Many homeschoolers are inspired by Charlotte Mason’s emphasis on nature study, living books, and narration. However, it can be difficult to envision what this emphasis would look like in high school. Does the Charlotte Mason method lose its distinctive features when teaching older teens? Or do Mason’s ideas have a unique application in the final …
Editor’s Note. In February of 1943, readers of The Parents’ Review were able to read the second part of Elsie Kitching’s monumental “Children Up to School Age and Beyond.” The first part had been published in the January issue and has also been transcribed and recorded by the Charlotte Mason Poetry team. It provided principles …
I first encountered the philosophy of Charlotte Mason when my oldest child was just three years old. We joined a book club studying A Charlotte Mason Companion, and my heart was stirred by the vision of a homeschool centered on goodness and beauty. I was drawn to this method that left space in the day …
Editor’s Note: The December 1926 issue of The Parents’ Review was entitled “Of Little Children”[1] and was arranged at the special request of Henrietta Franklin.[2] As with the earlier 1917 “baby number,” the issue contained articles of special interest to parents of young children. However, unlike its predecessor, this issue also contained an official document …
I was a mess. Between the global pandemic, a cross-country real estate search, getting our house listed, sold, and the subsequent move, all sense of normalcy and routine had eroded. One by one, I’d allowed a slew of bad habits to creep into my life that turned my daily rhythms into a cacophony. With work …
Editor’s Note: The name G. H. Smith may be familiar to readers of In Memoriam. His contribution to that 1923 volume is entitled “Elementary Schools.”[1] In his tribute, he wrote: We remember Miss Mason because she showed us how practice in school might be natural and simple, natural because it used the inherent element of …
The goal of this article is to conclude my three-part series examining Charlotte Mason’s views on health. So far we’ve covered skin disease, food, and water consumption. The focus of today’s article will be fresh/night air and exercise. I have reviewed Mason’s comments on these topics and have attempted to interpret them from her cultural …
Editor’s Note: Leaflet H of the Parents’ Union School enumerated nine rules for mothers implementing Charlotte Mason’s method at home. Rule #7 stated, “Bad postures are to be corrected.”[1] We might reasonably ask how posture managed to make it into such an elite list of rules. The answer may be found in understanding the stress …
It was the end of the school year and I was drowning. I was overwhelmed and miserable, and that misery often stared back at me during our school hours in the faces of my children. Sure, we had our bright moments, but they were not what I knew was possible with a Charlotte Mason education. …