Thoughts on Charlotte Mason

Even before I read about Charlotte Mason, I know I will like her. One of the main thing was because she loves God and that is a wonderful thing. Of course, I also like the fact she likes nature. After all, God created nature and it's always a pleasure to study God's creations. I knew she favored "living books" instead of textbooks, and I'm all for "living books".

Anyway, I read parts of "A Charlotte Mason Education: A homeschooling How to Manual" by Catherine Levison. Immediately, what jumped out to me in the introduction was ".... CM method does not involve the purchasing of a curriculum and once understood, could be done solely through the library at no cost." Really? That sounds too good to be true. Has anyone actually done that?

Then also in the book, she wrote in 1862, " Truly, parents are happy people- to have God's children lent to them... I love my children dearly." My sentiment exactly.

Because I'm interested in how different school teach math, I skipped to the math section. Short lesson is mentioned and that is pretty much exactly what we are doing. We probably spend about 10-15 minutes/day on different subjects. Not intentional, but that's how it turned out. One thing I have not done, but I plan to incorporate, is what CM suggested, "let them (children) tell you what they know about a concept they have studied." I think that is important in any subject but I'm glad it was mentioned in the math section. My dad was always able to summarize a book- looking just at the table of contents. No wonder, he was such a tip-top student. Unfortunately, I did not inherit that from my father.

One thing CM stresses is "let children study the concrete before the abstract no matter how old they are (even when approaching algebra and geometry). This will avoid "when will we ever need this???" whining. That is how I felt in math, esp. in higher level math. I was always told by my father (also common Chinese belief) that studying math trains the mind, especially logic. So whether math was actually useful or not was irrelevant. Anyway, I like CM's idea on this.

Here is something else I know my children will just love, "They have all afternoon and evening free to enjoy being a child, to pursue hobbies and to read." Lessons are done in the morning in short varied lessons. That is kind of what we do, except my kids seem to need some nudge to read by themselves in the afternoon. Once they get going, however, they read for a long time. But if I don't nudge them, they will happily play with themselves and entertain themselves for a long, long time. Luckily, J seem to be getting into the habit of reading herself in the afternoon as she knows I will remind her if she doesn't do it herself. Prime also knows not to ask for any TV time until he did some reading himself. Maybe I will try a week w/o saying anything and see what they do.

I also like CM's motto for children, "I am, I can, I ought, I will".
I am because they are a child of God.
I can stands for having the power God has given to us to do a thing.
I ought has to do with duty.
I will is different from I want.

She also reminded me again how important it is for even young children to "deal directly with books." Levionson goes on to write, " That's why what you choose to read to them is so important. Cm wants them exposed to the best in literature, poetry, music, and art. She most definitely does not want them in what we call "dumbed-down" books." This idea is also supported by Enki education and classical education.

Henrietta Franklin is quoted to say, "We shall not lightly abandon this custom of reading aloud to children, even they are grown boys and girls." That is the assurance I needed to continue to read-aloud my children even when they get older.

Anyway, I like CM and think we already incorporate quite a bit of what she recommends. Perhaps I will have another post later about some of the other stuff (music, art, science geography).