CHARLOTTE MASON

        The question is then raised “How can a teacher effectively teach her students if she is not to use lectures, textbooks, reward charts, grades, and worksheets?” Mason explained how the teacher/parent influences her students by famously declaring “Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.” 

        What she meant by this is that there are three main parts of a child’s education that the parent or teacher can directly influence. We like to think of atmosphere as real-life experiences (the best teacher); the relationships with people, the wide-array of experiences encountered, and the knowledge they gain from solving real-life problems. The second part of a child’s education is the development of good habits of character. This can be seen through habits of attention, cleanliness, honesty, and so on. Instilling these lifelong habits into our children are not only a huge blessing for them, but also for us as parents. Teaching and promoting good habits are vitally important to success in life. An individual can be highly intelligent and educated, but if they have not learned to be honest, hard-working, or kind they will never be successful or happy. The third part of the child’s education is academic learning through living ideas, through books and things.

        The two main ways we teach is by reading living books and handling tangible things. A living book is a book written by one author who is knowledgeable and passionate about a specific topic. They have actually lived what they are writing about. It is often written as a narrative, making the topic come alive for the reader. In the lower elementary years, the teacher/parent reads the living book aloud to the child. To cement these living ideas in the child’s mind, the child narrates what has just been read. When a child narrates, they tell back, in their own words, what they just heard. The process of listening to the book, comprehending what was read, and telling back what they processed helps the child retain the information much more effectively than reading a textbook and being evaluated with a multiple-choice test. The process of narration is setting a strong foundation for later writing skills. 

        Passages from living books can also be used for copywork. Copywork is a way for the child to practice handwriting, grammar, and spelling all at the same time. It is surprisingly simple, efficient, and effective! Copywork is when the parent or child chooses a short passage for the child to copy. The child carefully copies the passage into a notebook, taking note of correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. After a few years of copywork, the child moves on to dictation, which is copying a passage down as the parent reads it, adding the correct spelling, punctuation and grammar to the best of their knowledge. Any mistakes are noted by the parent and supplemental teaching is given. 

        In a Charlotte Mason education the child learns from a wide variety of subjects, from handicrafts to nature study. At first this can seem a bit overwhelming. But Miss Mason recommends that the lessons be kept short and varied throughout the day and week so that your child can be exposed to a broad “feast” of subjects and ideas. By keeping lessons short and varied the child’s attention will be held and their brain will not become exhausted by using one area for too long.