Innovators like Charlotte Mason have gone to great length to help homeschooling evolve and grow into a sophisticated practice. Once upon a time homeschooling involved a bunch of children sitting around a dinner table scribbling away as a stern parent watched over them and lectured. Today there are many different ways to homeschool your child. One of the most long standing and popular practices is the Charlotte Mason method.

Charlotte Mason dedicated a life time to developing the homeschooling movement in the early 1900’s (1842-1923). She was passionate in the pursuit of improving the quality of children’s education. Her enthusiasm and commitment allowed her to lay the foundations for an adaptable homeschooling program that offered homeschooling parents and their children with a comprehensive education that went a long way to keep learning fun and exciting. The Charlotte Mason method focuses on core subjects and places an emphasis on fine arts, literature, and classical music.

One of the cornerstones of the Charlotte Mason method includes reading a wide range of literature and narrating. Narration, Mason claims, is the most effective way to ensure comprehension after reading. From an early age students must practice narrating, in their own words, what they have read. Young students can begin by narrating stories orally or through drawings, but by the age of ten children should be able to narrate in the written form. Mason believes that narration facilitates the synthesis, organization and communication of information.

When it comes to curriculum materials, the Charlotte Mason philosophy advocates ‘Living Books.’ These books were meant to replace the dry factual books often found in public schools. ‘Living Books,’ on the other hand must be authored by people with passion about a particular subject. This enthusiasm will shine through the writing and inspire a similar passion in the child. ‘Living Books’ should be written in conversational or narrative style. Mason shuns “twaddle,” which she defines as books that dumb down information for children, insulting their intelligence and killing their enthusiasm.

‘Nature Notebooks’ are also an important part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy. Mason encourages parents to provide their children with many opportunities to explore nature and become intimate with the outdoors. Parents should ask their children to keep nature notebooks where they can record everything they perceive in nature. Younger children can draw the different plants and animals they see. Older children can write down names and descriptions of objects in nature and those with a literary flair can write nature poetry. Mason suggests that spending time observing nature paves the way for meaningful scientific instruction. Of course, this will also help to develop a respect and love for the environment. Children often love and anxiously await nature study times for they view them as a break from “book studies” or even as free time.

Although Charlotte Mason focused on the study of core subjects, she held strongly to her belief that the development of good character and discipline are essential to the complete development of a child’s personality. Children must learn how to govern themselves. Parents and teachers must instil good habits such as respect, punctuality, cleanliness and patience in their children. Charlotte Mason felt that for a new skill to become habit it would take children four to six weeks of practice.

More and more homeschooling parents are becoming interested in Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy. Parents don’t necessarily have to embrace the philosophy as a whole or follow every aspect of Charlotte Mason’s teachings, but can simply implement one or two of her ideas such as starting nature notebooks or helping kids develop good habits such as punctuality. By implementing bits and pieces from different homeschooling methods, you can create your own homeschooling program tailored to your child’s interests and your family’s values.