Subject by

Subject
The Charlotte Mason Way

by Sonya Shafer
Discover wonderfully natural methods of learning about God,
people, and the world around you. Each school subject fits into
one of those three categories. This book walks you through each
subject and details how to teach it in a Charlotte Mason way.

Many parents find Charlotte Mason's methods to be

intuitive—what they would naturally do with their children.
These methods just make sense!

Use them and you will enjoy watching your children thrive and
take delight in how much you will learn in the process. In fact,
you may start to wonder if education can really be this simple.

Yes, it can . . . the delightful Charlotte Mason way!

Simply
Charlotte Mason
.com
Simply Charlotte Mason is pleased to present this free e-book.
We hope you enjoy it, and we encourage you to share it with
your friends. We only ask that it not be used for any commercial
purposes, posted for download on other sites, or included in file
or document collections without our permission. However, feel
free to link to our download page and encourage getting a copy of
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Subject by Subject the Charlotte Mason Way

© 2018 by Sonya Shafer

Cover Design: Sarah Shafer

ISBN 978-1-61634-411-5

Published by
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simplycharlottemason.com
Subject by Subject
The Charlotte Mason Way

by Sonya Shafer
 A Note from Simply Charlotte Mason
We love Charlotte Mason’s brilliant methods, and we want to
make it as simple as possible for you to use them in your home
school. Here is a quick overview of how to teach each school
subject in a Charlotte Mason way.
The short, practical chapters will get you up and running
quickly, so you can spend more time confidently teaching your
children and enjoying the methods.
Whether you want to add a method or two to your existing
curriculum, work your way up to them gradually, or go all out
from the start, this book will help you find your way one subject
at a time.
 Contents
A Generous Curriculum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Three Basic CM Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Teaching History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Teaching Geography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Teaching Bible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Teaching Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Teaching Handicrafts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Teaching Foreign Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Teaching Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Teaching Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Teaching Poetry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Teaching Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Teaching Beginning Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Teaching Spelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Teaching Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Teaching Grammar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Teaching Math. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Subject by Subject At a Glance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Sample Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Some Key Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
 Chapter 1
A Generous Curriculum
As parents, we know that children grow best on generous
portions. Meager meals can stunt a child’s physical growth, but
a generous diet of food gives that growing body lots of nutrients
to draw from. It’s the same emotionally; children need a generous
supply of pure love to grow secure and happy and loving.
And the same holds true for a child’s mental growth. A generous
supply of ideas is needed. Charlotte Mason knew that.
“The mind feeds on ideas and therefore children should have a
generous curriculum” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 111).

A Wide Range of Subjects

Charlotte did not believe in only preparing children to hold
down a job one day. She believed in feeding the children’s minds
and shaping their characters, as well as equipping them with skills.
So you won’t find a skimpy curriculum that focuses on the three
R’s. Instead you will find a wide and generous curriculum that
attempts to spread a feast of ideas before the children.
“Give children a wide range of subjects” (School Education,
p. 162).

In a Charlotte Mason-style home school the children are given

a wide variety of subjects so they will have plenty of mind-food
to grow on.
• History

simplycharlottemason.com 7
 • Geography
• Bible
• Art
• Handicrafts
• Foreign Language
• Literature
• Music
• Poetry
• Science
• Beginning Reading
• Spelling
• Writing
• Grammar
• Math
We will walk through each of those subjects in the pages ahead
and explain how to teach them in the Charlotte Mason way. You
will be able to teach most of them with all of your family together.

Two Extremes
Now, the challenge of a generous curriculum is in trying not to
swing to either extreme when you look at that list of subjects. One
extreme is a tendency to panic and think, “There is no way we can
cover all of those subjects every day!”
The answer to that extreme is to keep in mind that Charlotte did
not do every subject every day. She kept variety in the schedule.
Those subjects were all presented some time during the weeks of
the term, but not every one every day.

8 simplycharlottemason.com
 The other extreme is the mind-set, “That’s a nice list, but I don’t
really want to mess with some of those subjects; they look a bit
inconvenient. Besides, I have my children for only a few years, so
I’m going to focus on just the required stuff.”
Charlotte would encourage you to consider a wide variety of
subjects as a necessity.
“In the nature of things then the unspoken demand of children
is for a wide and very varied curriculum; it is necessary that
they should have some knowledge of the wide range of
interests proper to them as human beings, and for no reasons
of convenience or time limitations may we curtail their proper
curriculum” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 14).

Sure, you might want to ease into it. There’s nothing wrong
with getting some subjects up and running and then adding in
the others little by little. But always keep that ideal goal in mind:
a generous curriculum with a wide range of subjects.
Generous portions encourage generous growth.

simplycharlottemason.com 9
 Chapter 2
Three Basic CM Principles
When I was taking piano lessons, my teacher started with some
basic, foundational points: keep your fingers curved; sit tall on
the bench with both feet on the floor; listen to your playing. No
matter what piece I was working on—from Row, Row, Row Your
Boat to Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata—those principles remained
constant.
If I neglected those foundational principles, my playing would
suffer. Without them I would never achieve the degree of success
that I desired.
The same is true in a Charlotte Mason (CM) education. Three
principles are foundational. No matter what school subjects you
are teaching, you want to be sure to keep these three principles
in place. They should be a constant as you provide a generous
curriculum for your child.

Three Basic Principles to Remember

1. Short Lessons
A key component of a Charlotte Mason-style lesson is that
it is short. But there is a reason behind the short length: short,
interesting lessons build the habit of attention. The more often
your child pays attention for the whole lesson, the more that habit
will become engrained. Once the pay-attention-for-the-whole-
lesson habit is established, you can start nudging out the length.
But start short.

simplycharlottemason.com 11
 It’s just like training to run a marathon. Start short and build.
You want to stop the lesson before you lose your child’s attention.
If he ends up daydreaming at the end of each lesson, that will
become his habit. The more often he daydreams, the more it will
become engrained. But if you stop the lesson before his eyes glaze
over, he will develop the habit of paying attention for the whole
lesson.
In Charlotte’s schools the lessons for grades 1–3 were no longer
than 15 or 20 minutes maximum and some subjects didn’t take
that long. Grades 4–6 nudged the maximum length out to 20
or 30 minutes, and grades 7–9 increased to 30 or 45 minutes
maximum. Following that pattern, grades 10–12 should spend no
more than 45 minutes to 1 hour on a lesson.
Short, interesting lessons build the habit of attention.

2. Quality Over Quantity

Many of Charlotte’s methods are designed to cultivate good
habits, particularly the habits of attention and perfect execution.
Perfect execution means working toward perfection, or giving
your best effort.
The second basic principle will encourage both of those habits:
emphasize quality over quantity.
For example, rather than requiring your child to copy a whole
page of handwriting—and watching as the child gets sloppier and
sloppier as he moves toward the bottom of the page,—require a
shorter portion, but let him know that only his very best work will
suffice. If he writes one or two words (or lines, depending on his
level) and puts forth his best effort, he will be done. If, however,
he does slipshod work, he will be required to do it again until it
is right.
Once again you are trying to instill a habit by repetition. The
more times he concentrates on doing his best, the more it will

12 simplycharlottemason.com
become a habit. But the more times he is allowed to be sloppy, the
more that action will become engrained. Emphasize quality over
quantity every time.
To learn more about habit-training, download the free e-book,
Smooth and Easy Days. You might also find helpful a recording of
the Laying Down the Rails workshop, available in audio or video;
the complete reference book, Laying Down the Rails: A Charlotte
Mason Habits Handbook; the treasury of motivational readings
and ideas, Laying Down the Rails for Children: A Habit-Training
Companion; and the book for parents and older teens, Laying
Down the Rails For Yourself.

