In previous posts, I and other homeschool bloggers here at families.com have discussed our experiences with charlotte mason curriculum. In my last post, I supplied Charlotte Mason Vocabulary for the letters A & B. This article will cover the letters C-E.
Copywork: Copywork is the tool used to help students learn. It teaches children excellent penmanship from an early age. It helps them to learn and memorize facts. It also helps to improve spelling and vocabulary. Copywork begins as early as six years old and as the student ages leads to written Narration, Composition, and Creative Writing.
Curriculum: Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling is often referred to as a curriculum, but it is not. There are guides that you can use to help you create a Charlotte mason homeschooling, but they are merely guides that you use, not strict rules you must follow. Curriculums can be integrated into the Charlotte Mason approach of homeschooling and many families do add a math curriculum to enrich the approach.
Dictation: Dictation is the act of reading to the child and having him or her write the words down verbatim. Dictation is a good tool to help a child memorize a passage. In dictation a child used proper punctuation rules as well as perfecting spelling.
Drill: In Charlotte Mason Approach a drill has nothing to do with flashcards and memorizing. Instead it refers to physical conditioning. It involves singing and aerobics, which is similar to the Armed Forces exercise drills. The reason for these drills is to stimulate the brain after several hours of reading and writing to get them ready to finish the day.
Discipline: Charlotte Mason believed that discipline was a very important part of training a child. She did not believe in overlooking bad behavior, but instead in correcting the child upon the first transgression. This does not mean instituting corporal punishment, but being a strict parent and teacher.
Delight Directed Studies: This is a Charlotte Mason tool that allows a student to follow his or her own heart in exploring and learning. It differs from unschooling in that it is primarily used for older students and it is done in their free time after other work is completed.
English: English as in English Grammar is not a specific subject in the Charlotte Mason Curriculum. It is instead incorporated into the other subjects through the proper use Grammar and Punctuation along with the copy work and dictation tools. The Literature part of the English subject is taught along with history.
Read:
A little Bit of Charlotte Mason
More Charlotte Mason: An atmosphere, a discipline, a life
Charlotte Mason: Reluctant Narrators
More on Charlotte Mason and Living Books
More on Charlotte Mason: The “Science of Relations”
Charlotte Mason: What’s the Point of Copywork?