There’s no way Charlotte Mason could have imagined the impact her ideas would have on the homeschooling community. Her name has become a method. Mention it, and words such as narration, nature journals, short lessons and living books instantly come to mind. Parents wonder if they should ‘do’ Charlotte Mason. Is her method the perfect way to educate homeschooling kids?
Charlotte Mason often entices families away from unschooling. Maybe that’s because of three other words often associated with this method of homeschooling: beauty, truth and goodness. Aren’t these what our souls yearn for? Aren’t they what we need? Could Charlotte Mason be the right way to live?
Or can we find everything our souls crave in the real world of unschooling?
Unschooling When Charlotte Mason Also Appeals to Our Hearts
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post called Unschooling When Charlotte Mason Also Appeals to Our Hearts.
‘It’s good to appreciate art that tells a story or engages our emotions and our senses. Then there’s music that sings to our souls and living books that capture our imaginations. And shouldn’t we be filling our heads with noble ideas?’
Unschooling When Charlotte Mason Also Appeals to Our Hearts
Strewing, Unschooling and Charlotte Mason
Later, I recorded a podcast where I shared this story and other ideas about strewing, Episode 178: Strewing, Unschooling and Charlotte Mason.
Replace Charlotte Mason
If you think your family will miss out if you abandon Charlotte Mason, you could do my challenge, 72: Replace Charlotte Mason. You’ll find it in my third unschooling book, The Unschool Challenge.
Here’s part of the challenge:
The Challenge
- Enrich your home with beauty, truth and goodness.
Hang paintings and prints on the walls. Play music that sings to your soul. Stock your bookshelves with living books. You could buy or hire a piano or keyboard or another instrument. Display photos and ornaments that you love. Arrange flowers in vases. Drape soft, snuggly throws on your chairs and toss cushions on your sofa. Place a few spiritual books where everyone can see and use them.
- Strew more beauty, truth and goodness.
Say such things as “I’m going to watch Swan Lake. Does anyone want to join me?” Add links to plays, poems, paintings, novels, art history videos and music to your strewing notebook. Offer to read living books. Strew a few blank journals in case your kids want to fill them with words or drawings.
- Recognise the beauty, truth and goodness that your kids are already experiencing.
Did you know there are lots of these in many video games? What could be more beautiful than the desire to set out on a mission to protect the good, build up your virtues and use your talents to fight evil?
- Find beauty, truth and goodness in the bigger world.
Suggest outings to museums, art galleries, open and botanic gardens, parks, the beach, the bush, or a lake.
- If you can’t travel the world, take a virtual tour.
Visit ancient castles, awe-inspiring churches, national parks and wild, rugged places online.
- Forget about short lessons.
They’re not needed. Kids are good at concentrating. Just watch small children looking at worms, leaves, caterpillars, shadows or even drops of water. They are captivated and absorbed. It’s adults who want to rush past all the fascinating things. We’re the ones in a hurry. We don’t seem to have the same patience as our kids.
If kids do have a problem sitting still, could the lessons be the problem rather than them? Are traditional methods of teaching failing to capture a child’s attention? Are they foreign to a child’s natural way of learning? Or are kids not ready for the information? Could it not be what they need at the moment?
- Forget about narration.
We don’t need to force a child to retell what they’ve just heard or write it down. All we have to do is listen. Most kids are eager to talk about the things that fascinate or excite them. Adults like to do this too. I often say, “Guess what I just heard… Can I tell you about…? Wow, this is so interesting!” Narration isn’t necessary if we’re in the habit of listening to our kids with our full attention.
If we make beauty, truth and goodness an integral part of our family lives, we won’t have to turn to Charlotte Mason. Our kids will absorb these foundational things with open hearts without her help. We can stop looking over our shoulders and embrace unschooling fully, knowing it will provide everything our souls desire.
There are lots of other strewing stories and challenges in my book.
A Review of The Unschool Challenge
I really appreciate this kind review of The Unschool Challenge:
Reviewed in the United States ?? on May 26, 2023
Photo
There’s a lot of beauty in a garden centre. Why not visit one with your kids? You could take some photos, talk about the plants, and then choose something to bring home.
So, what do you think?
Do Charlotte Mason’s ideas appeal to you? Do you follow her method? Or have you found a way to strew truth, beauty and goodness while unschooling?
Sue, I think about this so often. Just because we have a certain process in our homes (eg. unschooling) doesn’t mean that we can’t tap into content from a variety of places. I’m glad you included video games. They’re often underestimated but are sources of so much art, music and thought. Always happy to see a notification of a new post of yours. 🙂
Erin,
We used to tap into all kinds of content that’s aimed at structured homeschoolers, using it in our own unschooling way. We’d ignore the bits that didn’t seem relevant but take advantage of the information we were interested in. For example, we used to enjoy the poetry analyses on the Shmoop website, dipping into them until our curiosity was satisfied. We wouldn’t follow all the links or answer the questions formally.
Similarly, Charlotte Mason websites and books often have great ideas for strewing resources, don’t they? We can surround ourselves with loads of beauty, truth and goodness without actually adopting this homeschooling method!
Erin, thank you for stopping by. Receiving some feedback encourages me to keep posting on this blog!