3. A Varied Order of Subjects

Another basic principle that will encourage full attention
and best effort is to sequence the order of subjects that you do
throughout the day to use different parts of the brain and body.
You want to avoid over-fatiguing one part of the brain.
For example, if you come to the couch with a stack of books
for your child to read and narrate, as you work your way through
the stack you will find that it gets increasingly harder to pay full
attention and narrate well. Why? You are overusing the read-and-
narrate part of the brain.
Instead, try to vary the order of subjects. You might read and
narrate one book; then switch to a different part of the brain and
do some math; then use some fine motor skills and do a little
copywork; then do a picture study; then do some singing; then
come back and narrate another book. Do you see how that works?
Use different parts of the brain and body as you order your day
and you will make it easier for your child to pay full attention.
Short lessons, quality over quantity, and varying the order
of subjects—whether you are just making the transition to
incorporating some Charlotte Mason methods into your home

simplycharlottemason.com 13
school or are an old pro at CM, these three basic principles are
foundational. Get these three principles firmly established and
your days will go much more smoothly.

14 simplycharlottemason.com
 Chapter 3
Teaching History
When I graduated from “the school of the yellow bus,” I knew
next to nothing about history. Yes, I had made good grades, but
very little about history had stuck. There was no reason to retain
that mental list of events and dates past the test day, because I had
no personal relation with those events or historical figures. They
didn’t matter to me. Maybe you can relate.
Thankfully, over twenty years of homeschooling in a Charlotte
Mason way, I have developed an appreciation for history and
personal relations with the people involved. How? By using
Charlotte’s methods of teaching history, I have learned along with
my children and enjoyed doing it!
So, let’s talk about how to teach history.

Teaching History So It Means Something

In a Charlotte Mason education, history is taught through living
books, narration, and a Book of Centuries.

Living Books
Living books are a key component to teaching many subjects
in the Charlotte Mason Method, and history is one of them.
A living book is a book that makes the subject come alive. It is
usually written by one author who has a passion for the subject,
rather than by a committee who has been hired to dispense facts
in a textbook. A living book touches your emotions and fires your
imagination, making it easy to see in your mind’s eye the events

simplycharlottemason.com 15
that are being described. The facts are there, but they are clothed
in those living ideas that make the events stand out in your mind.
There are all kinds of great living history books available. The
CM Bookfinder on our website is a database full of living books
that you can search by title, grade level, topic, and more. You’ll
find hundreds of living history books there.
If you want to see our favorites, take a look at the SCM
Curriculum. We’ve incorporated our top picks into those enjoyable
and complete lesson plans.
To learn more about living books, feel free to spend a little time
in our Learning Library. There you will find all kinds of articles on
many topics. You’ll be able to read more on choosing good living
books, using them, where to find them, and grasping that concept
of living ideas vs. dry facts.

Narration
So you select a wonderful living history book and you read a
portion of it to your student. Then what do you do? You require the
child to narrate. He should tell back in his own words everything
he can remember from the reading.
Narration demands a much higher thinking level than true/false,
multiple choice, or fill-in-the-blank questions. You are asking the
child to pay full attention and to compose a mental essay, in a
sense.
Narration may seem easy until you try it for yourself. Charlotte
encouraged adults to narrate in order to help them learn too.
When you understand the power of narration, you will see why
Charlotte used it in teaching many subjects.
While you’re in the Learning Library, look for the articles on
narration too. You’ll find lots of great help and encouragement
with this simple but powerful method.
Another resource that you might find helpful is the practical
book, Your Questions Answered: Narration.

16 simplycharlottemason.com
Book of Centuries
The third tool that Charlotte used in teaching history is the
Book of Centuries. It’s basically a timeline in a book, organized in
100-year increments. As you read about (and narrate) people and
events in history, jot them down on the appropriate pages in the
Book of Centuries.
The genius of this idea comes to light when you add a person to
a page that already contains someone or something that occurred
in the same century. Now your brain makes the connection: “Oh!
He lived at the same time as _____.” A connection that your child
makes for himself will have the deepest impression and last the
longest. And a Book of Centuries is a prime tool for helping your
child make those mental connections.
When the children are old enough, each should have his or her
own Book of Centuries. Charlotte’s students received theirs at
about ten years old. During the younger years, you can compile a
family Book of Centuries.
My Book of Centuries (yes, the parent should have one too!) has
become a great companion and record of the fascinating people
I’ve met through living history books. Now history makes sense!
You can create your own, using our free basic Book of Centuries
template or purchase the ready-made deluxe version, My Book of
Centuries.

Teaching Tip for History

Charlotte recommended that history be taught in chronological
order, which makes sense since so much of what happened was
based on cause and effect. So make sure you work your way
through history sequentially, but don’t feel like you need to force
other subjects to coordinate with the time period you happen to
be studying.

simplycharlottemason.com 17
 Charlotte advocated natural connections, like history and
geography. But you don’t have to limit your art study, let’s say, to
your current historical period. You can select artists from a variety
of eras with distinctly different styles. The key is to enter them
into your Book of Centuries as you go along. Then when you
progress to that point in history, your child will have a wonderful
opportunity to make a mental connection when he sees that “old
friend” looking out at him from that century’s pages.
Whether history is your favorite subject or a lot of forgotten
dates from days gone by, you can enjoy watching it come alive
alongside your children when you use Charlotte’s wonderful
methods of living books, narration, and a Book of Centuries.

18 simplycharlottemason.com
 Chapter 4
Teaching Geography
If you had mentioned geography to me twenty years ago when
I started homeschooling, my mind would have immediately
visualized dusty maps with puzzling colored shapes and lists of
imports, exports, and natural resources. Oh, and currency types.
And sometimes a line-up of flags around the border.
But today my concept of geography has changed dramatically.
It is now intricately linked to the people and events with whom
I’ve formed a relation in my history readings. It is also tied to the
present-day people I’ve met through travel books, current event
magazines, and missionaries’ videos.
And that’s as it should be. History and geography are not about
numbers, they are about real people and real places. They are
living subjects and should be taught as such. With the Charlotte
Mason Method, they are.

Teaching Geography in Context

When geography is taught in the context of people who live
in various parts of our world and what their lives are like there,
it comes alive. Charlotte used living books, narration, and map
work to teach geography that way.

Living Books and Narration

There are wonderful living geography books available that will
help your child visit places around the world without ever leaving

simplycharlottemason.com 19
home. Of course, if you can actually make the trip, do so; but
that’s not always possible. Living geography books are the next
best thing to being there.
And asking for a narration of each reading will help cement the
book’s contents in your child’s mind. You will find that Charlotte
used living books and narration to teach many subjects to great
advantage. Geography was one of those subjects.
Two living geography books that we have especially enjoyed
through the years are Material World and Hungry Planet: What the
World Eats by photographer Peter Menzel. In Material World the
author went to various countries and took a picture of a typical
family outside their house with all of their possessions. Hungry
Planet is similar, but in that book he shows families in their
kitchens with one week’s worth of groceries. You can imagine the
culture and contrasts and similarities that can be learned just from
looking closely at the photographs. And the author includes first-
hand accounts of his time with the various families.

Living Books on the Map

But there is another way you can use living books to help your
child learn about geography. Whenever you read a living book—
no matter on which subject,— locate its setting on a world map or
globe. This technique will help your child see the countries on the
map as places where people and animals reside and events occur,
not just as funny-colored shapes.
So if you’re reading Heidi, for example, go look up the Swiss
Alps and see where they are located. If you’re reading Jack’s Insects,
locate on a map or a globe where each insect lives. Such natural
connections do wonders to help make geography “living” for your
child.

