What Is Charlotte Mason Education? I'm So Glad You Asked!

Wait, what was that? You didn't ask about Charlotte Mason Education? You don't want to hear all about the latest and greatest in CM methodologies?

Too bad! You're going to hear about it anyway!

Now that that's cleared up, let's sit back and get comfortable!

Getting Started

As y'all may or may not know, there are many different types of home education. I'll list some of them here for those of you who may not know the larger categories. In no particular order, home education styles include....

Textbook - Also known as "doing school at home," this method uses traditional textbooks, worksheets, reading comprehension questions, book work, seat work, etc.

Unit Studies - Tying all subjects into one particular topic. For example, one might do a unit study on "apples" or "Christopher Columbus," or any of an infinite variety of subjects - and every subject (math, spelling, science, history, etc.) would be tied to that subject. More commonly, parents will use unit studies for history and science, and leave other subjects to be studied independently.

Delight-Driven - The parent finds out what interests the child, and constructs lessons around those topics.

Classical (or Neo-Classical*) - Based on the Socratic method, using the three-phase "trivium" model of teaching different ages.

Unschooling - There are no formal lessons, but the parent encourages and provides all sorts of resources and opportunities for child-directed learning.

Charlotte Mason - Based on the teaching and philosophies of 20th century British educator Charlotte Mason - see below for details!

And the method that almost all of us use in the end....

Eclectic - A mix of all the above. Among home educators, there are very few purists who use only one teaching methodology - most people pick and choose. For example, our family currently uses the textbook approach for handwriting, math, and map skills, the Charlotte Mason and/or delight-driven method for literature, history, and science, and unschooling for vocabulary and physical education.

Read more about the different education styles here.

Now that you know the basics, let's talk about....

Charlotte Mason Education

When I first heard about the different types of home education, Charlotte Mason (CM) education was the only style that did (emphatically!) not appeal to me - primarily because it is the hardest to conceptualize and understand. Unlike the other styles, which can be clearly explained in one or two brief sentences, Charlotte Mason methods can take years to understand. It's not a quick and easy philosophy to understand. And in the beginning, I pretty much wrote Charlotte Mason off as confusing, discouraging, irrelevant, and completely uninteresting.

But in the past few years, my interest has been piqued again and again by various mentions of Charlotte Mason education methods. And I have discovered, to my astonishment, that many homeschooling ideas that have attracted me have, in fact, been Charlotte Mason based - such as notebooking and nature walks. In short, it seems to be fated that our family should get to know and love Charlotte Mason education, and I am now at the beginning of that journey.

I am not an expert on Charlotte Mason - I am at the most beginning stages of learning about this philosophy. Thus, I am not going to expound greatly upon Charlotte Mason - I am simply going to provide the basics, plus the resources that I am using to learn more.


So.... Who WAS Charlotte Mason?

Charlotte Mason was a British educator in the late 1800's and early 1900's. She started a system of British schools, as well as a teacher training school, based on her educational philosophies, and her ideas are now widespread among the home education community.

According to Ambleside Online (read the full FAQ article here):

"The Charlotte Mason method uses living books with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity, narration instead of comprehension exercises or composition, copywork for handwriting, spelling and grammar modeling, nature observation as the primary means of early science, and literature, poetry, art and music to give children's minds beautiful ideas to feed on."

That's a great definition! (Go and read the whole article.)

Charlotte Mason advocated for late-start education (at age six) and for vast amounts of outdoor time (the gold standard is four hours a day, though we only manage an hour or two) and nature study. She believed that children should be nourished and surrounded by large quantities of top-quality living books and other sources of beauty and information (through, for example, picture study and classical music), and that the processing of this information should take place through oral and written narration ("telling back") rather than using textbooks followed by comprehension questions.

I love Charlotte Mason's ideas, which were definitely ahead of her time (and ours, for that matter), and I am learning so much as I immerse myself in CM education.


Charlotte Mason Distinctives

The answer to "what defines a Charlotte Mason education" will differ by who you ask, of course, but here are the basic tenets of Charlotte Mason education according to "When Children Love to Learn" (a book that I am currently enjoying):

- Living Books - Real, living books instead of textbooks (whenever possible). Some of you may remember my article about this several months ago!

- Narration - This is "telling back" what was learned - orally in early years, or in written form in later years. This is basically the practice of notebooking!

- Reading and Literature - Lots and lots and lots of top-quality literature! Mmmm.

- Spelling and Composition - Learned through copywork, narration, dictation, and through reading living books.

- Poetry - At first, I was dreading this - but then I discovered that kids actually love good poetry! Now we love our daily poetry readings.

- Shakespeare - We haven't gotten here yet, but I know we will, and I can't wait!

- History - Again, from real and living books. Yum.

- Mathematics

- Nature Study and Notebooks - We are in the beginning stages.

- Science - In the early years, from nature study.

- Picture Study - We did this for the first time today! It was awesome!

- Music Appreciation

- Bible Instruction

- Foreign Languages  

- Physical Education

- Handcrafts - Charlotte Mason advocated "handicrafts" - as opposed to our typical "crafts" - projects of real use such as leathercraft, sewing, etc.


Books on Charlotte Mason Education

If you're interested in learning more about Charlotte Mason Education, the following three books are highly recommended in the CM community. I am reading the first, and hope to acquire the second two soon:

What to Know More? Join the Facebook Group!

I recently became a member of the Charlotte Mason Homeschoolers Facebook Group, which is an extremely active and vibrant internet community of home educators who use CM methods or want to learn more about CM methods. I highly recommend this group! Join us!

(There are also online forums and Yahoo! groups which you can find on the Ambleside website and other CM websites.)

Websites! Give Me Websites!

