My Little Robins

Loving and Learning in the Nest

Charlotte Mason History: A Simple Approach

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You know those surprises I've mentioned as I've dug into Charlotte Mason's volume, Home Education? Surprises like science instruction? Nothing shocked me more than Charlotte Mason's advice on teaching history. 

The ongoing debate (in America, anyways) is whether we should start with the relatively recent history of America, or go back further into the history of the countries from which America took root. 

But, this is not Charlotte Mason's focus in Home Education. Instead, she said to not worry so much about teaching an entire history, at least until our children are nine, but to thoroughly develop an understanding of certain historical figures, a single person, until the time period is understood. 

Doesn't this sound sweet and simple? Let me clarify that I did not simplify this, but this is what Charlotte Mason recommended in Home Education. You can find my other posts in this series here.

History

"The fatal mistake is in the notion that he must learn 'outlines,' or a baby edition of the whole history of England, or of Rome, just as he must cover the geography of all the world. Let him, on the contrary, linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man, is at home in the ways of that period. " Home Education, page 280

Related: Phonics, Whole Language, and Charlotte Mason Reading Lessons

Instead of reading outlines are books filled with exhausting dates, she recommended reading biographies about or autobiographies from famous people.  These books should be, if possible-

  1. Old. "The early history of a nation is far better fitted than its later records for the study of children, because the story moves on a few broad, simple lines..." Home Education, page 281-282
  2. Not specifically for children. "For the matter for this intelligent teaching of history, eschew, in the first place, nearly all history books written expressly for children." Home Education, page 281
  3. First-hand sources, when possible. "...let them get the spirit of history into them by reading, at least, one old chronicle written by a man who saw and knew something of what he wrote about, and did not get it at second-hand." Home Education, page 282
  4. Include myths. "But every nation has its heroic age before authentic history begins: there were giants in the land in those days, and the child wants to know about them." Home Education, pages 280-281 
  5. Read Plutarch's Lives. "In the same way, readings from Plutarch's Lives will afford the best preparation for the study of Grecian or of Roman history.." 
  6. Read Shakespeare. "Let him spend a year of happy intimacy with Alfred, 'the truth-teller,' with the Conqueror, with Richard and Saladin, or with Henry V --Shakespeare's Henry V -- and is victorious army. " Home Education, pages 280-281

Home Education Curriculum: History

This section contains affiliate links as I share with you our curriculum picks. You can read more about this in my policies. 

I'm not extremely eager to read Plutarch's Lives, but I did try to keep these recommendations in mind as I created our curriculum. One thing I noticed (that I mentioned in the introduction to this series,) is that the subjects aren't as isolated as they sometimes appear to be. Shakespeare isn't its own subject, it's a means for literature and for history. Myths don't need to be isolated to history. American myths look like folk tales, and I imagine we'll read some of those in literature. 

With the previously mentioned things in mind, this is what I'm choosing for history during our first official year of homeschooling:

Native Americans- I chose to study Native Americans to approach early American history. While not all older books are culturally sensitive, I will use what Charlotte Mason referred to as "judicious skipping" and cut out any parts that are inaccurate or unfair. 

The Book of Indians by Holling C Hollings- I made sure to buy a classic version of this book, as it looks like some reprints were copied incorrectly which make them impossible to read. 

Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar D'aulaire

Benjamin Franklin- I wanted to choose an early American figure, and frankly, I think Benjamin Franklin is just fascinating! 

Benjamin Franklin by Ingry and Edgar D'aulaire

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

I will also consider reading Sacagawea by Joseph Bruchac, but I will need to pre-read it first. 

A friend asked me why I didn't coordinate the history time period with the art work (I sort of did) and the literature I chose. For two reasons: Charlotte Mason didn't say to do that in this volume, and also, since we are studying people and not necessarily time periods, it doesn't seem completely necessary.  


When Should I Start Teaching Charlotte Mason Science?

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With all the pressure on STEM or STEAM learning these days, delaying science instruction until our children are 10 (or even older) can be stressful. Won't our children be behind if we just ignore science? And when are we actually supposed to start science, after all? 

The common consensus is usually that nature study counts as science until our children get a little bit older. It is a type of science on its own. Observing the beautiful things of Creation will give children a solid base for future science learning. 