20 simplycharlottemason.com
Map Drill
And then, to help students put the pieces together—to discover
which countries are next to each other, which are near an ocean,
or where the coldest countries are collected, for example—we also
include map drill.
A simple once-a-week activity can help your child become
familiar with that bigger picture. Give each child a blank outline
map of the region (I usually focus on one continent at a time.)
and ask him to label any countries he already knows. When he has
labeled all he knows, give him a labeled map of the region. Tell
him to check that he has recorded correct spellings and locations,
then to copy one or two more countries onto his map. The next
week, give him a new blank outline map of the same region and
repeat the instructions.
As he sees the same region each week, he will become quite
familiar with it and, little by little, put together the pieces in his
mind. When coupled with the living books ideas given above,
map drill will help round out your geography studies.
The Visits to . . . geography notebooks are designed to help
you teach geography in that way. Each notebook focuses on one
region of the world. The once-a-week lessons feature passages
from Material World and Hungry Planet, narration prompts, map
drills, and other recommended living books that take place in that
region.
It was Charlotte Mason’s goal that the geography lesson would
be so alive to the students that it would “take them there” in their
imaginations (A Philosophy of Education, p. 40). You can accomplish
that goal with a combination of living books, narration, and map
work.

simplycharlottemason.com 21
 Chapter 5
Teaching Bible
Of all the subjects we include in our children’s education, the
most important should be their Bible lessons.
When Charlotte Mason talked about the knowledge that is
important to give our children, she cited, “First and chiefest is the
knowledge of God, to be got at most directly through the Bible”
(A Philosophy of Education, p. 254).
So let’s talk about how to teach Bible.

Teaching The Living Book

Since the Bible is the living Book, we treat it as such by letting
our children interact directly with it. Just as with other living
books, we do not depend on fill-in-the-blank or true-and-false
questions to guide them through Scripture. Instead, we read the
Bible and require a narration. Discussion is encouraged following
the narration.

1. Read and narrate the historical accounts.

The Old Testament accounts, the life of Christ recorded in
the Gospels, and the acts of the early Church provide wonderful
opportunities to read and narrate. Since those historical accounts
are written in narrative form, it is easy to simply read them and
ask the children to retell the stories in their own words.
Charlotte encouraged us to keep two things in mind when
reading these accounts. First, try to read a full scene so the children

simplycharlottemason.com 23
get the whole gist of what is going on. Don’t feel obligated to
stop and start at exact chapter breaks; go by scene changes in the
narrative. Second, make necessary omissions. Some accounts are
not as appropriate for young children to hear or understand at
their tender age. Those narratives can be saved for future inclusion.
You’ll find a day-by-day guide to reading and narrating these
Biblical history accounts in the first three of our history lesson
plan books, covering Genesis through Acts.

2. Discuss and apply the epistles.

The epistles offer much food for thought and discussion. But
beware of treating them like textbooks. Don’t settle for fill-in-the-
blank type studies. Wherever possible, encourage your students
to read and put the passage into their own words to test their
comprehension. Discussion questions are welcome, as are gentle
applications without heavy-handed sermonizing.
Feel free to make use of Bible study helps, such as Bible
dictionaries or commentaries. But be careful not to use those aids
as a crutch. Teach and show your children how to study Scripture
for themselves first before they read another Bible student’s
comments.
Sometimes it is hard to find good Bible studies that adhere to
these superior study methods. That hunt is what led to our writing
and publishing our own Bible studies, designed for older students
to complete either with or without parental help. Your student
will learn solid Bible study methods as he interacts firsthand with
Scripture.
The key is to get your children in the Word. But that is only
half of it; you also need to get the Word in your children, and that
means Scripture memory.

24 simplycharlottemason.com
3. Memorize Scripture.
Charlotte’s students memorized several portions of Scripture
every school year—both large and small portions. Our children
(and we, as parents) should do the same.
As Charlotte explained, “It is a delightful thing to have the
memory stored with beautiful, comforting, and inspiring passages,
and we cannot tell when and how this manner of seed may spring
up, grow, and bear fruit” (Home Education, p. 253).
The Scripture Memory System described on our website is a
great tool to help your whole family learn and review individual
verses or whole chapters of the Bible, all in just five or ten minutes
per day. Consistency is a key to getting the Word in your children.
So read and narrate the historical accounts, discuss and apply
the epistles, and memorize Scripture. With these simple yet
powerful methods you can give your children the most important
knowledge of their lives: the knowledge of God in the Bible.

simplycharlottemason.com 25
 Chapter 6
Teaching Art
It seems that many schools either sprinkle a little art into the
curriculum here and there as an afterthought or ignore it all
together because of time constraints. Neither approach reflects the
goal of a generous curriculum.
Charlotte Mason approached art in a balanced way, regularly
scheduling time for her students to both appreciate others’ art and
to express their own art. We can do the same regardless of our own
artistic capabilities.

Art Appreciation
Art appreciation is accomplished through a method called
picture study. Just ten or fifteen minutes once a week is all it takes.
Here’s how you do a picture study.
1. Select one artist and linger with him or her for twelve weeks.
2. Once a week, select one of that artist’s works. Look at it
together until everyone can close their eyes and see every
detail in its place.
3. Hide the picture from view and have the children describe
what it looks like.
4. Look at the picture again and discuss any other points of
interest.
5. Display the picture in your home for the rest of the week.

simplycharlottemason.com 27
 The next week look at a different picture by the same artist.
Continue doing a picture study once a week until you have looked
closely at six or eight pictures by one artist. You can also read a
living biography about the artist, and be sure to grab your Book of
Centuries and enter the artist on the appropriate page.
At the end of twelve weeks, you and your students will have
a pretty good feel for that artist’s style and ideas communicated
through his works. Then choose a different artist and go again.
Charlotte’s desire was to introduce to the child the great ideas
of the great artists, presented in their work, and to get out of the
way. Hers was not a course in art criticism or art interpretation.
She encouraged the children to look closely at each work and to
form their own relations with it.
Our award-winning Picture Study Portfolios make art appreciation
easy to do and keep everything you need for picture study right at
your fingertips.

Art Expression
Charlotte also gave her students instruction in art and
opportunities to express themselves artistically. She allowed time
for both drawing from the imagination and for reproducing what
was seen in life around them with a variety of art media: clay
sculpting, charcoal, painting, and drawing.
While there isn’t a lot of detailed description as to how Charlotte
taught art instruction, many of the principles that she used for
handicrafts (see chapter 7) would apply.
• Schedule art instruction in the afternoon to allow more time
for it after the shorter morning lessons are done.
• Emphasize the habit of best effort.
• To encourage the students to do their best work, teach them
slowly and carefully what they are to do.

28 simplycharlottemason.com
 • Keep the project within reach of their skills. Challenge but
don’t frustrate.
• Select projects that are worthwhile. Don’t give them
assignments that will just be thrown away, but something
that requires their time and effort and will evoke a sense of
satisfaction and accomplishment when completed.
Our favorite resource for art instruction is the Creating a
Masterpiece videos. You and your students will learn many different
medium types from a master artist as you work on projects of
varying skill levels. The emphasis is on slow, careful work in an
encouraging atmosphere for all ages.
Art is a wonderful way to add variety into your day and to
nourish your child’s mind and heart with what is good, noble,
and beautiful. With Charlotte’s simple methods and all of the
wonderful resources available, you don’t have to be an art expert
to give your children the gift of art.

simplycharlottemason.com 29
 Chapter 7
Teaching Handicrafts
The more time you spend around the Charlotte Mason Method,
the more you come to realize what a nicely balanced approach it
is. CM is not all books and narration; Charlotte also recognized
the importance of working with your hands.
There is much to be learned in working with one’s hands to
create something of use and beauty. Charlotte selected a handicraft
for her students to learn each term.
And don’t be afraid of working with a variety of materials.
Charlotte’s students worked in clay, wood, brass, iron, leather,
fabric, food, and more.
Whichever skill or material you are working with, keep in mind
these four main principles:
1. The children “should not be employed in making futilities.”
Make sure the project is useful.
2. Teach the children “slowly and carefully what they are to do.”
Allow plenty of time for the children to learn the skills step
by step and to do them correctly.
3. “Slipshod work should not allowed.” Encourage careful work
and best effort right from the beginning.
4. “Therefore, the children’s work should be kept well within
their compass.” Select a handicraft and a project that will
challenge but not frustrate.

