2. Style of Lessons

Charlotte Mason-style lessons are short, especially for young children. The goal is to train the child to focus fully on their work, but only for the amount of time they are developmentally capable of. For early elementary-aged children, this often means only 5-15 minutes per subject.

In older grades, the duration extends to 45 minutes or more.When a child becomes restless, Charlotte advised changing the lesson to a different type of subject–maybe moving from handwriting to music study, or from math to handicrafts. 

Short lessons mean that more subjects can be incorporated into a school day. This fits with the Charlotte Mason philosophy of introducing many topics to children and allowing them to delve deeper into the ones that spark their interest.

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3. Living Books

Living books are the opposite of textbooks–quality literature (either fiction or nonfiction) written by an author with a passion for the topic. The writer’s passion and expertise breathe life into the book, as opposed to a textbook that gives impersonal overviews of many topics. 

Living books present inspiring stories that engage the minds of children and adults alike, providing characters our children can look up to and emulate.

4. Narration

A Charlotte Mason-style education uses narration as one of the central methods to evaluate a student. The goal is to teach a child to think and express themselves clearly.

Up until the age of 10 or 11, Charlotte advises teachers to use mainly oral narration with a child. After listening to a short passage of a book, the child will tell back, in his or her own words, important aspects of the story. Letting a young child do this orally helps them develop analytical thinking skills without getting stuck by the physical mechanics of handwriting.

At around age 11, Charlotte Mason teachers begin having children do written narrations, which lengthen and become more in-depth as children get older.

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5. Dictation

Dictation exercises introduce and reinforce spelling and grammar concepts.

Charlotte recommends using inspiring quotations or Scripture for dictation. The child studies the passage until they are certain of the spelling and punctuation. Then the teacher dictates the passage slowly while the child writes it down. Formal grammar study is usually delayed until age 10 or 11 in a Charlotte Mason education.

 

6. Art & Music Study

Charlotte Mason believed in exposing a child to greatness in many forms, which is why she introduced music and art appreciation at her schools. In Charlotte’s schools, one composer or artist was studied each term–both through experiencing the music and art, reading living books about the artist and perhaps reproducing the style through art or music lessons.

 

7. Nature Study (farm)

Charlotte thought children should spend as much time as possible outdoors, especially as young students. Students kept their own detailed nature journals and also used nature guides to discover and identify the natural world in their neighborhood.

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Charlotte Mason’s ideas created an educational revolution when she developed them. She believed that, regardless of what social class they belonged to, children deserved dignity and respect. She hoped education would open the doors of equality and opportunity to all. Charlotte expressed the hope in many a parent’s hearts when she wrote the following: 

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“The question is not, -- how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”