Listen to “CHM041:Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Method” on Spreaker.
This week’s podcast is about the Charlotte Mason homeschooling method. Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived in the 1800s and made a tremendous impact on changing the way children were perceived, treated, and taught.
Three main values of homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way
- Atmosphere. The atmosphere in your home makes up ⅓ of your child’s education.
- Discipline. Cultivating good habits of character makes up another ½ of their education. Learning to be dependable is important.
- Education is life. Academics are integrated into their lifestyle. Children should be given thoughts and ideas and not just facts.
Other things that make up the look of the Charlotte Mason homeschooling method
- Discipline and character training have mostly to do with forming habits. Forming habits in good hygiene, chores, and having good morals is very important. Life itself is essentially education.
- Quick and easy lessons. There is no drill and kill involved and no homework. Instead, narration and dictation
- Two building blocks of learning grammar through literature: narration and dictation.
- Formal testing is not encouraged over and above narration.
- Afternoons are free for leisure (such as reading good books, handicrafts, hobbies, chores, visiting the sick, and outreach to others).
- Days are filled with living books. Living literature as the source for learning about the world around us, rather than textbooks. It allows kids to connect with the characters and become engaged in the time period.
- Children are introduced to culture (art study, musical composer study, hymnal study.)
- Nature walks and nature journaling is included. Teachers don’t interrupt, but just allow the kids to be attentive to things in nature and take short notes or draw. (One example is our family’s recent trip to the ocean.) The idea is to appreciate the world around us. The journals are kept as documents but never graded formally.
Charlotte Mason Resources
- Charlotte Mason Club (live teaching and online club on CurrClick)-http://www.currclick.com/product/68619/Charlotte-Mason-Club—May-13%2C-2013
- Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola –http://tinyurl.com/cz5a5pk
- Simply Charlotte Mason– http://simplycharlottemason.com/
- Ambleside Online (a Charlotte Mason free curriculum/school online)-http://www.amblesideonline.org/
- Charlotte Mason Help–http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/
- The Charlotte Mason vs. Maria Montessori debate-http://yinmiaoyangmeow.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/charlotte-mason-vs-montessori-debate/
Other resources listed in this podcast:
Currclick-http://www.currclick.com
Stella’s Stunners
Guest Writer, Allison’s post– New Beginnings (incorporating Jewish feasts into your home)
Guest Writer, Rochelle Barlow’s post– Avoid Homeschool Overwhelm
I truly hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast on Charlotte Mason homeschooling. I really have grown to appreciate this method over the years. Please let me know if you enjoyed this episode by leaving a review on Itunes!