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 As far as scheduling goes, handicrafts don’t always fit well into
short lessons. It might work well to schedule handicrafts during
the afternoon when the children have plenty of time to get out
the supplies, learn the next step, practice until they are satisfied
they are doing it correctly, and see progress on the project. Oh,
and clean up!
If you are looking for help with handicraft skills or project
ideas, our Handicrafts Made Simple videos might be just what you
need. Each video starts with the basics and gradually increases
the challenge, with practical projects tucked in all along the way.
The included booklet outlines a suggested schedule for a 12-week
term of handicraft work, so you can focus on enjoying the new
handicraft along with your children.
Handicrafts are a great way to help your students discover
talents they didn’t know they had and cultivate a habit of working
with their hands to create useful objects in the home—all part of
a generous Charlotte Mason curriculum.

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 Chapter 8
Teaching Foreign Language
If you had graduated from one of Charlotte Mason’s schools, you
would have studied several different foreign languages: French,
German, Italian, and Latin. And not just studied, but used and
understood those languages quite well.
In fact, her students were so fluent in French that they could read
or listen to a reading in that language and give their narrations in
it. How did she accomplish that level of expertise? Let’s talk a bit
about Charlotte’s brilliant approach to foreign language.

The Series Approach

Charlotte believed that we should approach learning a foreign
language in the same way we approach learning our mother tongue:
hear it and speak it before you ever read and write it. So she used
the Gouin series method, which agrees with that approach.
Francois Gouin developed the idea of using a series of statements
that describe what you are doing. The statements are taught in the
known language first, then incrementally introduced in the new
language, and always accompanied with the actions.
For example, the students might learn a series like this:
I take the box.
I open the box.
I close the box.
Here’s how it works.

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 1. Students say the series of statements aloud a few times as they
do the actions: take a box, open it, close it.
2. Once they know the series, it is simplified to just the verbs:
take, open, close.
3. They learn each of those verbs in the new language and practice
saying it aloud as they continue to do the corresponding
actions.
4. They learn the one phrase needed to finish the sentences (the
box) and practice the entire series in the new language with
actions.
The beauty of this method is that by coupling everyday activities
and actions, they begin to think in the new language. What other
things do I open and close? A book, maybe. By learning one more
new word (book), they can then narrate a new activity and are
beginning to feel at home with using the language for themselves.
Younger students can do the series completely by hearing and
speaking; older or more experienced students can add the reading
and writing component by copying the series into a notebook.
As with so many of the methods that Charlotte Mason used,
the Gouin series is a simple yet wonderfully effective approach!
Cherrydale Press has created resources for this approach, and we
highly recommend them.

Layering the Languages

In case you’re curious how Charlotte accomplished several
languages with her students, here’s an explanation. Charlotte
started with French, most likely because that was the most
prominent foreign language in her students’ surroundings. France
was right across the Channel. Grades 1–3 incorporated French

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songs and games along with the hearing and speaking activities of
the Gouin series. Grades 4–6 expanded on that foundation and
added French reading and writing, plus, the students in those grades
were introduced to verbal German. In Grades 7–9 the students
expanded on both French and German, and added Italian. So the
acquisition of several languages was a gradual sequential process
over many years, all meant to equip the students to be courteous
and kind global neighbors.

Learning Latin
Teaching Latin is a little different, because Latin is not as much
a spoken language today as the others we have discussed; it’s
mostly written. So Charlotte didn’t start this language study until
the children were older (4th grade and up) and were studying
English grammar. Two resources that I have liked for teaching
Latin are Getting Started with Latin followed by the Cambridge
Latin Course.

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 Chapter 9
Teaching Literature
I’ve been cleaning off my bookshelves these past couple of
weeks, trying to cull out duplicates. Now, usually duplicate copies
of a title are not a problem in a household of readers, but when
the shelves are full and you need more space . . . sacrifices must
be made.
Most of the duplicates in my collection are literature books that
have been added to our home library over the years. And as I pull
each book off the shelf, my mind reflects on the characters inside.
They are like old friends to me now. I have to keep reminding
myself that I do still have a copy; it’s not like I’m getting rid of all
those close companions completely!
That’s what good literature will do for you and for your children:
it will come alive to your emotions, fire your imagination, and
plant seeds of ideas in your mind. It will form a vibrant connection
to your heart and affect who you are becoming.

Remove the Middle Man

If there is one way to destroy the joy of a good living book, it’s
to shred it to bits with analyzing. Well do I recall some very good
books that were assigned for reading in my high school years, my
enjoyment of them as I read, and the subsequent letdown from
all the tedious dissecting of hidden meanings, possible symbolism,
and overly-detailed structure. Not to mention vocabulary lists,
plot summaries, and character evaluations. It felt like the book and
its characters were no longer alive in my mind; they had become

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specimens under a microscope. It’s hard to form a relation with a
specimen.
Charlotte Mason was an advocate of removing the middle man.
She encouraged her teachers to introduce great minds—authors,
artists, and composers—to her students and then get out of the
way. So it makes sense that the methods she used for literature
were simply reading and narrating.

Read Living Books

Choose a well-written living book—one that makes the story
come alive; one that feeds the mind with good, loving, and noble
ideas; one that touches the emotions and fires the imagination;
one that has withstood the test of time—and read it. Enjoy it. Live
in it. Don’t inhale it as fast as you can; take your time and savor it.
We have always had a family read-aloud book going since my
children were small. I chose classic children’s literature to begin
with and moved on from there to harder classic literature books.
One chapter a day most days; some days less. The time of day that
we read has changed as children have grown and schedules have
changed. But the shared experience has remained, and I wouldn’t
replace it for the world.
With so many good books available and limited time for family
read-alouds, I also assign some literature books to the older
students to read on their own.
Check out our favorite literature selections for younger, middle,
and older students in our SCM Curriculum.

Narration
When my older children are assigned to read a literature book
independently, I ask them for a narration. And lest you fear that
they will never know how to do any kind of analysis on a literary

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classic, let me explain that you can encourage deeper thinking
and evaluation by how you word narration questions. Make sure
you keep the questions open-ended, but feel free to ask them to
explain any comparisons between this book’s main character and
another one they have read, or ask them to contrast the plot in
this book with another one. In other words, don’t shy away from
discussion, but give them the benefit of the doubt that they are
gleaning much on their own and don’t need or want you to dissect
things for them.
For the books that we read aloud as a family, I do not require
a narration. I want us to simply enjoy those classics together, to
share the experience, to build memories, and to store up common
ideas that knit our hearts together. These books become lifelong
friends, and we are all the richer for having read them.

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 Chapter 10
Teaching Music
Charlotte recognized that not every student would become a
virtuoso, but she understood that beauty and enjoyment can be
added to life by appreciating good music, singing, and learning
the basics of playing music. Here’s how to approach music in a
Charlotte Mason way.

Music Appreciation
Simply choose one composer and play his or her music
around your house for several weeks. You can play the music in
the background while you are all eating lunch or working on
handicrafts or running errands in the van. You can play it during
rest times or while the children are going to sleep (provided the
composer was not too rambunctious!). You don’t need fancy
introductions or elaborate explanations; just tell the children
which composer’s work you are playing.
During those weeks of listening, if you can find a good living
biography on your selected composer, read it aloud to the children
and have them narrate it. Enter the composer in your Book of
Centuries. Then once each week, gather to spotlight one of the
composer’s works. Our Music Study with the Masters portfolios
provide biographies, dates, spotlights, and great music recordings,
so you will find music appreciation easy to do.
At the end of those weeks, your children will have a pretty
good feel for that composer’s style. Then you can choose another
composer and go again. It’s simple, yet effective!

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Singing
Charlotte’s students had fun with singing in short sessions
a couple of times a week. They used the sol-fa method. If you
have watched the movie The Sound of Music, you’ve heard the sol-
fa method used to teach the song “Do, a Deer.” The complete
method has hand signals, too, and is a great way to teach children
to listen closely and to sing in harmony easily.
Don’t worry if you aren’t Julie Andrews and don’t know how
to teach your children to sing in harmony; they can still enjoy
singing along to recorded music, singing while playing, and
singing together as a family. The key is to encourage singing.
One great way to do that is through Hymn Study. Simply select
one hymn and sing it together, all the stanzas, until everyone
knows it well. You might sing it a couple of times a week for a
few weeks, then add another hymn and alternate. It’s a great way
to make sure the rich heritage of God-honoring hymns is passed
to the next generation and to enjoy singing together. Singing
the Great Hymns provides lyrics, music scores, and simple piano
recordings for more than 70 hymns.