As I've dug into Charlotte Mason's first volume, Home Education, to see what her recommendations are for beginning lessons at home, I've had a few surprises. This area, natural philosophy, or science, was one of them. The idea that we should hold off on science in favor of closely observing things in nature is not what she recommended in this volume. So, if you feel like you should start science because of today's educational needs, but thought you should wait because of loyalty to Charlotte Mason, I hope you consider yourself free of conflict.

You can read the rest of my posts in this series here.


 

Natural Philosophy

"All natural phenomena are orderly; they are governed by law; they are not magical. They are comprehended by someone; why not by the child himself?" Parents' Review article, as quoted by Charlotte Mason in Home Education

In Home Education, Charlotte Mason affirms that being outdoors is still very necessary for young children.  I assumed we'd continue our long hours outdoors during our first year of formal lessons (I still have two children in the early years, after all!) and read some nature lore.  However, the books she recommended were topical, living science books. 

That's right, science.

She recommended the book, The Sciences by Edward Holden. This book goes beyond nature study; it discusses natural phenomena like astronomy, weather, and even chemistry.

The purpose of this kind of "natural philosophy" is to teach children about the things that interest them, and that they see everyday. But, observing and reading books is not all she had in mind for children during their earliest lessons. She says: 

"One thing is to be borne in mind: nothing should be done without its due experiment." Home Education, page 271

It's possible that some experiments will have to come through observation, such as keeping a log of the moon's cycle. But I can tell you that I'm excited about doing science experiments, as it's a fun, enjoyable way to add some wonder into our days. 

Related: Making the Most of Outdoor Play During the Early Years

Home Education Curriculum: Natural Philosophy

Like I mentioned before, Charlotte Mason recommended this book: 

The Sciences by Edward Holden- I read the first few pages of this book, and can see why it is recommended. Charlotte Mason said that some of the chapters will be out of reach of a child under 9, but many of them will be beneficial.  I am planning on reading about meteorology and astronomy during our first year. 

Other books:

Star Stories for Little Folks:- This book by Gertrude Chandler Warner is lyrically written and teaches about specific constellations. This is something that I've never learned, so I look forward to learning it with H. As with all older books, make sure the reproductions are done well if you plan to purchase! 

Of course, Charlotte Mason had many other recommendations, and in her PNEU schools, she did not begin actual science lessons in these earliest years. But, I think conflicting recommendations like these give us the freedom to choose what works best for our own families. 

In some Charlotte Mason school schedules, science education takes the form of nature study until children are 10 or 11 years old. But, her recommendations in Home Education are very different.

Charlotte Mason Math From Home Education

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Math is an area that is all abuzz in the Charlotte Mason community. To tell you the truth, I chose our math curriculum before digging into Home Education again. I picked the curriculum that I used as a teacher. Our situation is somewhat unique, because I would love to send my children to the school where I once taught. If that happens, I would like my children to have experience with the curriculum they use. 

If anything, reading about math in Home Education assured me that Charlotte Mason's recommendations aren't there to be followed as a recipe. This idea stood out to me because after she gave her recommendations for teaching math, she recommended a math curriculum that looked very, very different than what she said. So, as you choose a math curriculum, know that we can have grace for ourselves, as Charlotte Mason had grace. 

You can see the rest of this series, which outlines a curriculum based solely off of Home Education, here.

Math

"The chief value of arithmetic, like that of the higher mathematics, lies in the training it affords the reasoning powers, and in the habits of insight, readiness, accuracy, intellectual truthfulness it engenders. " Home Education, page 254

I've used affiliate links in this section to share some resources with you. You can learn more about these links in my policies. 

Math instruction, according to this volume, begins with simple math problems that children can do on their own. Charlotte Mason said that these problems are within a child's grasp. These lessons serve as a little warm up to get ideas moving, yet they don't focus on merely sums. They set up a story problem that will require a child to think through it. 

After this opportunity to complete a problem, the skill is demonstrated using what are now called math manipulatives. Charlotte Mason recommended beans, but there are now so many options. I like Unifix cubes, although so do my toddlers, and they end up all over the house. 

We can demonstrate the skills before introducing more challenging problems. Here is an example: 

"A boy had twice ten apples; how many heaps of 4 could he make?' He will be able to work with promiscuous numbers, as 7+5-3. If he must use beans to get his answer, let him; but encourage him to work with imaginary beans, as a step towards working with abstract numbers. Carefully graduated teaching and daily mental effort on the child's part at this early stage may be the means of developing real mathematical power, and will certainly promote the habits of concentration and effort of mind." Home Education, page 257

Charlotte Mason continued to describe learning about money, and weight and measurement. 