Hi Sue! I was just thinking about this very topic a few days ago. I was thinking about reading a page or two of the Usborne Book of World History to my youngest two kids as a fun way to learn World History. They also have internet links you can look up. I was also looking up other World History choices and I googled “Usborne World history” and “Charlotte Mason.” This online conversation showed up where homeschoolers were saying that Usborne books are definitely not Charlotte Mason. Then I also saw mentions of “twaddle” in the conversations, too, and realized some of my kids’ reading selections would be considered twaddle. I do try to choose well written books but I also want my kids to love reading. If Garfield comic books do the trick, I get them for my kids. I read poetry and Shakespeare stories (Usborne) to my kids often. My daughter paints (we buy these lovely paint kits from a small business in my town) and does ballet (she just got her first pair of pointe shoes!). She actually just had me look up “Swan Lake” last night because she wants to see it. I didn’t tell her about your post mentioning Swan Lake! Even though I have always considered us leaning towards Charlotte Mason, after reading that online conversation, I had decided that I guess we really aren’t Charlotte Mason homeschoolers after all.
I really like your explanation of Charlotte Mason. I think the spirit of Charlotte Mason is the important thing…..beauty, truth, goodness. These can be found in many places….even Usborne books, paint kits, and Garfield 🙂
Gina,
Oh yes, twaddle is another big Charlotte Mason word! I’d forgotten about that one. I love twaddle! Sometimes I’m in the mood for a light and easy novel. But a time always arrives when I’ve had enough of easy reads and need something more. Similarly, I don’t always want an in-depth analysis of a non-fiction topic. I’m happy to read a magazine article or watch a quick YouTube video or read an Usborne book! When I’m really interested in a subject, I’ll go looking for more challenging material.
Maybe it’s the same with our kids. Perhaps it’s okay to trust them to choose their own resources rather than force them to use ones that might impress our friends but not suit their needs and interests. Even when they’re using ‘twaddle’, they’re still learning a lot, aren’t they? As you said, things that wouldn’t be labelled Charlotte Mason can still be full of beauty, truth and goodness!
Hi Sue! I loved reading this reminder and looking around my home at the number of things you mentioned that are still in place and useful to my grandson, long after our homeschooling years. I also appreciate the positive me tuin of video games. My daughter is a music major at university and a lot of her early performance material while she was home was music from video games.
Hi Amy!
I’m so pleased you stopped by!
Oh yes, video games are wonderful sources of beauty, truth and goodness. I really enjoyed watching a series of YouTube videos called ‘God and Gaming’ which explored, amongst other things, how some games speak to the desire within all of us to accept our missions and do good in the world. I was also interested to learn that video games are the biggest entertainment industry by a long way. I wonder why parents worry about their game-playing kids getting jobs. There must be loads of wonderful career opportunities for people who are passionate about games!
So good to chat with you!
I loved this post (and the links to your previous posts on the subject) so much!! Whenever I go searching for homeschooling helps in the “blogosphere” I’m always left disappointed until I come back to yours. It’s always exactly what I need, exactly when I need it. Is it just a necessary “right of passage” for every unschooling mom to go through a years long phase of back and forth between other methods and unschooling and worrying about what others think before they finally settle in to being the unschoolers she knew she wanted from the beginning?! We’ve tried online Christian School, and we’ve tried Waldorf in the past. We’ve currently been trying Charlotte Mason. And the way you put “beauty, truth, and goodness. Isn’t this what our souls yearn for?” Is so spot on with my exact thoughts and desires lately! Waldorf turned out to be laced with the wrong kind of “beauty, truth and goodness” for me, and while Charlotte Mason fits the beauty, truth and goodness aspect this year, the layout and curriculum is far to “schooly” for me and my children. Once my kids (and, let’s be honest, myself too) inevitably end up in tears and frustrated by it all, I know it’s time to let it go and return to unschooling. So why do I insist on putting us through the other stuff so often? Why can’t I just embrace unschooling now and forever like I’ve wanted to from the beginning? All I really want is for my children to learn to love God and His gospel, follow their dreams and all the other things are just bonuses that happen along the way. Anyway, thank you, as always, for your perfectly timed posts and insights. I’m excited to purchase your new book and try out the challenges in it.
Sarah,
I’m so glad you found my post helpful!
Methods like Charlotte Mason can look very attractive, can’t they? If only we follow the guidelines, we’ll end up with perfect lives. Our days will run smoothly. Our kids will be happy. They’ll learn a lot while being surrounded with all that’s beautiful, good and true. We can relax knowing we’re doing a fantastic job bringing up and educating our children. I fell in love with that image, but when we tried Charlotte Mason (more than once), things always fell apart quickly, despite my initial hope and excitement. Like you, we experienced frustration and tears.
Life is messy, isn’t it? We want to tame and control it, but maybe it can’t be organised into a method without losing something very important. We could end up living pale versions of our lives instead of trusting and embracing what God sends us.
Perhaps it’s okay to take our time arriving at unschooling. And when we do arrive, maybe we shouldn’t worry if we still have doubts occasionally. These questioning times are opportunities to dive deeper into unschooling, increasing our understanding of it. Then we can move forward with a greater commitment to this way of life.
Sarah, thank you so much for stopping by. I’ve enjoyed chatting with you!