Charlotte Mason

Blessed with seven · Post by **Blessed with seven** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:18 pm

HI,

Do these programs follow a "Charlotte Mason" approach to learning? I am curious...I have been reading just a bit on some websites about CM and find it really intriging. I bought Little Hearts and realized I most certainly should have started with "Beyond.." as was suggested so..that is what I will be getting in Feb.

I just wonder how these programs fit w/ the CM approach to learning.

Thanks a bunch,

Kim

Candice · Post by **Candice** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:26 pm

Kim,

Not sure if you came across this portion of the website but, it speaks about the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education.

http://www.heartofdakota.com/educational-philosophy.php

Candice

Post by **Carrie** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:35 pm

Kim,

Candice did such a great job of pointing you in the right direction on this question, but I'll pop in and just say that we love the Charlotte Mason philosophy of learning at our house. I've read much about her philosophy and how to implement it, and we have followed CM principles almost completely with my oldest son. We do follow CM ideas as much as we can in the guides we write as well.

Many companies claim to be Charlotte Mason-style curriculums and then leave out oral and written narration, copywork, dictation, short lessons, poetry, recitation/memory work and slow reading of excellent, living books. Without those things, there is almost no connection to the CM philosophy. You will find all of those things in our guides. The sheer volume and type of books consumed in most curriculums strays far from Charlotte Mason's philosophy of fewer, living books read slowly over time.

Only living books can be successfully narrated from. So, if you ask a child to narrate from an Usborne style, encyclopedia book with no common storyline, the children will not be able to narrate it well. All those little boxes and snippets of information in that style of book do not lend themselves to being retold easily, nor are they easily remembered. Those books are meant to be reference materials or browsing books, rather than a story to be read from cover to cover. We choose our history books so carefully, in order to make sure CM principles can actually be used with them. The same goes for our science books and read-aloud literature.

Since we differ from Charlotte Mason in a few areas, we do not call ourselves a purely Charlotte Mason company. But, if you love the CM philosphy, you will find much in our programs that supports that style of learning.

The main area that we differ with CM is in the introduction of formal grammar instruction. We do delay it until "Bigger Hearts...", when we begin to schedule Rod and Staff. Charlotte Mason delays formal grammar instruction until grade 6.

We also add more hands-on activities than Charlotte Mason advocated, although she did do some. We do this for the very active boys in our household who thrive on getting up and moving.

We also like some elements of a unit study and enjoy making connections among subjects as we can. CM didn't do much of this and was a strong believer in the children making their own connections (which we also agree with).

So, you can see many similarities and a few differences. If you've read this far, I'm sure you're sorry you asked! But, Charlotte Mason is my favorite educator, and we hope you can see much of her in Heart of Dakota.

Blessings,
Carrie

Tansy · Post by **Tansy** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:22 pm

Charlotte Mason comes to out ministry every year to give a seminar... I loved her school of thought but at the time thought.. eeek i'll never be able to do it on my own...

I'm so glad I found HOD!
And Carrie that seminar is open to the public (for a fee) when it happens this year can I post it?

Blessed with seven · Post by **Blessed with seven** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:26 pm

Carrie,

I am not sorry I asked at all! I greatly appreciate you going into detail AND telling me the differences as I am just learning about her and love the ideas just would never be able to put it all together on my own.

I greatly appreciate your post!!

Kim

Post by **Carrie** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:56 pm

Kim,

I'm glad you were able to bear with me through that lengthy post! There's so many layers to a Charlotte Mason philosophy. Even though Charlotte Mason lived in a different time than we do, she had so much insight about children, their habits, and how they learn that still holds true today.

Tansy,

You can certainly post about the Charlotte Mason seminar if you get a chance to attend it this year. What fun!

Blessings,
Carrie