My husband Eric and I were both so blessed to be homeschooled by our mothers. The impact it made on our lives is invaluable, and even from our early dating years we both shared that we hoped our children could be homeschooled as well. At that point I was vaguely aware of different home education curriculums and styles, but as we got married and began talking about starting our family I dove into the topic much more. It was a bit overwhelming to find there are a myriad of educational philosophies out there, Classical, Waldorf, Montessori, Traditional, Unschooling just to name a few. At that point I was probably leaning more towards a traditional/classical style, until I was introduced to Charlotte Mason.

I was 8 weeks pregnant with my oldest when a dear friend of mine introduced me to one of her friends, a homeschool mother of seven (that’s right, SEVEN) sons. To say that day changed my life is an understatement. As I walked into her home I saw the fruits of many years of sowing the Charlotte Mason principles throughout their family. Mason says “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.” The boys were playing throughout the home and outside with the most wonderful imaginations, nourishing food was cooking in the kitchen, instruments were being played and practiced, and shelves were covered from floor to ceiling in books. It was so obvious that these children were partaking in a rich feast of knowledge and stories and nature. 

This kind woman then took me into their home library that they had built together out of a necessity for more book storage, and she graciously sat down and talked with me for over two hours as I asked every question that popped into my brain about how she was teaching her children. I wrote down a huge list of books she recommended that I read on Charlotte Mason homeschooling and I ordered many of them that night. When my husband came home from work that day, I could hardly catch my breath, I was talking so fast about what I had observed and learned. A CM fire was lit in me that day, and 4 years of reading, podcasts, blogs, and discussions later, we are just getting started on our homeschool journey and we are so excited!

These are just some characteristics of the Charlotte Mason educational style that my husband and I particularly love.

• Short lessons – keeping the lessons short helps set the student up for success in paying attention, and are built up each day through consistency. For the younger years, an entire day of lessons could be finished in 1-1.5hrs, giving so much more time for nature walks, freeplay, spending time with friends, field trips, free-reading…
• An array of subjects – shorter lessons allows for many more subjects to be touched on than time would normally allow such as poetry, composer study, artist study, handicrafts, and hymns just to name a few. 
• Big emphasis on nature study – Charlotte Mason encouraged students to spend 4-6 hours outside exploring God’s creation. While that may not be attainable (give yourself grace!), it gives you an idea of how important spending time outdoors is with this philosophy of education, and I couldn’t agree more.
• Morning collective as a family – starting our school days off together with Scripture, poetry, hymns, and so forth really sets a tone for the day, and completing these with us all together encourages camaraderie with their siblings and saves more time for freeplay later.
• Narrations – telling back what they’ve read (or been read to) deepens their comprehension, cements what they have learned, and can be built upon.
• Literature based – no textbooks or worksheets, students are learning with literature from authors who are passionate about their subject and stories. Living books give students ideas to digest, and characters to build relationships with.
• Formation of Character – Every day we either actively or passively influence the habits (that form character) of our children, and the CM philosophy helps to integrate this into our homeschooling and daily rhythms to make sure we’re being intentional with this. 

While I’ve known and read about the CM education style for a few years now, I still feel like I’m just seeing a small corner of what it could really be. I’ve only touched the surface of books on the subject, but I’ve listed some I’ve read and plan to read below in case you’re interested in learning more. “For the Children’s Sake” by Sheila Shaffer and “Mere Motherhood” by Cindy Rollins especially impacted me. Charlotte Mason’s own writings are more philosophical and can be a slower read, but they are so rich in information. I’ve found it’s so helpful to read and discuss her volumes with a friend, rather than just on my own!

We are so excited to offer this style of homeschooling to our children, and have already seen such fruit from the little that we’ve started so far. Just an example, my 3 year old can recite a six stanza poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, memorized simply from our habit of reading poetry together everyday. Never once have we practiced it or I asked him to memorize it. It makes me so excited for the truth, beauty, and goodness my children will delight in over the next several years. 

Before I go, I want to encourage you to find the educational style that works best for your family and students and don’t feel pulled or pressured by anyone else. While we have fallen in love with the Charlotte Mason principles, we’re certainly not implementing every last idea of hers. We’re just taking what works for our family, and going from there. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing!

"Let all that you do be done in love." - 1 Corinthians 16:14