Charlotte Mason: Trusting the Process

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Over the past few years, we have been using a Charlotte Mason method of education. But as time goes on, I think we all come to a point where we start to have doubts or question the method.

In this post, I’m sharing some of my personal struggles that I’ve faced with the Charlotte Mason method. And after much reflection and studying of the CM method & principles, I’ve begun to trust the process.

Initial Struggles

Before I dive in too deeply, I want to clarify a few things.

In this post, I want to share some of the things that have been on my heart and that I’m pondering in regards to the Charlotte Mason method of education.

Over the course of last year, I started to see signs of struggle in regards to language arts and math lessons in our homeschool. Instead of trusting the process or pondering my own mistakes, I decided to partially pivot to another method – the classical method.

But this really wasn’t the best choice for us and I began to pivot back to CM.

It was after re-reading “For the Children’s Sake” that I decided to really dive back into the CM method and make slight changes to how we are approaching these subjects.

The following section from the book really stood out at me and helped me with my struggles.

By being allowed to learn at their own speed, the children taught by Charlotte Mason were happy with their mastery of skills. They did not ‘fail’ or ‘pass.’ They learned how to read and write accurately. A high standard was expected, but at a level appropriate to the child’s ability. It was like climbing one’s own private ladder. It was not to be like a race.

For the children’s sake, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

This is what I needed to read. It led me on to a deeper dive into Mason’s methods. And I went back through some of the Mother’s Education Courses from The CMEC.

As I went through these courses, there was a specific article from The Parent’s Review that really stood out to me: “Teaching and Time” This article is fantastic, and I highly recommend taking the time to read through it.

I want to highlight a couple of quotes from this article which really stood out to me.

…If we trouble to search, we can invariable find some informing idea in Charlotte Mason’s books to bring freshness when our teaching goes stale or wrong.

teaching and time, e.l. molyneux

And…

When our pupils’ understanding, achievement and zest slump, it may well be that a survey of how lesson hours are actually spent will reveal the whole cause of the malady.

Teaching and time, e.L. molyneux

And these lines from the article really made me stop and ponder.

It was in reading over some sections from “Philosophy of Education” by Charlotte Mason that I decided to really trust the process.

No doubt we do give intellectual food, but too little of it; let us have courage and we shall be surprised, as we are now and then, at the amount of intellectual strong meat almost any child will take at a meal and digest at his leisure.

philosophy of education (p 237), Charlotte Mason

And also this quote…

…that his part is not the fearful task of spoon-feeding with pap meat, but delightful commerce of equal minds where his is the part of guide, philosopher, and friend.

philosophy of education (p 237), Charlotte Mason

This is something that I want to take the remaining of our school year and into the summer to consider.

Latin as a Core Subject

I also wanted to transition to Latin as a core part of our curriculum, with the addition of Greek a bit later. I introduced Latin to all of my children at the beginning of term 2 this year, and it has really helped with our other Language Arts lessons.

This is something that I think is missing from the Charlotte Mason method. The latin and grammar lessons are usually pushed until later years with CM.

Some of my children were excellent readers and the comprehension skills were just fine. However, spelling and grammar was a struggle for one of my children.

Believe it or not, but Latin combined with English Grammar has helped them improve in these areas.

Short Lessons & Mastering Subjects

Many mothers love that Charlotte Mason includes many subjects spread over short lessons. And I do too! Especially for one of my students who struggles with focus — these short lessons on our timetable help keep him engaged.

I also love shorter lessons especially for the beginning students. I have noticed that my children required more time and effort in mastering certain subjects. So, this is something that I am working through with our timetable and making necessary adjustments.

I know that CM is not too keen on memorizing a bunch of facts and encourages living ideas instead. And I absolutely love this concept.

This is something that I still believe is important, however, I do think that sometimes we can become hung up on facts vs ideas — and certain facts like math mastery can be missed.

I still adhere to the Charlotte Mason method, but I’m also ok with my children studying math facts more in depth with flashcards or extra practice as needed.

Classical Catholic

There is one last point that I wanted to share with something I struggled with in regards to Charlotte Mason.

I have spent a lot of time reflecting on our ultimate goals in our education at home over the past couple of years. Our mission and goal in our homeschool is to incorporate more of the traditions, ancient beauty & wisdom of the more than two thousand years of Catholic history, culture, and arts into our every day.

On our quest towards what is Good, True, and Beautiful, we want to encourage our students more deeply into the life of God and the thoughts, wisdom, and example of the saints.

Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things.

Philippians 4:8

And yes, Charlotte Mason does encourage bible readings and has a Christian based methodology. But there are still quite a bit of differences between her method and the Catholic tradition.

But these can easily be rectified with supplements. It has taken me a bit more of research in finding these items and I will continue to search for good catholic classics to implement inside of my homeschool. If you have favorites, please share with me in the comments below.

Some of the struggles I’ve had with following a lot of the curriculum recommendations from many CM sources of living books are they are steeped full of protestant & many anti-Catholic themes. Of course these things can be supplemented (and we have in the past), but in general, I would like to follow the Catholic tradition as best as we can.