Playing an Instrument
Piano was taught to all of Charlotte’s students. Whichever
instrument you or your children select to learn, keep in mind
the facets of a well-rounded instrumental education. Charlotte
encouraged parents to make sure any music lessons included
three aspects: music theory, ear training, and instruction on the
instrument itself.
And if at all possible, give your child an excellent teacher right
from the start. Remember, you are laying the foundation as well
as cultivating your child’s taste for the fine arts. Charlotte said: “If
possible, let the children learn from the first under artists, lovers of

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their work: it is a serious mistake to let the child lay the foundation
of whatever he may do in the future under ill-qualified mechanical
teachers, who kindle in him none of the enthusiasm which is the
life of art” (Home Education, p. 314).
Remember, you’re not doing everything every day. With the
wide range of subjects to draw from in a generous curriculum,
you can enjoy a wonderfully diverse week with some delightful
variety each day.

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 Chapter 11
Teaching Poetry
Most homeschool parents I talk to get a funny look on their
faces when I mention poetry. That’s because their own schooling
experience with poetry consisted of dissecting a poem to bits at
the teacher’s insistence. Such over-analysis and examination steals
all the joy from the beautiful words. Charlotte Mason’s approach
is vastly different.
Good poetry reaches the heart in a way few other words can.
It’s amazing how deeply a well-crafted phrase from a thoughtful
poem can shape our lives. As Charlotte said, “Poetry is a criticism
of life; so it is, both a criticism and an inspiration; and most of us
carry in our minds tags of verse which shape our conduct more
than we know” (Ourselves, Book 2, p. 10).
We are doing our children a great service when we nourish their
minds and equip their hearts with good poetry. Here’s how.

Enjoying Poetry
Read poetry aloud. Often. Enjoy how the words fit together and
create pictures and feelings within you and your children. There.
That’s it.
Oh, certainly, you can do other things with poetry, but that’s the
foundation. That’s where it starts. Schedule poetry once a week
to begin with. Select a poem and read it aloud to share with the
others. Be sure to read beautiful words in a beautiful way.
“But how do I select a poem?” Choose one that you like, one
that nourishes your mind and heart or just makes you smile. The

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key is to surround your poetry times with a mind-set of enjoying
words well chosen.
Charlotte would often do a poet study by selecting one poet
to focus on for the whole year. Read poems by that one poet,
illustrate a few, narrate some of them, and soon your children will
get a good feel for that poet’s style.
As your children grow comfortable in the world of poetry,
have them read the poem aloud sometimes. Help them practice
beforehand, if needed, for poetry is one of the hardest genre to read
aloud well. You can also assign a favorite poem for the children to
memorize and recite. Again, coach them in reciting well.
But above all, read poems often and enjoy them. You can do
that! Our Enjoy the Poems series is designed to make it simple.
Each book features one poet, a living biography, twenty-six of
the poet’s works, and a suggested schedule for enjoying them
throughout the year.

Shakespeare in Three Steps

Charlotte’s students also enjoyed the poetry of Shakespeare. In
fact, Charlotte didn’t give Shakespeare only one year of study; she
incorporated his plays every year.
Shakespeare can also be an enjoyable part of your generous
curriculum if you follow these three easy steps:
1. Read the play in story form.
2. Read the lines from the play in Shakespeare’s words.
3. Watch a performance of the play—either live or recorded—
that is as close to the original as possible.
Our Shakespeare in Three Steps books and audio recordings walk
you through those simple steps and make his plays very accessible.

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 You will be amazed at the deep thoughts and worthy ideas that
can be added to your home school simply by sprinkling in some
poetry to enjoy.

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 Chapter 12
Teaching Science
Charlotte Mason used a two-faceted approach to teaching
science that was very effective: systematic studies and spontaneous
discovery. The systematic studies were accomplished through
reading and narrating living science books. The spontaneous facet
was added through doing nature study.

Living Science Books & Narration

Just as with teaching history, living books and narration provide
many fertile educational opportunities for teaching science.
Remember, a living book can be written in story form or in a
conversational tone directed to the reader; but whichever style it
uses, a living science book should make it easy to picture what is
being talked about.
In the younger grades, you can easily read aloud a living science
book to all your children in grades 1–6 and have them narrate it.
You will find delightful living science book suggestions combined
with nature poetry, simple experiments, and outdoor projects in
our living science studies, like Outdoor Secrets with the Outdoor
Secrets Companion or Pond and Stream with the Pond and Stream
Companion.
Once the students get to the upper grades, it usually works best
to have each child study those upper-level sciences individually.
Charlotte sometimes used a textbook for higher-level science
topics. Not all advanced science details can be comprehensively
explained and practiced in story form. But on those occasions

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we can couple a conversational science textbook with a good
living book to introduce or supplement the topic and help the
student make a personal relation and want to learn more details.
Our SCM Curriculum uses conversational textbooks and living
science books in that way.

Nature Study
But just reading about the world around us is not a full
education; children need opportunities to experience that world
for themselves. Nature study lays a great foundation on which to
add the science readings. As our children observe different elements
and living creatures outside, they form a personal relationship
with those things and are ready to learn more about them.
Nature study is not hard to do and can provide a nice break
from indoor studies during your week. Simply get each child a
blank sketchbook and some colored pencils, and grab a field guide
or two. Then once a week go outside and look, listen, smell, and
feel. Record your observations in writing and drawing. What is
the weather like? What does the sky look like? What do you see by
way of plants and animals? What are the insects doing and where?
What does your favorite tree look like today?
Use the field guides to help you label your drawings. Spend time
observing the habits of various creatures and plants. Check on
them at different seasons of the year to see what is happening. Over
time you will gain at least a “nodding and naming acquaintance,”
and probably an even deeper connection, with God’s creation.
That is time well spent.
Journaling a Year in Nature is a sturdy and beautiful nature
journal that walks you through the seasons of the year, giving gentle
prompts of nature items to look for and timely encouragement
every week.
If you would like to read Charlotte Mason’s thoughts about

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nature study in her own words, Hours in the Out-of-Doors: A
Charlotte Mason Nature Study Handbook compiles her writings
on the subject, combined with modern-day examples and other
inspiring nature quotes. It makes a great reference book for the
teacher.

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 Chapter 13
Teaching Beginning Reading
When my oldest child was a little one, the thought of teaching
her how to read hovered in my mind as a huge challenge. I don’t
remember waking up at night, wondering if I would be able to
teach her to tie her shoes or to drive a car; but I do remember
staring at the ceiling in the dark, wondering if I would be able to
teach her to read.
It can seem a daunting task, because so much of education
depends on reading. The better a child can read, the easier his
schooling will be. But let me assure you that most children
will pick up reading quite naturally if raised in a language-rich
environment where books are treasured. Many people who grow
up in such an environment cannot recall exactly how they learned
to read, but learn they did.
So relax and take a look at Charlotte Mason’s gentle and natural
approach to teaching your child to read.

Playing with Letters and Sounds

Though Charlotte did not start formal reading lessons until the
child was at least six years old, she outlined many helpful informal
activities you could do during the early years to lay the foundation.
Read A-B-C books together. Get your child a set of letters that he
can handle and play with, whether wooden blocks with letters or
foam letters or magnetic letters.
As he becomes familiar with each letter, allow him to locate the
ones he knows on signs or pages of books. Learning the sounds

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the letters make comes next, again, accomplished informally as
the child is ready. Encourage his discoveries but don’t push. Let
him progress at his own pace. Take your cues from his expressions
of curiosity.