I have discovered two major Charlotte Mason websites. Both offer complete and FREE K-12 curriculum plans, and many people use them for their families:

Ambleside Online

Simply Charlotte Mason

Both of these websites contain a vast amount of information, and I am not anywhere close to completing my read-through of either site. Right now I am attempting to set my timer for 15 minutes a day of voracious reading, and I have the feeling that I will be reading for many months to come. Even if you do not end up using the curriculum plans, there is so much information on these two sites!

Enjoy!

What About Other Websites?

There are many other Charlotte Mason websites and blogs, and I am just now beginning my collection. If you are a part of the Charlotte Mason Facebook group, you will get constant referrals to great websites. Sometime I may try to publish a list of Charlotte Mason blogs, but right now my collection is in its infancy. Here are just a few that I currently follow:

The Common Room

Higher Up and Further In  (This is also another free CM curriculum site!)

Childlight USA

Living Charlotte Mason in California


And there you have it! Comments, questions, things to throw? Fellow Charlotte Mason fans, anything to add? Feel free to share!

* For note on "Classical" v. "Neo-Classical" see Brandy's note in the comments section!

The Newest Organist on the Block! {Warning: Major Cuteness!}

Our littlest guy displays his (future!) talent on the organ!

I was supposed to be playing something, but our guy decided to take the stage. He has definite delusions of grandeur!




We all love the organ, though it generally sounds a tad better than the above - but you can't beat the little guy for sheer cuteness!

Have a great evening, everyone!

Random Pictures!

Why? Because I need to get these posted before I forget about them!

Local field trip - the Arizona Science Center! - as well as the aftermath (some seriously tired kids!).

And another local field trip - to a reptile show! The 7yo got to hold one of the bigger snakes! He loved it!

A few birthday pictures from the 7yo's recent promotion (which we also use as our celebration of family birthdays en masse):

And a few blurry pictures of a baby in a box!

Have a great night, everyone!

Nature Walks! Or Not. Mostly Not.

One of my ongoing projects is an attempt to make nature walks a part of our home education curriculum (see this great article! - and this one too!). I love the idea, and I also love the outdoors and want to get our family outside as much as possible.

Getting the family outside, however, is the easy part. Leading successful nature walks is somewhat more difficult! Let's just say.... I have a lot to learn.

So far I have tried the scrapbook method (gathering objects to display on a notebooking page) rather than observing/drawing methods. Even that has been a rocky road, as our 7yo has very little interest in nature - his "nature collections" are mostly along the lines of discarded trash and scrap building materials! (The nature-type objects you'll see below are my doing.)

But it's a start, and I know I'll learn as we go along.

For your amusement, here are the results of our first three efforts. The writing is mine, at the 7yo's dictation. You may not be able to read the writing, but let's just say that it has precious little to do with nature! (Our 7yo runs more to Jedi narrations than to thoughts on the Great Outdoors.) At least he likes the hot glue gun we use to create our pages! (*Sigh*)

We'll get there, folks... we'll get there.

But it may take a while!

Fourth of July Pictures!

Usually I remember holidays the day before... this one I remembered the morning of! Oh, crumbs! I was supposed to plan for this!

Thankfully, my forgetfulness was easily remedied, and we had a great day. Highlights included....

A Fruit Flag! (Strawberries, blueberries, marshmallows.) Yum. (You can make it healthier with bananas instead of marshmallows, but then you need to eat it within three seconds before it looks crummy.)

That's right, those are lessons in the background. Home education is never more than six inches away from me. 

Dinner was sticky-sweet drumsticks, baked beans, our fruit flag, and..... patriotic gelatin desserts! They were so fun to make!

How to make: Jello on the bottom, tilted while it jells. I used all-natural jello to avoid the Red 40, and an added bonus was the fact that because it was vegan, it chilled much faster than traditional jello! Then panna cotta on top, plus blueberries for topping. This is an adaptation and simplification of Martha Stewart's original recipe for Red, White, and Blue Parfaits (sorry, no time to make homemade currant gelatin from fresh currants).

We did our traditional reading of the Declaration of Independence (to see why, read this post), and then finished up with a water balloon fight.

I occasionally get a really good picture... this is one of them! Oh wait, I didn't take this picture - DH did. And that's why it turned out well! 

Afterwards we went in to watch snippets of the Capitol Fourth show... but, come to think of it, I believe we ran out of time for that this year. Instead, we headed outside for fireworks (the local show is just a few blocks from our house) and then our own sparklers.

We had a great - and very, very, very busy - Fourth of July! How did you all celebrate?

My New Favorite Birth Video!

I have watched this video twice... and cried both times! This gorgeous and heart-touching birth video (click here to see full-size) is a true keeper, and embodies everything that is beautiful and holy and precious about childbirth. Please take a few minutes to watch (and share!) - I know you'll love it as much as I did!

This video is very G-rated - no nudity at all.





 Enjoy! Congratulations to this sweet family!

An Awesome Book.... For Free!

This week I became aware of a soon-to-be-published book, "Three Decades of Fertility." It looks absolutely awesome, and I can't wait to read it! Here is the trailer:



I am a long-time blog reader of many of the authors, and I am sure that this is going to be a great book.

And..... if you would like to use your blog to review this book, you can get a virtual copy (E-book or PDF) for free here! 

Much as I'm drooling over this book, I probably won't take advantage of the offer, simply because I have found e-copies of books impossible to finish. Not having (or wanting) an e-reader (or whatever those things are called!), it requires massive amounts of time sitting at the computer - time that I don't have right now, as all of my reading is done while nursing (or while brushing my teeth!). I've tried to read e-books on the computer before and found them impossible.

However, for you Nook/Kindle/etc. people out there, this is an awesome opportunity! Please let me know if you decide to take them up on the offer, and how you like it! Enjoy!