If you’ve been homeschooling for any length of time, you’ve heard of Charlotte Mason. Maybe you knew she had a huge following, but you’re not sure why. How can an educator over 100 years ago still have an impact on education today?
You don’t see what the big deal is. When I first began homeschooling, I felt the same way and did not research her methods. I was intimidated by the 6 volumes of her teaching philosophy!!!!
Yet, 4 years ago, due to the frustration of high-cost curriculum, I stumbled across a website called Ambleside Online . It got me curious why Charlotte Mason’s philosophy was so popular and decided to read more.
Thankfully, over time, the wealth of information online deciphering Charlotte Mason’s principles convinced me to take the plunge in 2014. I haven’t looked back since.
For those who are new to homeschooling or are curious about it, Charlotte Mason was a British Educator in the early 1900’s. Charlotte believed that a child is a person and we must educate that whole person, not just his mind. The Charlotte Mason education is three-fold and in her words, “Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.”
In a nutshell, here are my 7 reasons why I LOVE Charlotte Mason’s method of teaching and why you should too! And, because I love my readers and want you to love Charlotte Mason too, I've partnered with several other bloggers to bundle a Charlotte Mason giveaway! This giveaway is valued at almost $90 so don't miss out on it.
Habit Training
Ms. Mason stated ‘Sow a habit, reap a character’. Such true words were spoken. If you establish a habit with a child at a young age--when they are old, they won’t depart from it. Need I say more?!
Charlotte Mason was adamant about establishing many various habits. For example, she touched on remembering, attention, thinking, imagining, truthfulness. But, obedience was the key. If a child didn’t learn obedience, he/she would not learn the other good habits. It's hard to reverse bad habits once they are established. So, starting early is essential.
Narration
Narration is simply reading an assignment and asking your child to respond in his/her own words what he/she recalls of the story from beginning to end. This can be done orally when they are young or written when they are older.
The great benefit to this is two-fold. Your child will make mental notes while reading to recall later. This allows him/her to absorb the information. Plus, it's a wonderful skill builder for teaching others in the future as well.
Short Lessons
Charlotte had me at short. Research suggests adults can only retain new information for about 15-20 minutes. How can we expect our young children to retain information longer?
For 8 and under, Miss Mason consistently gave 20 to 10-minute lessons. She believed that if the lessons are too long, children get into the bad habit of mind-wandering. Keep it short when they are young.
In upper elementary grades, students can have longer lessons. For example, subjects such as math, geography and Latin can be 30 minutes long. Other subjects, such as memory work and writing stay around 10 minutes per day.
For middle school students, lessons can be longer---up to 45 minutes for more difficult subjects like foreign languages. Lessons may run from 10 to 30 minutes, but Miss Mason’s schedule revealed there is a place for longer lessons.
When students are in high school, 30 to 45-minute sessions are typical.
Dictation
Dictation sounds so tedious but its actually quite easy to implement into your homeschool day. It's simply asking your child to read a passage or poem over and over again. When they are ready, Mom reads the passage one sentence at a time. They should be able to write it on paper with proper syntax and spelling. Incorrect spelling and grammar must be fixed immediately -- avoiding bad habits.
You can get a copy of Charlotte Mason's dictation 'Day by Day' on Google Books by clicking this link here. You'll search by adding the year after 'Day by Day' ie Day by Day Year 5.
Music and Art Study
In Charlotte’s schools, a composer or artist was studied in each term. This included music and art, plus reading living books about the artist. We LOVE classical music and use online tools to study a composer, artist, and music each month. I send an email to my child's account with a link to the month's respective artist, composer and/or folk/hymn song.
We recently discovered Learn Music in our Homeschool. It's a great resource to check out with wonderful music, great printables for composers and awesome music to listen to. Check it out by clicking on the image below. Please note that this is an affiliate link, thank you!
In addition, here's a great resource for artist studies! We've used this website's printables for several years and are thankful Erica from Enrichment Studies provides beautifully organized artist and composer studies. Check out this link here or image below to find out more. You can get a FREE artist packet each month just by joining her subscriber list.
Living Books
You may wonder, what are living books? I asked this myself years ago as well. Living Books have rich language, engaging stories, and bring the characters alive! Basically, it's the opposite of textbooks!
In today’s society, we have a lot of what Charlotte referred to as 'twaddle'. Twaddle is 'dumbed down' literature with no meaning. I remember a phonics set I bought my daughter that had her favorite character, Dora. They were just plain twaddle. The author threw in a few phonetic words as he/she struggled to pull together a story with little meaning.
Nature Study
With technology, it's easy to stay indoors and become inactive. However, the Charlotte Mason education discourages complacency with encouraging outdoor walks with your children EVERY SINGLE DAY! And, Mason lived in rainy England. It may seem a burden at first, but a study of natural science is wonderful and peaceful. You can get fresh air while discussing God's beautiful world. She recommends getting a journal and encourages children to draw creatures and plants they encounter during their nature walk.
Our rule is to get outside for at least 15 minutes. If we travel away from the yard, we'll take a backpack with water, journal, pen and a snack and walk through the woods behind our house or a park nearby. Homeschool moms need nature too --- get away from dishes, laundry, and a multitude of sounds from electronics.
FINAL THOUGHTS
And, let's not forget you can save money using this method. Thanks to Ambleside Online, you can get an ENTIRE Charlotte Mason based curriculum at your disposal for FREE! The rich literature book list for each level is mostly free on Amazon using a Kindle app. If you prefer paperbacks, you can buy them used on Amazon or eBay. And, if you’re organized enough, order books online at the library. You'll be pleasantly surprised to find the majority of classical books are available. Just don’t forget to set up reminders for yourself to avoid late fees!
We have been using Ambleside Online for 4 years and it has been life-changing for us. My daughter was struggling to read the first year we started. But, by the end of the year, her reading comprehension and fluency soared! My son’s vocabulary has exponentially grown thanks to Charlotte Mason’s philosophy.
If you haven’t researched Charlotte Mason’s methods yet are looking for alternatives, I advise looking into Ambleside Online . The website has a ton of advice and resources on how to get started. There is a learning curve, but thanks to the internet, a little research will get you on your way quickly.
New to homeschooling? Consider this method as an option. It's not too late for older children! Ambleside Online has written lesson plans geared toward beginning older students.
