After homeschooling for a couple of years I stumbled upon the Charlotte Mason philosophy.
Ever since learning more about the Charlotte Mason method we’ve adapted some principles into our homeschool days. I am not a ‘strict’ Charlotte Mason homeschooler, but I wanted to share some key elements that I really love and that we’re using.
Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool
- Living Books
- Copywork
- Narration
- Reading great literature
- Short lessons
- Nature Study
- Creating an education atmosphere to encourage life long learning
- Art + Poetry
- Lots of time outdoors
Charlotte Mason elements we’re not doing
So because we’re secular homeschoolers, there are some Charlotte Mason elements we’re not including into our homeschool:
- Hymn Study
- Scripture Memory
I would love to add music into our homeschool but it’s been hard to organize that so far.
Do you need curriculum?
One thing I love about a Charlotte Mason homeschool is that you can read great literature and discuss the book with narration. You can do this for free by using books you have or borrowing them from your local library. Find any book that your children are interested in and get them to do copywork.
Our kids have loved doing copywork after they have some reading practice. I often have our grade 1 or 3 read a few pages, then choose a page of their choice to copy. Then they can draw a picture afterwards if they want to.
I take a more modern approach with our copywork.
Although we read a lot of classic literature, we also read more modern books.
If our kids are loving something like birds, fairytale or even *gasp* viking How to Train your Dragon we roll with them.
Homeschoolers that are devoted to Charlotte Mason ideals would likely not allow for the latter, for it’s ‘twaddle’ but I roll with it. Our daughter has a hard time focusing so if I can get her interested and focused, I go with it. If your kids are struggling with language arts then getting your kids to choose what they do for copywork is great win.
Some samples of our copywork
Where to find Charlotte Mason curriculum
If you are not a secular homeschooler then I know many homeschoolers love using Simply Charlotte Mason.
If you are a secular homeschooler who is ok with a lighter Charlotte Mason approach but wishes for some guidance with narration and copywork, then I definitely recommend Build your Library.
I love Emily Cook’s book ‘A Literary Education: Adapting Charlotte Mason for Modern Secular Homeschooling‘ too (she’s the creator of Build your Library).
I haven’t had any experience with Wildwood, but they also offer a secular Charlotte Mason approach and guidance.
We’ve been using ‘Math Lessons for a Living Education‘ which offers a Charlotte Mason approach to math, even though we’re secular. I do have to tweak it constantly, but I do still enjoy the curriculum. I know other homeschoolers that are using the Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series which I haven’t checked out yet.
Are you a Charlotte Mason Homeschooler?
What resources do you love?
Thanks for this Isis, I have been hearing the name “Charlotte Mason” used around and was not totally clear on her approach. This post has given me a sense of the method.
What books did you have open about bees? We are doing a big bee study this year and I am looking for recommendations as libraries are closed and I need to be pickier about the books I buy. Thank you!
That book is the Firefly Encyclopedia of Animals, we use it for many things! https://amzn.to/3ax77K0
Pepper and Pine has some great book recommendations on creating a bee unit study https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pepper+and+pine+bees
Hope that helps and happy learning!
I wouldn’t say this is a Charlotte Mason approach because the foundation of her method rests on the framework of Faith and Christianity. And that is what her influence on education stems from. And taking what she has built and removing it completely doesn’t make it Charlotte Mason; it’s actually something entirely different. There is a reason why she incorporated scripture reading and memorization, and learning about hymns. It is the foundation for her method to work. Please read her life’s work to understand it better. Because I think you may see why it is necessary to accept all of her methods as she put them together.
The fact that you added twaddle copywork to justify it as a means to at least get your child to work misses the depth of the Charlotte Mason method completely. There is a huge reason why Charlotte Mason didn’t like twaddle work and how it affects the child in the long run of forming habits and a discipline to approaching life. Thus why she says education is a life and it impacts every aspect of a Childs life as they develop into adults.
Hi Tifanny, thank you so much for your informative comment.
I wrote this post seven years ago when we were secular homeschoolers. Since then we have been leaning towards faith and Christianity, but I am still in the beginning stages of this faith journey. We still homeschool grades 3 + 4, but our teens ended up going to a Christian junior high school.
There are definitely secular Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, even if they don’t adopt her whole approach. There’s a lot of homeschoolers that are also eclectic and take a bit from different educational styles and that’s what we’ve usually done over the years. I could definitely update this post with what we’ve been doing since then because our homeschooling has changed a lot since.
In terms of twaddle, yes I agree with you. At the time, our daughter really resisted doing any homeschooling whatsoever and I was also learning all the different ways to teach. I asked her to choose a book to find copywork because I was noticing that it was beneficial to her. She chose a twaddle one, yet I would rather her have passion for learning than saying ‘ no you can’t use that book’, especially as she was obsessed with the How to Train your Dragon at the time. I personally think it’s far worse to destroy the beauty of individual learning.
As she got older, her copywork passages were from many different kinds of books that were not twaddle. We personally don’t just read the classics and have also use modern books in our homeschool. That’s been our personal choice and decision. Again, we’re Charlotte Mason inspired, we are not purists. I’m currently reading Mother Culture– For a Happy Homeschool by Karen Andreola and am really loving it and I’m constantly trying to educate myself more.
Wishing you all the best on your homeschooling journey and I’m glad you’ve found what works in your family, that’s what’s important.