrition, so does the mind. Charlotte Mason emphasizes feeding the mind with noble ideas presented in well-written books. She called this kind of literature “Living books.” Learners are surrounded by vivid writings that evoke emotion and draw the reader into the story.

  • History is taught chronologically, using biographies, source documents, and well-written history books
  • Literature is taught along with history, using books from (or about) the same time period
  • Language arts skills are learned through narration, copy work and dictation
  • Science emphasizes nature study as a means to know God
  • Memorization and narration provide material for the mind to “chew” on.

Living books appeal to all ages and do not have to be compartmentalized by grade level. Copywork doubles as handwriting practice and provides careful attention to grammar and sentence structure. Dictation develops listening and comprehension skills while learning the mechanics of writing. Another noteworthy distinction in a Mason school is the introduction of Plutarch’s biographies in the fifth grade.

Focused Attention

Charlotte Mason education delays formal instruction until age six when children are developmentally ready. Then, students have short lessons where they can focus on excellent execution. If you want a child to remember something, then capture his full attention. Short lessons also allow the student time to mentally digest the instruction.

Unnecessary repetition and busywork are removed. Students do not have homework. Formal lessons can be completed by noon. Afternoon schedules are dedicated to errands, art, and lots of unstructured playtime, especially outdoors.

Atmosphere and Environment

First-hand exposure to great and noble ideas thrives in an atmosphere of books. Besides books, children are exposed to great minds through art, music, and nature. It may be more convenient to just stay indoors, watching a nature documentary on television. But children also need the real-world experience in nature and the first-hand knowledge for themselves.

Real learning takes place when students follow their curiosity. They invest their time and effort in worthy thought and worthy work. Leisure time environment involves scouting, gardening, and other handicrafts (such as knitting, needlework, beading, woodworking.)

Charlotte Mason and the Science of Relationships

The Charlotte Mason approach has no separation between intellectual and spiritual life. Mason’s methods are designed to help children see connections between all the subjects. The “secret” to life is that everything is connected to something else. At some point, the child begins to make connections between different things for himself. All knowledge is connected.

Charlotte Mason was a woman of deep personal faith, and her beliefs and values are made very clear in her original writings. Her teachings are founded on a Christian worldview. Education enriches

our relationships with God, self, others, ideas, work, and creation. However, this style of education has also been adapted for secular/non-religious homeschoolers.

The foundation of “I am, I can, I ought, I will” develops character habits for a well-lived life. Charlotte Mason graduates become life-long learners who crave intellect, give back to society, and love and care for nature.

Podcasts About Homeschooling Methods

Homeschooling Methods Part 1

Homeschooling Methods Part 2

Homeschooling Methods Part 3

Is Charlotte Mason right for you?

#HOMESCHOOL TEACHING METHODS, #KIM ANDRYSCZYK