Charlotte Mason Philosophy

"Education is an Atmosphere,
a Discipline, a Life."
Charlotte Mason

Mason's Method Organized into 4 Steps

The Heart of Wisdom approach creates lesson plans using Charlotte Mason methods and teaching to the four styles (The 4 Step Lessons). Its a new creative way to organize Charlotte Mason's unique methods.

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England during the previous century, and her methods are currently experiencing a rebirth among American home schools.

Mason believed children should be educated through a wide curriculum using a variety of real, living books. "Twaddle" and "living books" are terms coined by Mason. "Twaddle" refers to dumbed-down literature; absence of meaning. "Living books" refers to books that are well written and engaging-they absorb the reader-the narrative and characters "come alive"; living books are the opposite of cold, dry textbooks. Charlotte Mason's concern was for students to develop a lifetime love of learning. She based her philosophy on the Latin word for education, "educare," which means "to feed and nourish." This method focuses on the formation of good habits, reading a variety of books, narration, copying work, dictation, keeping a nature diary, keeping a spelling notebook, and preparing a time line book). The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach organizes each of Mason's unique methods into a four-step process into unit studies.

4 Steps

Narration

Narration is literally "telling back" what has been learned. Students are instructed to read a passage from the Bible, text from a suggested resource, or content from a web site and "tell" what they have learned, either orally or in writing. This is a perfect activity, and one which you will find frequently in the third step of the 4Mat System. This process involves sorting, sequencing, selecting, connecting, rejecting, and classifying the workbooks or cleverly correlated curriculum which attempt (usually futilely!) to teach him. Miss Mason found that if you use narration consistently, review is unnecessary. Narration increases the mind's ability to remember.

Copy Work and Dictation

Copy work and dictation are underrated. Both provide ongoing practice for handwriting, spelling, grammar, etc. Both are good exercises for teaching accuracy and attention to detail, and students discover things about the text they are copying that they would be unlikely to notice otherwise. In dictation, the parent reads as the child writes. Students learn correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and other language mechanics when they compare their work to the original and correct mistakes.

Time Line Book

Charlotte Mason recommended preparing a handmade Book of the Centuries or Timeline Book.) Below is a sample timeline page. Click to see more samples.

"Upon the knowledge of these great matters--History, Literature, Nature, Science, Art--the Mind feeds and grows. It assimilates such knowledge as the body assimilates food, and the person becomes what is called magnanimous, that is, a person of great mind, wide interests, incapable of occupying himself much about petty, personal matters. What a pity to lose sight of such a possibility for the sake of miserable scraps of information about persons and things that have little connection with one another and little connection with ourselves!" --Charlotte Mason (Vol. 4, p. 78 -- The Original Homeschooling Series)

Click for Charlotte Mason Resources

Footnotes

1. Levison, Catherine, Narration, Email: beeme1@aol.com
2. Andreola, Karen, 1994, Charlotte Mason Method, 1994 Home Life Inc. 
3. Andreola, Karen, 1993, Narration Beats Tests, Home Life Inc.