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A Joyful Journey: Implementing Charlotte Mason's Educational Philosophy

Writer's picture: Melanie BlignautMelanie Blignaut

It is our homeschooling anniversary this month—nine years! It feels like just the other day that we made the decision to pull our daughters out of their preschool so that we could homeschool. We had always intended to homeschool from grade one, but halfway through my eldest's grade RR year, we thought, what are we actually waiting for?


At that point I had done some research, but not very much. I was still looking at boxed curricula and thinking about worksheets and lap books. We dived into preschool-at-home with letter-of-the-week activities, and cutesy crafts (all of which ended up in the bin at some point), and I made very good friends with the ladies at our local Postnet because I was there so often to print things. Our laminator worked overtime—I still enjoy laminating things; there's something very calming about it.


Five months into that first year, I fell pregnant with my son, and had horrible “morning” sickness that lasted all day. For about two months we didn't do school at all, if I remember correctly. Fast forward to January of the following year, and we were doing grade one and grade RR with a baby. I'd bought a language arts curriculum recommended by a friend, and it was okay, but I didn't love it.


And then, about halfway through that year, I read For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macauley and learned about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy. The more I read, the more I felt that this was the kind of education I wanted for my children—and for myself, too.


Teacup, teapot, books on a purple tablecloth
Poetry teatime is one of our favourite activities.

What I love most about Charlotte's philosophy is how education is not a secular pursuit. In School Education she writes, “But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may, at the same time, be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.”


We were already doing Morning Time for Bible and Scripture memory, but I started to add hymns, folk songs, poetry, and picture study. By the end of that year, I was sold: this was the philosophy I had been looking for. I ordered a copy of Charlotte's first volume, Home Education, and read it cover-to-cover. And then I read it again, slower this time.


My husband, bless him, has never once asked me, “Are you sure about this? Do you even know what you're doing?” When I said we should pull the girls out of preschool, he said, “Okay.” When I asked for the credit card to order our maths curriculum, he handed it to me without asking what exactly I was ordering. When I started going on about Charlotte Mason and living books and Morning Time and narration he may have had a slight deer-in-the-headlights expression, but he took the copy of For the Children's Sake I was waving at him and read it.


He has been content to trust me with our children's education, even in the early years when the fruits of the philosophy are not quite evident. It is hard, those first years, when every narration begins with “Well” or “So,” and is often just the repetition of the last line you read to that child. Or when it's exam week and the response to a question is a blank stare, or “I can't remember.” And then I tried narration for myself and discovered this is hard. But hard does not equal bad, and so we pressed on. Now, with children in Form II and Form III, I can see the fruit in the depth of their narrations, in the connections they make with other readings, and in their use of language and grammar in their written narrations. Earlier this year, during a Plutarch reading, one of my daughters connected the situation in the Roman Senate with corruption in current political parties.


Three children and a dog walking on a path
Nature walk in the neighbourhood.

In School Education Charlotte writes, “The question is not,—how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education—but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” I want my children to care about things instead of just knowing about them, to look at education as a delightful adventure and not a dreary chore.


I've had to learn that it's really all right if my child can't answer the specific question I'm asking, and most of the time, if I ask a different question about that particular person or event, they have much more to say. Because it's not about what I think is important for my children to know; each of them will make different connections. One of my children will tell me everything about a person's childhood and life, and another child will tell me nothing about that person's life but everything about their scientific discoveries and achievements. That is the beauty of the feast spread before them.


In Parents and Children Charlotte writes, “One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child's intellectual life. We need not say one word about the necessity for living thought in the teacher; it is only so far as he is intellectually alive that he can be effective in the wonderful process which we glibly call 'education.'”


Three children looking at mushrooms
Are you even a homeschooler if you don't get excited every time you see mushrooms?

Educating this way is a book lover's dream, and our home is also a living library. I feel as though I'm learning alongside my children instead of teaching them. We're going into our tenth year; my eldest has just over four years left (I'm trying not to think about that) but my youngest is still at the beginning. What a joyful journey it is turning out to be!


Finally, if you are new to this method, this is my encouragement to you: Trust the process. It takes time to see the fruit, but if you persevere the fruit will come. Trust that the Holy Spirit is working within them, and remember that your children's education is ultimately in God's hands. He is the Master Potter who shapes our lives. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that don't have to be in control of everything all the time, because there is only so much that we can actually control.

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Angelique Knaup
Angelique Knaup
2024年8月09日

Ah Mel! So beautifully written. Thank you for sharing your ninth anniversary with us all.

いいね!
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