Charlotte Mason was an amazing educator! Perhaps my favorite quote from Charlotte Mason reveals her understanding that a personal knowledge of and intimacy with God is the highest form of education. This is where we must begin and end!
“This idea of all education springing from and resting upon our relation to Almighty God-we do not merely give a religious education because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example. But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may at the same time be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.” ~ Charlotte Mason
I’ve been collecting a list of Charlotte Mason Resources for your homeschool. These resources will help you implement her teaching methods more easily. Be sure to let me know if you have found something I should add to this list!
Training for the Charlotte Mason Educator
The Charlotte Mason Way Ecourse from Teachers of Good Things
The Charlotte Mason Way Explained ebook from Teachers of Good Things
A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
A Charlotte Mason Education Homeschool How-To Manual by Catherine Levison
When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application for Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy for Today by Elaine Cooper
Copywork Resources
“Children should transcribe favourite passages. ––A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem or another…But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure.”~ Charlotte Mason
Copywork is not the same as “handwriting”. I’ve written an article on Homeschool Copywork which will help shed light —What Is Copywork?
Homeschool Copywork Membership: I am so excited to share with you about Homeschool Copywork, because it is our sister site just started to help supply you with excellent resources for copywork, picture study and all things related to a Charlotte Mason education. We’re just getting started, but already we have 21 resources in the paid membership area, and two very nice free ebooks in the free membership area.
Write Through the Bible from Intoxicated on Life
Free Copywork from Write Bonnie Rose (one of the contributors at Homeschool Copywork!) (also grab her subscriber freebie!)
Picture Study Resources
“When children have begun regular lessons (that is, as soon as they are six), this sort of study of pictures should not be left to chance, but they should take one artist after another, term by term, and study quietly some half-dozen reproductions of his work in the course of the term.” (Volume 1, pg. 309)
Picture Study or Artist Study is a Charlotte Mason invention to help your child live an art-rich life. I’ve written an article on Picture Study over at Homeschool Giveaways — Artist/Picture Study: How, Why and Freebies — which is a great place to start.
Artist Study Helpers from All That’s Good Publishing
Artist Studies from Living Books Curriculum
Living Books Resources
“One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child’s intellectual life.” ~Charlotte Mason
Living Books for Math from Queen Homeschool Supplies
Living Books for Science from Queen Homeschool Supplies
Living Books for History from Queen Homeschool Supplies
A Child’s Geography (Living History and Geography) from Knowledge Quest Maps
What Really Happened Books (Living History) from Knowledge Quest Maps
Wonders of Old Timeline Book (Living History – Book of Centuries) from Knowledge Quest Maps
Narration/Dictation Resources
“The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading,–one reading, however slow, should be made a condition; for we are all too apt to make sure we shall have another opportunity of finding out ‘what ’tis all about.’” ~Charlotte Mason
Language Lessons from Queen Homeschool Supplies
Simply Grammar by Karen Andreola
Write Through History from Brookdale House
Teaching Children with Journaling from Life off the Paved Road
Free Narration Worksheets from Beyond the Cover
Nature Study Resources
The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie
Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie
The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
Free Nature Study Notebooking Pages on Birds from Notebooking Nook at Currclick
Free Season Nature Scavenger Hunt from Ben and Me
Free How to Study Birds with Free Printable from Teachers of God Things
Notebooking Resources
While the term “notebooking” was not coined by Charlotte Mason, she did speak of a child “illustrating his notes”, and “keeping a diary”. These are variations on the same theme: essentially the same as what we mean when we say “notebooking” today.
“Nature Diaries.––As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child. Every day’s walk gives him something to enter: three squirrels in a larch tree, a jay flying across such a field, a caterpillar climbing up a nettle, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider dropping suddenly to the ground, where he found ground ivy, how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, how bindweed or ivy manages to climb.” ~Charlotte Mason
“We need not trouble ourselves at present with more exact dates, but this simple table of the centuries will suggest a graphic panorama to the child’s mind, and he will see events in their time-order.” ~Charlotte Mason
The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater
NotebookingPages.com Membership by Debra Reed
Notebooking Fairy Printables by Jimmie Lanley
People interested in implementing Charlotte Mason methodology using excellent quality resources and living books from years gone by that are now free in the public domain might be interested in joining the Facebook group, Public Domain Books for Homeschooling. It’s not a discussion group. Each post is a subject heading and the comments are links to free pdf copies of old textbooks and living books that are a wonderfully rich resource.
Thanks for sharing.
Hello,
I have homeschooled my daughter, now 14, since 1st grade and I am gearing up for 9th grade in the fall. I am intrigued by the Charlotte Mason curriculum but can I use it for high school?