The Masterly Mother's Toolkit aka the Homeschool Plan
In Which the Art of a Charlotte Mason Lesson Leads to Self-Education
This year we will be diving into Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles because they help us see our children and our goals for their education clearly. Getting to know these principles encourages us to move from mechanically implementing booklists, checklists, and systems to educate our children and toward being fully alive to our own duties given by God to help our families thrive. Modern homeschool advice is generally about how to save time and energy so that homeschooling can be easier through open-and-go curriculums. What we need are not more tips and tricks, but guardrails to help us realize our freedom and limits as teachers not so that our life can be easier by doing less, but that we will know where to spend our time and energy so that our work will be effective, fruitful, and joyful.
These freedoms and corresponding limits are spelled out in the 20 principles to help parents and teachers understand and support students by following the natural laws of how all humans learn best. As we dig into these principles it’s helpful to note that they are broken into two sections. The first group of principles 1-11 deal with the nature of a child, who he is, his duties, tendencies and how the child’s nature works in harmony with the position of parent and teacher. These first 11 are all rooted in the idea that a child is a person. The second group of principles from 12-20 deal with the nature of learning, they help us understand the tools available to us for teaching and the aim and faculties available to each person to learn and grow. This second group is rooted in the idea that everything is interconnected, Mason called this the Science of relations. We as educators work to help guide the child as a person into a relationship with good, true, and beautiful ideas. But how do we do this? What is our role?
To start off this series, we begin with the unstated principle that is woven throughout all of Mason’s 20 principles which is, “there is no education but self-education.” My hope in starting here is to help us remember that all the principles work together in harmony with one another to offer a life-giving approach to education. These principles explain how humans learn and that we each must take up the responsibility of our own education in order to grow. But in action this can look different depending on the age and personality of the child, the preferences of the teacher and the atmosphere, disciplines, and lifestyle of the family. And so the child as a person must move into a relationship with living ideas and take what they will and leave what they won’t. A child’s mind must attend to the lesson in order to learn and then he must hear the lesson and respond. Our goal is to support the child in teaching himself.
“In urging a method of self-education for children in lieu of the vicarious education which prevails, I should like to dwell on the enormous relief to teachers, a self-sacrificing and greatly overburdened class; the difference is just that between driving a horse that is light and a horse heavy in hand; the former covers the ground of his own gay will and the driver goes merrily. The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend, and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding.”1
Our aim is to give our children freedom to learn for themselves and not “force feed” them. We want to see them become freely engaged in digging for information, asking questions and being present with their studies. They must bring their own energy and enthusiasm to their work in order to joyfully move through their lessons. It all sounds like an idealistic dream. Perhaps, but ideals can help us have a standard to reach for - a goal that can help us see what needs to be done in the trenches to move towards the right direction. So today we will look at what the Mother-Teacher can do to help lay a foundation that sets aside our utilitarian tendencies toward implementing formulas and move into establishing relationships with God Himself, His world, the history of Mankind, and Ourselves.
Mother-Teacher’s Role in the Child’s Self-Education
Timetables aka Schedule- Since our goal is self-education, we consider how we can support our children to accomplish all of their work with ease, when we can. One way we can make the path smoother is by setting up a schedule for the work that is to be done each day. A timetable is such a tool. It takes each task to be done in a school day and assigns a time during the school hours to do it.
Example:
For example, in our family 8:45 am is the time we work on Math. When the time block of 30 minutes is complete, everyone stops and moves to the next sort of work. (Note: Children who weren’t attending during their lesson owe me time at the end of the day to complete the lesson with my supervision.) Early in our homeschool I allowed my children to take “the time they needed” to complete their Math. The problem was that they would get tired by the prolonged mental work. I was actually hindering their ability to make progress because they weren’t able to sustain their attention for the entire period of time allotted. Once I shortened the time block for Math, they made more progress because the time we spent on Math was not with complete attention.
The more specific time-block schedule is something I resisted at first, and it’s not as essential in the early years when a child is being moved through lessons with mom as the guide. But, once a child begins to take on his own lessons then the timetable becomes a helpful tool to keep lessons short and move through the morning at a friendly clip. The refreshment we get from moving from one lesson to the other and alternating types of work is a wonder when first experienced. Once I switched over to a timetable format, my children exclaimed how quickly the days flew by and how much more interesting their work was now! (Keep in mind it was the same work, just reorganized!)
Living Books - The road to self-education begins with placing the child into contact with great minds so that they can drink directly from the well of knowledge available. The Mother-Teacher’s role here is to select books worthy of the child so that he can come away from the lesson well-nourished and enriched. A “living book,” Mason says, is essential. A living book is one that can bring to life a period of time or part of creation or natural phenomenon so that the child can come into a relationship with the lesson of the day, paint a picture in his mind’s eye, and engage with the ideas for himself.