The modern-day curriculum that she mentioned was ABC Arithmetic, which seems to appear under the name The Science and Art of Arithmetic (perhaps Charlotte Mason mentioned the teacher version, and now only the students' version is available.) If you take a look at the book, you'll see why it doesn't seem to exactly follow Charlotte Mason's recommendations. It begins with Roman numerals, and then is off into different forms of notation, that as well as being mostly unnecessary today, would be very confusing to teach a young child who does not yet understand counting, let alone multiplication. Saying, 1 is 10 and 3 is 11 would most likely do nothing more than confuse a child who is still developing number sense. 

Home Education Curriculum: Math 

Singapore Math- Similar to Charlotte Mason's approach, this math program moves from a problem demonstrated in a concrete way, to a pictorial representation, then moves to the standard notation. Some say that this curriculum "is not Charlotte Mason," but those statements are always subjective. Charlotte Mason wanted US to decide whether something fit into her principles or not, which is why she gave us Four Tests for Lessons. 

Other Math Options:

MEP- This is a free, online math curriculum that many people think highly of. It seems to do a good job of establishing number sense for young children. The lesson guide is also free, so you really only need to print it out. 

I hesitate to recommend other math curricula that I haven't personally looked at. There are several more that I've used and have seen as a teacher, but that I wouldn't necessarily recommend. 


Charlotte Mason math, from Home Education

Narration, Recitation, and Mastering the Art of Speaking

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In this post, the fifth in the series, I'm sharing Charlotte Mason's recommendations for narration and recitation (that was a mouthful!) for children ages 6-9. 

Recitation is not something that will be entirely new this year for us. Miss H has been memorizing scripture for several years. But memorizing poems will be a new thing this year, one that I'm looking forward to. 

We've held off on narration until this point, but now that Miss H is six, I sometimes ask her to tell back what we've read. Recently, I asked her to narrate  something, and when she was finished, she stood up and took a bow. This is the perfect method for a natural born performer. 

These two areas will help children become better communicators, practice articulating words, and will help them better understand and connect with what they've read. For these reasons, I believe that these areas are essential! The recommendations I wrote about below are only from Home Education, as I'm trying to simplify our first year of homeschooling. 

Recitation

"The child must not try to recollect or to say the verse over to himself, but, as far as may be, present an open mind to receive an impression of interest. Half a dozen repetitions should give children possession of such poems as 'Dolly and Dick,' 'Do you ask what the birds say?' 'Little lamb, who made thee?' and the like. The gains of such a method of learning are, that the edge of the child's enjoyment is not taking off by weariful verse by verse repetitions, and, also, that the habit of making mental images is unconsciously formed." Home Education, page 225

In this volume, recitation is described as a natural process that occurs after repeated readings. Reading a poem several times aloud to a child should be enough to help them capture it in their hearts and minds forever. At this stage, a "repeat after me" approach is not recommended. Therefore, a child might participate in recitation without really knowing that memorizing is the goal!

Throughout the process, a child picks up their own meaning from the passage, and it is reflected in his or her voice. Children should be encouraged to speak each word clearly and accurately, which is so important and so helpful when our children are very young!

Charlotte Mason listed several poem possibilities for recitation, but she also said that children should store their hearts with Bible verses as well: 

"The learning by heart of Bible passages should begin while the children are quite young, six or seven, 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, page 253 

Home Education Curriculum: Recitation

I've used affiliate links to share with you some of the books that we'll use. You can read more about affiliate links in my policies.

Charlotte Mason recommended these poems for recitation during the first years of school: 

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field

Miss Lilywhite's Party by George Cooper

Answer to a Child's Question by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

​Little Lamb  by William Blake

*She also recommended Dolly and Dick, which I believe is this poem, Epitath, by Jonathan Swift. But this is not a poem that I would want my young child to ruminate on! 

Since we are using this poetry book for our reading lessons this year, I've decided that we will use it for recitation as well. Some of the above mentioned poems are in the volume, which we will seek out and memorize. 

