When we decided to go “whole hog” on the Charlotte Mason Method of homeschooling a couple of years ago, I was so overwhelmed. I wanted to do it well, but I honestly didn’t even know where to start. There’s soooo much information out there available for us these days, but sorting through it all was, quite frankly, not a task I felt up for.
We were already using several curricula that were “Charlotte Mason inspired,” but I wanted the full-blown thing. I wanted our homeschool to look as much like a Charlotte Mason education as possible.
SO HOW DID I GET STARTED FULLY IMPLEMENTING THE CHARLOTTE MASON METHOD IN OUR HOMESCHOOL?
01 | I STARTED LISTENING TO A DELECTABLE EDUCATION PODCAST.
On their podcast website, I started listening to the episodes in the “Charlotte Mason 101” section. That was really what inspired me to work toward more than just being “inspired” by Charlotte Mason’s methods, but instead truly transforming our homeschool. I listened to the “why” behind her methods, what it looks like to schedule a CM homeschool day, and a recap of Form 1B (where Mr. Seven was at the time).
I basically binged their podcast, listening to some episodes two and three times to be sure I understood what they were saying. I started taking notes and jotting down ideas for what their suggestions might look like in our homeschool.
Before long, I was feeling both super excited AND even more overwhelmed. I felt like I was trying to catch smoke with my bare hands…like I could just maybe sort of see the ideas, and then they would just vanish. The ladies at ADE do an AMAZING job with their podcast and resources – please don’t get me wrong – but the more I learned, the more I realized just how much I still did not know!
But their biggest encouragement is just to start. Don’t start perfectly – just start. And from there, continue to grow as an educator and as a mom; continue to refine the implementation of CM’s methods.
That was the encouragement I needed. JUST DO IT.
02 | I BOUGHT ADE’S SCHEDULING CARDS & CURRICULUM TEMPLATES
Let me pause right here to say that I’m not affiliated with A Delectable Education. I just really love their resources, they’ve been a HUGE help for my own journey as a Charlotte Mason educator, and I recommend them to everyone who ever even briefly mentions they want to learn more about CM’s methods.
Okay, I’m a visual person, so even though the podcast was incredibly helpful, I needed to SEE it all come together in order to figure out where to start.
Their scheduling cards were incredibly helpful for just that.
They’ve made them for each form, and the cards have the maximum time we should spend on each subject and little symbols that denote the type of brain activity each subject uses. So you make sure that when you’re scheduling subjects, you don’t put two subjects together that are the same kind of activity. This helps vary the subjects throughout the day to keep your students engaged and learning.
I cut all of my scheduling cards out, laid them on a large piece of paper, and moved them around until I was satisfied that the flow of subjects each day would work for us. Then I glued them down so I could display the schedule in our homeschool area.
Once I had our schedule set, I started working through the curriculum template to outline what we would cover in each subject for the year. Then I started scouring websites and Facebook groups for book recommendations to fill in our year.
And then I was ready to start using the Charlotte Mason Method.
03 | I WENT SUBJECT-BY-SUBJECT TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO BEST IMPLEMENT THE CHARLOTTE MASON METHOD IN OUR HOMESCHOOL
We jumped in both feet first. It was totally imperfect, but I knew we were moving in the right direction.
But I also knew I needed to “master” one subject at a time, working to understand how to implement one subject before moving to another. So even though we were following CM’s methods for all subjects, I still had a LOT to learn (and I’m still learning and will be until my kids graduate).
I had the hardest time understanding natural history, history, and geography. It felt like those three subjects had the most “moving pieces” that I needed to be implementing. And the history streams! Oiy! They felt so overwhelming!
I listened to every single podcast, read so many blog posts, and asked a ton of questions of other Charlotte Mason mamas on how to do each subject. Once I felt like I’d wrapped my mind around natural history, I moved on to history. Understanding the history streams took some time and frustration, but once it clicked I was soooo excited about what history will look like in our homeschool! Then I began working on understanding everything I needed to know about geography.
Once I got those three figured out, I moved on to the other subjects, working through them one at a time.
The truth is, there really is no “mastery,” and I’ll be learning how to do this until we’re done homeschooling. But I’ve committed to growing each year, diving in deeper to CM’s methods, and continuing to read resources that will propel me forward.
04 | I BEGAN READING CHARLOTTE MASON’S VOLUMES.
There are so many amazing resources out there for truly understanding and implementing CM’s methods. But there’s really no substitute for reading her volumes yourself.
My goal was to read 3 volumes per year, and then just keep rereading them on a 2-year, rotating cycle. But then we moved last year and everything in my life was completely disrupted. I was only able to read her first volume, Home Education. But it was honestly so good and brought a lot of clarity, and now I’m finally moving on to the second volume. Hopefully I can stick to my goal now and get through them all by next year.
And then begin again.
I also recently found a treasure trove of Parent’s Review Articles on Ambleside Online’s website. I have MUCH reading to do, but I’m so excited to slowly work my way through these wonderful resources!
05 | I JOINED CHARLOTTE MASON FACEBOOK GROUPS
The final thing I did to implement a full Charlotte Mason feast in our homeschool was to join just a couple of select Charlotte Mason groups on Facebook. These groups have been AMAZING in helping me choose living books, ask questions when I hit a roadblock, and learn from other people’s experiences what different subjects look like.
And that’s it!
Again, my biggest advice is to just do it. Do it imperfectly, but do it. And as you are going along, you’re going to learn so much and watch as your homeschool becomes so rich and full with living ideas, beauty, and truth.