In School Education, Mason explains that “…no education seems to be worth the name which has not made children at home in the world of books, and so related them, mind to mind, with thinkers who have dealt with knowledge. We reject epitomes, compilations, and their like, and put into children's hands books which, long or short, are living... "2
Reference Books - Another sort of book, not talked about as often in Mason circles but often utilized, is the reference book. Reference books such as Oars, Sails, and Steam by Edwin Tunis or What People Wore by Gorsline, offer images that are easy to copy into a History notebook or Book of Centuries. These books enhance the narrative found in the living book. They are alive in that they help the story come to life so a child can imagine the boats the people traveled on or the clothes they were wearing when they crossed the sea. Reference books are helpful tools to satiate the curiosity that was ignited in reading the more literary story that began their lesson.
After reading a story about Ancient Greece to a co-op class, I asked all of them to draw a picture for their narration. Some of the children drew the people in togas and sandals, as is appropriate for the time period. Other children drew all of the people in modern clothing. One of my friends remarked that she didn’t realize her children were picturing everyone from the stories they were reading aloud dressed in modern clothes since they have very few pictures in their home of the time period. Reference books can help here because pictures help inform the imagination.
Vital Materials- Not only does the Mother-Teacher lay out a feast of books, but she pulls together a number of materials and things so students can take an active part in responding to the stories they read and the world they explore through their lessons. The materials move us once again away from a formulaic way of teaching and into one where the whole child is engaged in living ideas. This is where the blank notebooks offer a world of possibilities where students are free within boundaries to fill out the notebook pages with ideas and parts of the stories they read that stood out to them. In this way, we honor the child as a person by giving them an assignment that allows them to choose what to include and what to leave out of the notebook work.
The self-activity of the student is supported by having materials such as art supplies such as paint, clay, chalks, and colored pencils to offer a way for a child to learn to communicate through pictures or sculpture alongside his word work. Supplies also include magnifying glasses, binoculars, and other tools to help the exploration of nature be pleasant and full of discovery.
While reading books is a large part of self-education, interacting with the world through movement and hand-on experiences is essential to keeping us from implementing deadening systems that make the mind numb to new ideas. We must use all of ourselves when learning and the materials help pull us out of our heads and into the physical world of things.
Orderly Workspace- We have selected all of our books and have materials to help us to engage with our books more deeply, we now move to ordering the workspace. Where will these lovely books live in order for the child to reach them without help? What is the best spot to place writing, drawing, and painting supplies? This is a great opportunity to involve our children in the work of bringing (and maintaining) order in the home. I’m finding that some children need a box to help them keep their book shelf space more orderly and others prefer a bare shelf and can keep things in line. We need to think about the workflow and how the spaces work (or don’t work) in order to smooth the path for our children to be able to learn with the least amount of trouble.
Checklists and logbooks- To keep track of our daily and weekly tasks and communicate to our independent learners what needs to be completed each day we need tools that honor the person and allow a living method and not a mindless system to help. This is where the student checklists (see below for a sample) and a mother’s logbook come in handy as tools for self-education. The checklist can be as simple or as detailed as works for you. I’m trying to strike the balance between over-planning and giving my children the tools they need to work through their school day. I create a spreadsheet with the reading assignments for my Form 2 and 3 students. My Form 4 student is taking some classes with a tutor so she will have more autonomy to dictate how she manages her work this coming year. My Form 1 checklist is just for me in regards to their school work, but they have chore checklists they manage as training.
Since we want our children to engage with the great ideas in the books on their own, checklists and book lists are not enough. Our children need to be trained and coached on how to use these books and great materials. They won’t know automatically that they can pursue the questions that come to their minds or which resources we have in the home to help guide them. And so we need to show them what to do and coach and train them until they are able to go off on their own to engage with the books and things on their own. Until that time we work through their lessons with them and slowly start to hand over different aspects of each lesson before handing everything off to them entirely.
So, what does a lesson look like? I’m glad you asked. They all have the same basic form because this is connected to how humans learn. There are many variations of this, but the basic principles remain the same.
Exhilarating Lessons- “No lesson is valuable which does not promote self-activity by making the child think, exercising its powers of narration or reproduction, or laying the ground-work for some future mental habit, making the idea given a well-spring of activity. We can judge then of the value of a lesson by the amount of work which it gives the children to do. There is therefore in a really good lesson only one place for the teacher, and that is in the background… Therefore we teachers often have to pass a self-denying knowledge and stand by in ‘masterly inactivity’ while they drink.”3
At its most basic level each lesson needs to have an inspiring idea (something you are aiming at) and a way to respond and engage with the idea (which can be as basic as an oral narration). Mason said that there needs to be a “captain idea” and that children need to respond through narration in order to know. But there are a few more steps we can incorporate to make the lesson more effective and to help move the student from a passive recipient into an active learner taking up the mantle of self-education. Notice how in each step we are asking the child to engage and wake up his mind so that they are able to respond to the living ideas in a living way. Once again, this isn’t a formula since each person will respond in his own way, that’s what makes Mason’s approach so simple and yet profound. The students' minds are respected and they are drawn upon - they are vital - to the work of the lesson.
Steps of a Lesson:
Recall the Last lesson (30 second-1 minute) - The child reviews the last part of the previous lesson. This helps the child connect the new information with what he already knows. This steps also helps to turn on the child’s mind for the work at hand. A child working independently needs to be taught how to look over his notes from the last lesson to pick up where he left off.
