Homeschooling: The Charlotte Mason way

NOTE: This is part 2 of my guide to homeschooling. For part 1, see here.

Things I observed in over a decade of teaching in public high school:

• Kids learning something, taking a test, and promptly forgetting it.
• Students leaving high school proudly declaring that they’ll never again read a book.
• Children spending eight hours a day learning in a series of rooms, sitting in rows, surrounded by strangers, whose home lives and influences you have no idea about or control over.

There are structures above teachers they cannot hope to influence or control, and if the government says, 'You will teach underwater basket weaving four hours per day in every grade or we will cut your funding by half,' then guess what everyone will be learning next year?

Sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it? Because it is. It’s also the reality of public schooling today. I fancied myself to be different from other teachers in that I didn’t just open a textbook and start teaching on page one. I tried to tailor my teaching to the abilities of my students as best I could. I incorporated real-world experience as often as possible. I took them outside whenever I could find a reason to go.

But it didn’t matter, because the reality is, it doesn’t matter what a teacher’s personal philosophy of education is. There are structures above teachers they cannot hope to influence or control, and if the government says, “You will teach underwater basket weaving four hours per day in every grade or we will cut your funding by half,” then guess what everyone will be learning next year?

There’s a better way to learn. It’s more natural, and it is what I believe most people would gravitate toward if left to their own devices.

Who is Charlotte Mason?

Charlotte Mason is a name that means a lot to some people and is completely unknown to others. I have taken to calling her the godmother of homeschooling when I talk about her. To say that Charlotte Mason’s ideas changed our family profoundly is a great understatement. So who the heck is she?

Charlotte Mason was a British educator and philosopher who lived at the turn of the 20th century. Her educational philosophy literally spans six volumes of writing, but you don’t have to read all six volumes, because her method comes naturally.

Looking back on the most profound educational moments of my life, I see Charlotte Mason’s reflection in them all. I studied history in college, and most of my classes were round-table discussions of books we had all read ahead of time. We were, in fact, narrating — a core concept in a Charlotte Mason education.

The Charlotte Mason method

Charlotte believed that education is “the science of relations” and “an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.” She also believed that children are “born persons” and are worthy of the respect and responsibility due to them as such. So what does that look like in practical terms?

First, you do not water things down. You do, however, provide age-appropriate-sized “bites” of whatever is being studied. You spread a wide “feast” of knowledge. Art, music, math, foreign language, Shakespeare, Plutarch, history, geography ... all of these are key components of a Charlotte Mason education.

Lessons are, however, kept short and use living books instead of dry, boring textbooks. Learning revolves around experience and narration — written or oral retelling of what one read or observed.

My 9-year-old has read Shakespeare this school year but only three plays, never all in one sitting, and sometimes using puppets to keep the characters straight.

Charlotte emphasized time in nature as integral to a successful education. Children were not expected to understand nature simply by reading about it. Children needed to go out and look at what the world is doing on a day-to-day basis.

In our family, my sons go outside and then they come in and tell me all about their adventures, like how the plants are changing or animals they saw. I try to go with them on longer walks about once a week, but I also encourage them to go out on their own.

Eventually, I will start having the oldest keep a nature journal, either physical or digital, but for now, I am loving his narration of the seasons and the small day-to-day changes he notices.

I know we are fortunate to live in a rural setting with plenty of nature available to us, but I have read many mothers' accounts of doing nature study at a local park, in their tiny back yard with a single plant in a flower pot, or using their apartment building’s rooftop as a place for a garden. It is doable, even though it might be different for your family.

Charlotte Mason encouraged children to be outside in all types of weather, but she also lived in Ambleside, England, where it was never 100 degrees with 100% humidity, either. So no, we don’t implement that part with 100% fidelity in our house, because our family circumstances are different, and I am a huge weenie who cannot tolerate heat.

Habit training is also a key part of a Charlotte Mason education. Charlotte Mason understood that children are not being raised, men and women are. Believing they are born persons, it is important to help children form good habits early because habits are being formed every day, whether for good or bad. This idea makes parenting more proactive, instead of reactive.

I am still very much a student of habit training, but that’s one of the most beautiful parts of a Charlotte Mason education: Mom gets to learn new things, too.

When we began homeschooling, I started looking for ways to bring all of the elements that I felt public school was lacking into our days. I wanted art and music and orderliness and nature to be a part of what my children experienced. At the time, I had no idea who Charlotte Mason was. Through a series of divinely inspired events, I do now.

The changes I have seen in my children, and in our life as a family, have been profound. My boys go outside and re-enact the Battle of Hastings, or they’ll come traipsing through the house pretending to be Robin Hood and Prince John. My baby daughter is so in love with books that we read 20 a day sometimes, and they are mostly all quality stories that inspire the imagination and uplift the spirit. My husband and I have reignited our own passion for reading. We have all discovered classic literature that we likely never would have read had we not chosen the Charlotte Mason path for our family.

You may be thinking this sounds like a lot of fairy-tale nonsense. Like I’m some sort of Snow White, cleaning my house with forest animals and teaching wide-eyed children who are always rapt with wonder. When you’re still thinking in the “public school way,” Charlotte Mason’s ideas will sound completely alien and perhaps unattainable.

But underneath that, I know what you’re thinking. Because every good parent understandably wants a quality education for his or her child, you’re wondering when we actually “learn.” The answer is: all the time. Learning happens every single day.

It happens in ways you will not see coming when you start. And you won’t have to manufacture it. You will present real, quality materials and experiences to your children, and they will tell you how they have put it together for themselves. It will be meaningful in ways that textbook learning just inherently is not. Think about the books you love. Unless you are profoundly weird, I would bet money that the books you love most are not textbooks.

If that doesn’t convince you, then think about what you want the long term to look like. To quote one of my favorite podcasters Tyler Mahan Coe, “There’s a difference between handing someone a $20 bill and handing them a treasure map.”

Charlotte Mason Resources

Charlotte Mason’s way is a treasure map — her methods will give your child the tools and desire for lifelong learning. If this sounds at all like what you want for your family, here are some resources to help you get started.

Curriculum choices

This is not a complete list but enough to give you some ideas:

• Ambleside Online (This is the curriculum we use, though with our own timetable.)
• Mater Amablis (Catholic-flavored Charlotte Mason)
• Simply Charlotte Mason (I am currently reading through all of the "Laying Down the Rails" materials. I need help habit training two headstrong little boys and a little girl who is bent on world domination.)
• A Gentle Feast
• Beautiful Feet Books
• The Alveary

Podcasts

• "The New Mason Jar"
• "Simply Charlotte Mason"
• "A Delectable Education"
• "Modern Miss Mason"
• "The Charlotte Mason Show" (Season 7, episode 6 is a particularly good interview with Leah Boden.)

Books

• "Modern Miss Mason" by Leah Boden (This one is a particularly good place to start, I think.)
• "Know and Tell: The Art of Narration" by Karen Glass
• "For the Children’s Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
• "Mere Motherhood" by Cindy Rollins
• "Mother Culture" by Karen Andreola
• "A Charlotte Mason Companion" by Karen Andreola
• "A Charlotte Mason Education" by Catherine Levison
• "More Charlotte Mason Education" by Catherine Levison
• Charlotte Mason’s six volumes (But don’t try to read these straight through. It’s a LOT.)

A version of this essay first appeared on the Unprepared.life.