Word-Building Activities
Eventually you can start using those play letters to put sounds
together to make short words that mean something to him, words
like at, cat, bat, sat, fat, mat or dog, fog, log. As he becomes familiar
with word-building, you can introduce blends into the mix and
expand to words with long-vowel sounds. Basic phonics can
be introduced at this point. But even these activities should be
informal and done as the child expresses interest.

Reading Lessons
Once the beginning word-building foundation has been laid,
formal reading lessons can begin. Lessons should stay short (no
longer than 10 or 15 minutes) and should contain variety to keep
them interesting. Following the Charlotte Mason principle of no
twaddle, you would select a good children’s poem or fable and
focus on one line or sentence to begin with.
1. Introduce the word.—Write on the board a new word from
your selected passage. Draw the child’s attention to it and tell
him what the word is. Discuss it a bit to help the child form
a personal relation to it.
2. Learn the word.—Ask the child to look at the word carefully
until he can see it in his mind even with his eyes closed.
Erase the word and see if he can spell it using letter tiles. (No
handwriting required.) If he hesitates, write it again so he can
see and copy the correct spelling.

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 3. Find the word.—Point out a pile of word tiles or word cards
that contains each word in your selection. See if the child can
find the word he just learned in the pile. Display a sheet of
paper that has your selected passage on it, and see if he can
find the word on that page.
4. Review all words.—Write the word on one side of the board,
starting a list of all the words he will learn today. As each
word is learned, add it and review them all in varying orders.
5. Read the words.—Once all the words in your selected line
or sentence have been learned in this way, have your child
put together the word tiles in the correct order and read the
whole line or sentence. Then allow him to read it from the
printed page. Play with the word tiles to form other sentences
or phrases. As more lessons are added, you can use all the
words learned to form a multitude of sentences.
6. Record the words.—Last, add the words learned to a Word
Book that you can use for other review activities.
To add variety, Charlotte would alternate sight-reading lessons
(outlined above) with word-building lessons. Here’s how.
1. Review an old word.—Write on the board one of the words
learned last time. Ask the child to read it. Erase it and see if
he can spell it with his letters. Again, if he hesitates, give him
the correct model to copy.
2. Build more words.—Using his letters, change the first letter
of the word and see what new word it makes, just like he
has been doing in his word-building activities. This step will
reinforce basic phonics.
3. Review the new words.—Each new word can go on the board

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 to be reviewed in varying orders as the lesson progresses.
4. Read more words.—Add these new words to the mix to create
even more new sentences for your child to read and enjoy.
5. Record the words.—Last, add the words learned to his Word
Book.
Continue in this fashion as you work your way through the
children’s poem or fable, always keeping the lessons short and the
attitude delightful.
Our Delightful Reading Kits contain everything you need to
guide your child at his own pace all the way from learning the
letters to reading books with confidence—Level 1: Playing with
Letters and Sounds, Level 2: Words I Can Build, and Level 3: From
Words to Books.
With Charlotte’s simple yet effective methods, your child will
soon be reading with confidence and ease. Beginning reading can
be delightful when you approach it the Charlotte Mason way!

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 Chapter 14
Teaching Spelling
I’m a list person. As I sit at my desk and type these words, I’ve
lost count of how many items I’ve added to my to-do list already
today. Lists can be effective tools for many things. But when it
comes to spelling, Charlotte Mason showed us that lists are not
the most effective way to learn.
Charlotte taught spelling in context, not in lists. And her
methods make total sense when you see the progression from
beginning reader to advanced student.

Build the Words (Beginning Reading Lessons)

From the time the young children begin to learn to read, they
are encouraged to look closely at words and try to remember their
spellings. In Charlotte’s method for teaching reading, the child
uses letter tiles to build the words he is learning. The letter tiles
are a great way to make the path smooth for beginning readers,
because they don’t have to concentrate on forming each letter,
only putting the letters in the correct order.
Charlotte also emphasized the importance of making sure the
children see the word spelled correctly as much as possible. If the
child is not sure how to build the word with his tiles, don’t let him
guess. Write the word on the board and let him use that correct
model for his guide. In this way you will reduce the chances of
his seeing the word incorrectly spelled and getting it confused in
his mind. We all have certain words that stump us—“Is it -er or

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-ar?”—because we have seen them spelled both ways. Charlotte’s
method helps eliminate that mental debate.

Notice the Spelling (Practice Writing)

Once your child is past the beginning-reading-lessons stage and
is just reading aloud to practice, and is past the learning-how-
to-write-the-letters stage and is just doing copywork to practice
and gain fluency (see chapter 15), you can use his copywork to
continue encouraging him to look at how words are spelled.
An easy way to do this is, when he has finished copying the
line (or two lines) for today, ask him to spell one or two of those
words. Let him know beforehand that you will be asking for a
spelling or two. You can allow him to spell any word he likes or
you can select a word for him to spell aloud.
That consistent, gentle expectation will do much to motivate
him to keep alert and notice spellings of words even as he practices
beautiful penmanship. It is a simple technique that will continue
cultivating that important habit of learning spelling in context.

Prepared Dictation (Grades 4–12)

Once your child is nine or ten years old, you can take the next
step and increase the expectation with prepared dictation. Here’s
how it works. Select a passage from a good living book or a
beautiful poem or Scripture, just as you do for copywork. But now
have your child read through it and identify the words he doesn’t
already know how to spell. Those are the words he should study.
Once he is sure he knows how to spell all of the words in the
passage, dictate it to him a phrase at a time (saying each phrase
only once) and watch as he writes to make sure he is spelling
every word correctly. As he gains experience in prepared dictation,
you can add the responsibility of learning the capitalization and
punctuation too.

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 You can watch a video of a prepared dictation lesson on the
Spelling Wisdom page of our website. The Spelling Wisdom series
contains pre-selected dictation passages that cover the 6,000 most
frequently used words in the English language.

Teaching Tips for Spelling

Allow me to offer two teaching tips for the subject of spelling.
First, slow down. Charlotte believed that a key to being a good
speller was being a fluent reader. However, some children are
prolific readers but poor spellers. How can that be? The problem
is that they are reading too fast; they are not looking at how the
words are spelled as they read. That habit of looking at the words’
spellings as you read is what will enable you to be a good speller
and continue to increase your spelling proficiency the rest of your
life. So encourage your child to slow down enough to notice the
spelling as he reads. It can make a big difference.
Second, don’t confuse phonics and spelling. I’ve spent years
traveling to homeschool conventions across the country, and I’ve
met mom after mom who lament that their children are spelling
phonetically. Phonics are one tool we can use to help our children
learn to read, but phonics rules can create a lot of confusion when
applied to spelling. Know the difference.
Learning spelling in context gives your child a big advantage.
With a traditional list method, there is often a disconnect
between the spelling list and the child’s writing those same words
in sentences. Children who get 100% on the spelling test, later
misspell those words in a writing assignment. But with Charlotte’s
method of teaching spelling, you don’t have to deal with that
disconnect, because your child is seeing the words used in context
all the time. Plus, you are cultivating within him the habit of
looking at how words are spelled as he reads, a habit that will
equip him to continue learning new words for the rest of his life.

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 Chapter 15
Teaching Writing
When we talk about writing, we usually have one or both of
these aspects in mind: handwriting and composition. Let’s look
at each one and outline how Charlotte Mason approached them.

Handwriting
Charlotte taught handwriting through the method of copywork.
Copywork is pretty much what the name implies: the student
copies something. In a Charlotte Mason school that “something”
is interesting quality poetry or quotes or Scripture or excerpts
from literature that the child copies to practice good penmanship.
The selection should give the child a living idea to ponder even as
he works to copy it in his best handwriting.
Lessons are short, with an emphasis on quality over quantity. In
fact, when the children are just learning how to form the letters,
one perfectly executed letter is the goal of the lesson. As their
proficiency grows, that goal can be expanded to three or six perfect
letters and then a line or a sentence. But mindless repetition has
no place in Charlotte’s handwriting lessons.
Young ones, who are just beginning to learn their letters, are
encouraged to draw in sand or on the chalkboard, learning a
simple stroke and then the letters that use that stroke. As soon
as possible, those learned letters are combined into words so the
writing exercise will have more interest and communicate an idea.
For an example of how those beginning writing lessons might
look, download the sample of Delightful Handwriting.

