Tag Archives: charlotte mason

Homeschool Glossary (words homeschoolers should know) – C

Charlotte Mason Method– The Charlotte Mason Method of homeschooling is a books based approach to learning. Children learn to love reading good books and original sources of information. They also spend a lot of time in nature. Classical Education – (also called trivium-based education) is a history-based approach to education with three developmental phases. In the early or primary years, the children are taught facts. In the middle school years, children learn logic and reasoning. In the final high school period, children learn persuasion and abstraction. College admission: Once your child is in middle school, you will want to start … Continue reading →

Charlotte Mason: What’s the Point of Copywork?

In this series of posts on CM methods, I’ve covered several of Charlotte Mason’s ideas about education. Today, I’d like to touch on one that doesn’t always get quite as much coverage as “living books” and narrations. Copywork was advocated by Charlotte Mason as a way to teach handwriting, but also as the best way to teach spelling and punctuation rules, sentence structure and basic grammar. It was her theory that reading and copying excellent literature would lead to excellence in composition skills. I’ve used some of Miss Mason’s ideas about copywork and have been really pleased with the results. … Continue reading →

Charlotte Mason: Reluctant Narrators

Charlotte Mason advocated the use of oral or written narrations as a way of having a child report on his reading. There are several reasons that narration can be so helpful. Narrating a just-read passage helps a child to internalize and remember it, and aids reading comprehension. It’s also a great help to the homeschooling parent, who can find out immediately what and how much the child has absorbed. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Have your child read a short passage (anywhere from a paragraph to a chapter, depending on your child’s age and ability.) Then, have him tell you … Continue reading →

More Charlotte Mason: An atmosphere, a discipline, a life

Recently, I discussed how Charlotte Mason’s ideas about living books and “education as a science of relations” influenced my homeschooling philosophies and methods. Today I want to take a look at another key phrase of Miss Mason’s that also shaped my approach to homeschooling. Charlotte Mason said, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.” What, exactly, did she mean? Let’s break it down, bit by bit. Education is an atmosphere What is an educational atmosphere? For Charlotte Mason, it’s more than a room full of textbooks. An atmosphere that encourages rich learning is one full of living books written … Continue reading →

More on Charlotte Mason: The “Science of Relations”

In my last post, I talked about the ways in which my daughters made connections, through living books and hands-on activities, that helped them to learn (and retain what they’d learned) about various historical periods, specifically, late 19th and early 20th century history. Charlotte Mason, in her Original Homeschooling Series, spoke of these connections when she called education the “science of relations.” Miss Mason believed that children have a natural thirst for knowledge and a great capacity for amassing it. She believed that their quest to understand and absorb the world around them could be channeled quite productively into learning, … Continue reading →

More on Charlotte Mason and Living Books

Andrea’s recent post about her use of a Charlotte Mason (or, “CM”) curriculum inspired me to share a little more about how we use Miss Mason’s methods in our homeschool. Charlotte Mason, a 19th century British educator, was unmarried and childless, but she had a keen understanding of children and an expert’s eye for what interests them. One of the most prominent tenets of her philosophy — her belief that educators and parents should make use of “living books” rather than textbooks — has had a strong influence on our homeschool and on my personal philosophy. I was just beginning … Continue reading →

A little Bit of Charlotte Mason

As a relaxed homeschooler with an eclectic philosophy, I have found that I subscribe to the theories of the Charlotte Mason Curriculum. Charlotte Mason emphasizes gentle learning through reading. I myself am a testament that learning through reading works. I began reading for pleasure in the fourth grade. My teacher, sensing that I was bored with the (everybody at the same pace, private school) curriculum, and stressed from the bullying for being too smart, loaned me The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I read that book, the rest of the series, and everything from classic to best sellers for … Continue reading →

Read-alouds: The best and biggest benefit

In two previous posts, I extolled the benefits of reading aloud to my children. Clearly, we are book lovers, and we’ve seen many benefits of read-alouds from the time our children were very young, from instilling a love of language to increasing the kids’ confidence in their own ability to read aloud. But, as my girls have gotten older, I’ve seen another benefit of read-alouds, which adds a whole new dimension to our homeschooling and to our lives. Reading a great deal of literature to my children leads to the most amazing and delightful discussions. Rather than sending them off … Continue reading →

More Benefits of Frequent Read-alouds

In my last post, I talked about the early days in our homeschool, and of slowly building up to longer and more frequent read-aloud times, which have been the source of much fun and learning. In this post, blogger Teresa McEntire offers some great tips for growing in confidence with read-alouds, and this forum thread affirms the wisdom of using read-alouds to help nudge a budding reader along in the learning process. Books have been part of our family life since before we had a family. My husband and I were both English majors who came into the marriage with … Continue reading →

Starting Read-alouds

I read to my children. I read to them a lot. Before we started homeschooling, I thought I read a lot. There were the usual bedtime stories, the books we cuddled up with on frosty, frigid mornings, and the love of library day. But after we began homeschooling, I realized how little I had actually read to my kids. Because prior to that first year, I hadn’t gotten sore throats or dry mouth from read-aloud times. When my voice got tired, I stopped. As we immersed ourselves in all things “Little House” that first year, however, we found that we … Continue reading →