Charlotte Mason's educational principles have been applied in home and school settings for the past hundred years, with excellent results. Her method, which is the antithesis of dumbed-down, teach-to-the-test curricula, involves giving students only the best books, challenging and classic books,... MORE

Charlotte Mason's educational principles have been applied in home and school settings for the past hundred years, with excellent results. Her method, which is the antithesis of dumbed-down, teach-to-the-test curricula, involves giving students only the best books, challenging and classic books, books of the highest literary value. No dry textbooks for a CM student! Other CM mainstays are narration (very important), nature study, short lessons, habit training, and an overall zest for learning and exploring. Here's how one mother described her children after a year of applying the CM method: "They have retained their sense of delight and wonder. These four average children, who find some subjects easy and some difficult, are full of curiosity about everything that goes on about them, and everything that has happened since the world began. They chant poetry in the bath (in English or French); they quarrel in the words of Agamemnon and Achilles; they give our cows and calves Greek names. They observe closely the possible colour changes of a chameleon, and argue over the components of a certain rock specimen. They pester the curator of the museum, and any experts we happen to meet, for information about their various specimens. People fascinate them, be it Pithecanthropus Erectus, Elizabeth Fry or General de Gaulle." Interested in learning how to dive into a CM lifestyle that nourishes both mind and spirit? Let's discuss!