Setting up the Lesson (2 minutes) - This is where we offer an inspiring idea, ask question, show a picture, look at the map, introduce vocabulary, or review the timeline in order to deepen the child’s connections and wake up his mind to the work at hand. We wouldn’t be able to do all of these in one lesson, but we’d choose one that fits. The younger students would receive guidance for this step from the Mother-Teacher. She gets it either from her pre-reading work or from lesson plans provided by a handy dandy curriculum like the CMEC or collaboration with other mother-teachers. There might be a question put forward to ignite curiosity or something to dig or look for in the lesson. This, once again helps the child become an active participant in his own education.
Complete the Lesson (5-45 minutes) - Read, do an experiment, or make observations of a map, nature, or phenomenon etc
Respond to the Lesson - Give an oral or written narration. A narration prompt or question may be offered for Form 2 and 3 students to encourage children to come find mom after a reading. This step is essential to an engaged mind because the child must work upon the ideas received from the lesson and tell back in his own words which makes the knowledge his own possession.
Going deeper with the Lesson - This is where the role of notebook work, experiments, research, looking into those beautiful reference books come into play. This part may happen in a separate time block. I have a keeping time block for my student’s work and I’m working with them to make sure they know what they ought to be doing with this time. The goal is to prepare students to be thinking ahead for what they want to use this time for so that when they sit down, they already know what to include because they’ve been mulling it over in his mind - which, of course, aids engagement and retention with the lesson. Here are some ways to helps students go deeper with their lessons:
Map work - Look up locations on a map that were mentioned in the reading
Vocabulary - Look up new words in the dictionary that were found in the reading
Draw - Take time to draw a picture in a Book of Centuries or History Notebook based on discoveries made from the reading.
Images - Look up images of items mentioned in the reading such as ships, weapons, carriages, hats, and other clothing.
Century chart - Fill out a space on a Century Chart to track one person’s life, a religious movement, major events of a century, or other events or people of interest.
Charlotte Mason offers us a way to respect children as whole persons and to help them take hold of the true, good, and beautiful ideas that are their heritage. This method of education allows children true freedom in the world of books while guiding them to use their own faculties, their own minds and bodies to have the tools they need to become a life-long learners .
“The most fatal mistake made by obsolete educational methods was to assume that a child was a mere automaton, to be drilled into acquiring a certain quantum of information, generally against his will. The fact which Miss Mason claims to have demonstrated is that the child has such a burning thirst for knowledge that, if the teacher will give it a chance, it will educate itself. And that is the secret of the Ambleside method. The child educates itself, with the teacher acting as a guide during the process rather than a forcing pump, and the results are set forth in a thousand instances in which children have done things easily and naturally which would have classified then as infant prodigies half a century ago.”4
As we walk through the 20 Principles Charlotte Mason discovered, these natural laws of how humans learn, it’s helpful to keep in mind the dance between the work of the engaged Mother-Teacher and the work of the self-educating student. Each one works and responds in a unique way so that both teacher and taught are honored and enriched by their work.
For now, let’s look at what Ms. Mason has to say about the freedom these principles can offer parents, teachers, school administrators:
“The fact is, that a few broad essential principles cover the whole field, and these once fully laid hold of, it is as easy and natural to act upon them as it is to act upon our knowledge of such facts as that fire burns and water flows. My endeavor in this and the following chapters will be to put these few fundamental principles before you in their practical bearing.” 5
Next time we will begin with the first and most essential Principle: Children are born persons.
For now, I’ll leave you with a poem of encouragement:
The Teacher
By Leslie Pinckney Hill
Lord, who am I to teach the way
To little children day by day,
So prone myself to go astray?
I teach them knowledge, but I know
How faint they flicker and how low
The candles of my knowledge glow.
I teach them power to will and do,
But only now to learn anew
My own great weakness through and through.
I teach them love for all mankind
And all God’s creatures, but I find
My love comes lagging far behind.
Lord, if their guide I still must be,
O, let the little children see
Their teacher leaning hard on THEE.
Homeschool Planning Resources
Our Student Reading Assignments Spreadsheet 2024-25
My Form 1 Term 1 One Page Lesson Plan
This Country of Ours Term 1 Lesson Plans (10 chapters)
My Nature Study Hacking Guides to help you learn how to get outside and use a nature journal can be found here.
Masterly Mother’s Reflection Questions for this article are available for Paid Subscribers
School Education, p. 226
R.A. Pennethorne, “PNEU Principles as Illustrated by Teaching” Parents Review, Volume 10, pp.551-552
“The Dignity of Childhood,” Parents Review, Volume 36, p. 701
(Home Education, page 10)
This post is inspired by what I learned from attending the CMEC 2024 Retreat. The Retreat Package is available to purchase here.
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If you want to be effective with your Nature Study work, check out my Nature Study Hacking Guides. Learn how to get outside and use those lovely nature journals.
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I am so excited to have come across your Substack at this time! I've been wanting to go through the 20 Principles and it seems God led me here. I'm thankful and looking forward to it!
Beautiful work Joy! You clarify how to teach and lead in humble reliance on the Holy Spirit. Thanks for using your energy this way.