History should be the study of the good and the bad whereby the child forms in himself principles in which he judges "the behavior of nations, and will rule his own conduct as one of a nation."  The study should not be so full of dates for "how is he to put the right events in the right reign, when, to him, one king differs from another only in number, one period from another only in date?" Vol.1 pg. 280  Charlotte Mason thought it would be much better to let a child spend much time learning about one man than it would be to cover the whole history of a particular country. …

When my oldest, who’s now 17, was about 6 we played a game called Red Indian.  Not a politically correct name nowadays but it was called that none-the-less.  CM wrote about it in Home Education on page 88.  We play a variation that we made up ourselves.  Here’s how we do it. As I’m meandering down our dirt road, the children run up ahead and hide in the bushes.  They are to stay as quiet as they possibly can in hopes that I will not spot them.  If I pass by where they are hiding without spotting them, they pop up and let me know it and then take off running to…

 It is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things. CM Vol.1 I’m not being too consistent in getting these posts out about CM but I’m trying.  Last time I wrote about  Out-of-Doors Studies for Children Under Six; today I would like to address the same but with more of a focus on older children. The following list of ideas was complied from CM’s books Home Education and A Philosophy of Education.  Many of these ideas were given for children under the age of nine but my guess is that many older children have not…

As I was preparing to write about nature studies, I was reading some of CM’s writings.  Please let me say again, "I am no expert!"  Read for yourselves Charlotte’s writings.  There’s a wealth of information inside her books. So, disclaimers aside, let me share with you some of what I have learned.  When under the age of six, CM felt children should most of their waking moments outdoors.  Not only should the children go outdoors, moms, if at all possible were encouraged to take them.  She realized this was not completely practical, but felt that once mothers realized how important it was they would do whatever was necessary to achieve this. I doubt if any…

I think a CM (Charlotte Mason) education will look different in each persons home simply because we each have different demands upon our time.  We are the teachers, while also being mother, wife, homemaker, friend, and _________. (You fill in the blank.)  Also, to be able to homeschool exactly as Miss Mason suggested would be almost impossible.  She encouraged mothers to take their youngsters out each day, not send them out, but to go with them outside for at least a few hours each day.  In her schools they taught 6 days per week.   Can you see from these two suggestions how it might not be possible to fully adhere to…