Narration

"...she may read two or three pages, enough to include an episode; after that, let her call upon the children to narrate- in turns, if there be several of them. They not only narrate with spirit and accuracy, but succeed in catching the style of their author. It is not wise to tease them with corrections; they may begin with an endless chain of 'ands,' but they soon leave this off, and their narrations become good enough in style and composition to be put in a 'print book'!" Home Education, page 233

Narration is a super-hero of sorts. It single-handedly replaces comprehension questions, vocabulary quizzes, book reports, and oral presentations. In it, a child reads a few paragraphs, or as they progress, a few pages, and tells what they have read, assimilating the knowledge as their own. Assimilation has two definitions:

  • to take in and fully understand information and ideas
  • the process of absorbing and digesting digest food and nutrients in the body

The second definition is more relevant than it might seem at first glance. Charlotte Mason likens ideas and living books as food for the mind, so by narrating, a child is properly taking in his or her food for the mind.

Charlotte Mason recommended calling forth this act of narration when a child is six. They are capable of narrating before that, and most likely do narrate what they experience throughout the day.

These recommendations stood out to me regarding beginning narration with a young child: 

  • When the child is six, not earlier, let him narrate the fairy-tale which has been read to him, episode by episode, upon one hearing of each; the Bible tale read to him in the words of the Bible; the well-written animal story; or all about other lands from some such volumes as the World at Home." Home Education, page 232
  • "The seven-years-old boy will have begun to read for himself, but must get most of his intellectual nutriment, by ear, certainly, but read to him out of books." Home Education, page 232 (This seems a little bit of a contradiction, as she also says that once a child learns to read, he or she should read to himself, and that being read to will make him become lazy.) 

Home Education Curriculum: Narration

Charlotte Mason specifically recommended books that a child can narrate, a few pages at a time, from the ages of 6-8:

The World at Home by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (contains magic) 

We will narrate our geography, reading, and Bible selections, although I haven't planned to read any of the above books yet. 

Other Resources

My Charlotte Mason book group is currently reading Know and Tell by Karen Glass, the most complete resource I've ever found on narration. It has been so helpful, and I'm thankful to have found it before beginning narration. 

Narration and recitation, two areas we'll add into our first official year of Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

Home Education: Choosing Literature for Your Young Child

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While choosing literature for year 1 of homeschool, something stood out to me: Charlotte Mason doesn't exactly address literature in her first volume, Home Education. As I pored over it to make our decisions, I realized that I didn't see any books specifically for the subject of literature. So, this is one of those cases where I had to infer what would make sense to add in. I didn't consult any other sources, for the sake of simplicity, when creating our curriculum for our first year of official homeschooling. (You can read my other posts in this series here.) 

This had me wondering why she left out literature. Maybe she knew that the human soul is so connected to stories that choosing literature worthy of our little ones' hearts and minds would be something mothers would take very seriously, and enjoy immensely. Or, maybe she just didn't want little kids to read literature at all.

Okay, it's most definitely not that last idea!

You can read the other posts in this series here. 

Choosing literature for our Home Education homeschool curriculum.

​Literature

"Therefore, the selection of their first lesson-books is a matter of grave importance,  because it rests with these to give children the idea that knowledge is supremely attractive and that reading is delightful. Once the habit of reading his lesson-book with delight is set up in a child, his education is--not completed, but--ensured; he will go on for himself in spite of the obstructions which school too commonly throws in his way." Home Education, page 

This upcoming school year, my goal is to help Miss H develop the habit of reading, to secure her education. But, in choosing these literature books, I didn't choose easier-to-read books. I included those in the Reading section. I chose books that are known for their literary quality and ideas. 

Even without mentioning literature as a specific subject, there were a few suggestions that I gleaned from this volume. For example, she mentioned fairy tales, so I chose a well-loved collection of them. She also mentioned Shakespeare, and even though, in her reference it overlapped with history, I didn't see why it couldn't overlap with "literature" as well

Other books I chose because they related to a country we'll study, or are books that we've collected (we got a beautiful copy of Five Little Peppers and How They Grew from my grandmother-in-law last year!) 

Related: How to Choose Living Books

Home Education Curriculum: Literature

This section contains affiliate links, which you can read about in my policies. 

Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie

Shakespeare's Storybook: Folk Tales that Inspired the Bard by Patrick Ryan and James Mayhew (I chose this because I think it will give my young daughter a good background before reading a story from Shakespeare. I imagine that young children 100 years ago weren't so far removed from the language and culture as our children are now!) 

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (I'll read one story from the above book, and one Shakespeare story throughout the whole school year, just to give her a taste of Shakespeare.) 

James Herriot's Treasury For Children- James Herriot

The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson

All of a Kind Family and/or Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (I just haven't decided yet! I am going to pace all of this out this summer and see if one or two books will be enough!) 

The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh

How I chose literature for my daughter's year 1 of homeschooling.

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