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Composition
Charlotte taught composition through the method of narration.
Since the majority of composition is mental work, Charlotte
focused on that part of the process during the earlier grades,
while the children are still learning how to form their letters and
practice writing with ease. We already discussed the method of
narration when we talked about teaching history. Charlotte used
that method for many subjects; and while it is a fabulous tool for
learning, it is also a solid foundation for composition. In fact, oral
narration can also be called oral composition.
Once the children are proficient and comfortable with oral
narration, you can begin to introduce some written narration,
usually around the age of ten. They are already experienced in
the mental process of organizing and expressing their thoughts,
now they just need to take the next step and put those organized
thoughts on paper.
Charlotte was a firm believer in letting the children develop
their own unique styles, because she knew they would be well
acquainted with a variety of wonderful writing styles from the
great literature they had been using throughout their school years.
They would pick up a little from one great author and a little from
another and mix it together with their own personalities. Such a
method is consistent with her priority of respecting the child as a
person. Formulaic writing is eschewed.
When the children are comfortable and proficient with getting
their organized thoughts on paper, you help them polish their
writing skills by focusing on just one or two points that they need
to improve on. That point is explained and corrected in their work,
then they focus on mastering it in future written narrations. Once
it is mastered, they work on another point or two. In this way,
composition is not taught as a separate subject, but is intertwined
with other subjects’ narrations.

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 That is the approach to composition that is integrated in our
Using Language Well series. Each teacher book contains a set of
rubrics, assignments, and teaching tips that give practical guidance
in helping your child grow in composition through the years.
Writing, spelling, and reading are all components of language
arts. You might find the video, The Natural Progression of Language
Arts, a good overview to see how Charlotte Mason methods help
the student gently and naturally progress in the art of using
language well.
If you would like an in-depth look at language arts in a
Charlotte Mason approach, Hearing and Reading, Telling and
Writing contains all the fascinating details we found in Charlotte’s
writings, including sample written narrations.

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 Chapter 16
Teaching Grammar
Most of you were probably taught English grammar the same
way I was. In first grade we were told, “A noun is the name of
a person, place, thing, or idea. Circle the nouns in these five
sentences.”
Then in second grade we were told, “A noun is the name of
a person, place, thing, or idea. Circle the nouns in these ten
sentences.”
And in third grade we were told, “A noun is the name of a person,
place, thing, or idea. Circle the nouns in these fifteen sentences.”
Charlotte Mason’s approach to grammar was vastly different.

The Timing
Probably the biggest difference between the way we were taught
grammar and how Charlotte approached grammar is the timing.
The educational system we grew up in believed that children must
study parts of speech every year all year long. Charlotte did not
think it would take that long for children to learn nine parts of
speech.
Plus, she realized that grammar is an abstract concept. Many
times you can’t say what part of speech a word is until you see
where it fits in the sentence and how it relates to all the other
words. That’s a tough concept for a concrete-thinking child to
grasp (which may explain why the traditional educational system
has to keep reteaching it year after year).
Charlotte believed you could make more progress faster if you

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waited until the children were older—ten or so. Up until that
time they were seeing, hearing, and practicing correct usage (like
proper verb tenses, simple punctuation and capitalization, proper
pronouns) through their copywork, reading, and narration.
That rich exposure laid the foundation for ease in analyzing the
language later.

The Method
Once the children are ready, the parts of speech are introduced
in a straightforward way with simple exercises. The “living” part
comes in when the children are assigned to practice identifying
the parts of speech and analyze the jobs they perform. Just as with
handwriting and spelling, you use good literature from living
books to practice grammar analysis.
For example, you could present a stanza from a poem with
several words italicized and ask the children to identify what part
of speech each one is. In this way you can continue to nourish
their minds with great ideas even while practicing grammar.
The Using Language Well series provides short lessons in English
usage and grammar pulled from the wonderful literature passages
in the Spelling Wisdom books. Together, they make a rich literary
approach to grammar.

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 Chapter 17
Teaching Math
by Richelle Baburina

Richele Baburina has extensively researched Charlotte Mason’s approach to math

and compiled her findings in her excellent book, Mathematics: An Instrument for
Living Teaching, and helpful DVD series, Charlotte Mason’s Living Math: A Guided
Journey. She is also the author of The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series
curriculum.

Charlotte Mason valued a generous curriculum. Though

emphasis on the three R’s alone makes for a meager education,
these subjects did have their rightful place of study.
Charlotte valued the study of arithmetic primarily for its
use in training mental and moral habits, including accuracy,
attention, careful execution, neatness, and truthfulness. Though
its use in daily life was important, it was the “beauty and truth”
of mathematics, that awakening of a sense of awe in God’s fixed
laws of the universe, that afforded its study a rightful place in
Charlotte’s curriculum.
Let’s take a brief look at how mathematics are taught in a CM
education—because without living teaching, that sense of wonder
might not be awakened nor the desired habit training take place.

The Early Years

The study of arithmetic falls well within Charlotte’s definition
that “education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.” Before
the age of six, a child’s education is by means of his senses, natural
environment, and unstudied games. Direct preparation for

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mathematics in these years is considered not only undesirable but
detrimental.

Elementary Arithmetic
The formal study of arithmetic begins at about six years of age and
is characterized by thorough, careful work in which the children
make discoveries for themselves. Its study follows Charlotte’s basic
principles of short lessons with concentrated attention.

Manipulatives
Though the term math manipulative did not exist in Charlotte’s
time, the use of concrete objects as aids in conveying ideas is
significant in her method of teaching arithmetic.
Some important points to remember:
• All the manipulatives you need can be found in your own
home—beads, buttons, and craft sticks to name just a few. A
variety of simple objects should be used rather than a single
specially-designed manipulative so the child doesn’t form
a hard-and-fast connection between the math facts and the
manipulative.
• Manipulatives are only a tool used for the presentation or
investigation of an idea. If a manipulative’s use requires too
much teaching, it becomes more important than the idea it is
to represent.
• Arithmetic tables should not be memorized until the child
proves the facts first through the use of manipulatives.
• Allow your child enough time to work with the manipulatives
but then progress to working with imaginary objects. Once
the child can mentally picture the number, or has grasped the

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 abstract, put away the manipulative until the introduction of
a new concept.
“A bag of beans, counters, or buttons should be used in all the
early arithmetic lessons, and the child should be able to work
with these freely, and even to add, subtract, multiply, and divide
mentally, without the aid of buttons or beans, before he is set to
‘do sums’ on his slate” (Home Education, p. 256).

Mental Arithmetic and Oral Work

In Charlotte’s methods of teaching mathematics, written work
is used sparingly. Mental arithmetic and oral work help reinforce
math facts and vocabulary, plus they are instrumental in the
training of good habits.
“Give him short sums, in words rather than in figures, and excite
in him the enthusiasm which produces concentrated attention
and rapid work. Let his arithmetic lesson be to the child a daily
exercise in clear thinking and rapid, careful execution, and his
mental growth will be as obvious as the sprouting of seedlings
in the spring” (Home Education, p. 261).

While children advance in their understanding, the oral

questions should always remain within their ability.
“Engage the child upon little problems within his comprehension
from the first, rather than upon set sums” (Home Education, p. 254).

“Now he is ready for more ambitious problems: thus, ‘A boy

had twice ten apples; how many heaps of 4 could he make?’ ”
(Home Education, p. 257).

Some points to consider:

• The oral questions we give our children should be engaging.

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 For example, “How old will you be when your sister is four”
will be more apt to fix your child’s attention than the same
question given as, “Add 4 + 5.”
• Require your child to give fully worded answers in complete
sentences for the most benefit.
• Along with oral work throughout the math lesson, consider
following Charlotte’s schedule of five minutes of rapid drill
at the end of the lesson or ten minutes for older children at
another time in the daily schedule.

Careful Teaching vs. Careless Teaching

Charlotte felt that careless teaching—which includes offering
crutches and failing to pronounce sums wrong—fosters habits of
carelessness in children. In contrast, carefully graduated lessons,
along with Charlotte’s methods already mentioned, foster the
training of good habits.
“Arithmetic is valuable as a means of training children in
habits of strict accuracy, but the ingenuity which makes this
exact science tend to foster slipshod habits of mind, a disregard
of truth and common honesty, is worthy of admiration! The
copying, prompting, telling, helping over difficulties, working
with an eye to the answer which he knows, that are allowed
in the arithmetic lesson, under an inferior teacher, are enough
to vitiate any child; and quite as bad as these is the habit of
allowing that a sum is nearly right, two figures wrong, and so
on, and letting the child work it over again. Pronounce a sum
wrong, or right—it cannot be something between the two.”
(Home Education, pp. 260 and 261).

“Therefore his progress must be carefully graduated; but

there is no subject in which the teacher has a more delightful
consciousness of drawing out from day to day new power in the

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 child. Do not offer him a crutch; it is in his own power he must
go” (Home Education, p. 261).

For a wonderful math curriculum that adheres to these methods,

take a look at The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series.
The corresponding videos, Charlotte Mason’s Living Math: A
Guided Journey, demonstrate each method described.

Living Math Books

Charlotte believed mathematics fell outside her rule of literary
presentations. She stated:
“…mathematics, like music, is a speech in itself, a speech
irrefragibly logical, of exquisite clarity, meeting the requirements
of mind” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 334).

Charlotte did not employ the modern notion of “living math

books” to teach mathematical concepts. She advocated acquainting
the children with the “captain” ideas of math by introducing the
different branches or their great thinkers through an interesting or
exciting history.

Advanced Mathematics
The methods we’ve discussed are not just for the teaching
of elementary arithmetic; they also apply to more advanced
arithmetic: geometry, algebra, and beyond. Whether you are
comfortable teaching the higher levels of mathematics or rely
more heavily on textbooks, a curriculum, or a tutor, be sure to
ensure a living treatment of math for your older child as well.
• Guide your older child in discovery, allowing her to think for
herself. Be patient and advance slowly. Allow your older child
to wonder, discover and permit ideas to germinate.

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 • Practical exercises should continue along deductive exercises
in geometry, and the practical side of algebra should be
introduced as early as possible.
• Provide a slow, steady approach with lots of practice.
• Exclude long or tedious examples for calculation.
The Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching book
includes all the details and practical step-by-step instructions that
describe how math was taught through each advancing level of
Charlotte’s classrooms—from learning numbers through algebra
and geometry.

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 Chapter 18
Next Steps
We hope this Subject-by-Subject overview has been helpful to
you. Once you know Charlotte Mason’s methods, the next step
is to get a plan and gather the resources to put the methods into
practice.
If you would prefer to draft your own plan, our Planning Your
Charlotte Mason Education book and DVD will walk you through
the process. With its guidance you can design a custom plan for
your family in 5 simple steps. The SCM Curriculum Overview
will also give you lots of ideas, including our favorite resources for
every subject and every grade.
If you would like ready-made plans, take a look at the SCM
Curriculum for a complete and enjoyable Charlotte Mason
curriculum. You will receive lists of wonderful resources to gather,
weekly schedules, and daily itineraries so you know which books
to use on which days and how much to complete. The daily plans
also include reminders of the Charlotte Mason methods you have
learned about in this book.
If you would like to see those methods demonstrated and dig
deeper into the details, the Learning and Living: Homeschooling
the Charlotte Mason Way DVD set will make the methods very
practical and give you the confidence you need to teach the
Charlotte Mason way.
Then all that is left is to enjoy learning and growing with your
children. Many parents tell us that they find CM methods to
be intuitive—what they would naturally do with their children.
Charlotte Mason’s methods just make sense!

simplycharlottemason.com 73
 So enjoy this wonderfully natural method of learning about
God, people, and the world around you. Enjoy watching your
children thrive with these methods. And enjoy how much you will
learn in the process.
In fact, you may start to wonder if education can really be this
simple. Yes, it can . . . the delightful Charlotte Mason way.

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 Subject by Subject At a Glance
Subjects Methods
Basic Principles for Short lessons; quality over quantity (habits of attention
All Subjects and best effort); varied order of subjects

History Living books; narration; Book of Centuries

Geography Living books; narration; map work

Read aloud; narration (discussion for older students);

Bible
memorize and recite regularly
Picture study for art appreciation; art expression in a
Art
variety of media
Slow and careful work on useful projects, using a
Handicrafts
variety of media
Hear and speak, then read and write with Gouin series;
Foreign Languages
Latin starting about ten years old

Literature Living books; narration

Music study for music appreciation; singing; any

Music
instrumental instruction
Read aloud and enjoy frequently; memorize and recite
Poetry
occasionally; Shakespeare in three steps
Living books (conversational textbooks for upper
Science
grades); narration; nature study
Playing with letters and sounds; word-building; lessons
Reading
with sight-reading and word-building
See the words in reading lessons; notice the words in
Spelling
copywork; prepared dictation starting about ten years old
Copywork for handwriting; oral and written narration
Writing
for composition
Not formally studied until ten or older; straightforward
Grammar
teaching, practice with literature
Everyday objects as manipulatives; move from
Math manipulatives to imaginary objects to pure number
with interesting scenarios; guided discovery
 Sample Schedule
Here is a sample of how to give your student a generous curriculum in short lessons.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Scripture Memory Scripture Memory Scripture Memory Scripture Memory Scripture Memory
(5 min.) (5 min.) (5 min.) (5 min.) (5 min.)

History History Poetry Bible Bible

(20–30 min.) (20–30 min.) (5 min.) (20 min.) (20 min.)

Picture Study Music Study Geography Hymn Study Nature Study

(10 min.) (10–15 min.) (10 min.) (5 min.) (30 min.)

Foreign Language Habits Handicraft or Art Shakespeare Habits

(15 min.) (10 min.) (20–30 min.) (20 min.) (10 min.)

Literature Literature Literature Foreign Language Literature

(20–30 min.) (20–30 min.) (20–30 min.) (15–20 min.) (20–30 min.)

Math/Science/ Math/Science/ Math/Science/ Literature Math/Science/

Language Arts per Language Arts per Language Arts per (20–30 min.) Language Arts per
student student student student
Math/Science/
Language Arts per
student
Check out our SCM Curriculum for daily lesson plans.
 Some Key Terms
Book of Centuries—A timeline in a book. Each two-page spread
covers 100 years, a century. Enter people and events in their
correct centuries as you learn about them. Use with a variety of
subjects to record historical persons, scientists, poets, composers,
artists, Biblical characters, favorite authors and book settings, etc.

Charlotte Mason (1842–1923)—A British educator who invested

her life in improving the quality of children’s education. She
believed a person’s education was influenced by three things:
the atmosphere in which he lives, the discipline of good habits
intentionally instilled, and the living ideas generously presented.

Copywork—An interesting passage given to a child for penmanship

practice. The passage is shown in a handwriting font for the child
to reproduce carefully as he copies it.

Early Years—A time of informal learning between 0 and 5 years

of age. Formal lessons do not begin until the child is six years old.

Guided Discovery—Leading a child to new ideas through carefully

graduated incremental steps, then spotlighting the new concept
and waiting to see if the child is ready to discover it for himself.

Living Book—A book that makes the subject come alive. It

touches the emotions and fires the imagination. Usually written
by one author with a passion for the subject. Can be in narrative
or conversational tone.

Narration—Retelling what was just read or heard in your own

words. Can be done orally or in writing. Oral narration is done

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throughout all the grades. Written narrations are added around
fourth grade.

Prepared Dictation—An interesting passage given to an older child

to study and then reproduce in writing as it is dictated to him one
phrase at a time.

Twaddle—Material that talks down to a child, assuming he cannot

understand a well-crafted sentence or story line.

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