How We Homeschool: Classical Education + Charlotte Mason

Homeschooling with a mix of Classical Education and the Charlotte Mason style works well for our family. I’ve been asked often what made me decide and how this looks like in our home. So let me share with you a little bit about that!

There’s so many things to be said on this topic. If you ask me out for a coffee date and make the mistake of asking about this (lol) I can talk to you for hours! But for the sake of your sanity, I will try my best to be as concise as possible in this article. If you want to ask more, just message in the comments below.

Or wait for future blog posts. I’m sure I won’t be able to resist. Ha! 😉 Let’s start!

Things I Love About the Classical Education Method

• Wisdom and Virtue
  • These are the goals of a Classical Education, which are aligned with my personal goal for my children.
  • My goal is to equip them well so they can learn how to think and glorify God in their lives.

• Trivium
  • Central in Classical Education is the trivium; idea that children learn in 3 stages: the Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric stages.
  • Grammar stage (6-10yo) focuses on absorbing information. This includes memorization of Bible verses, poems, songs, terminologies plus historical and scientific facts
  • The goal is not to store up knowledge for knowledge’s sake but for the child to be able to draw from that knowledge as he grows and proceeds to the next stages (Logic and Rhetoric.)

• Classics
  • Emphasis in seeking after of truth, goodness, and beauty through the study of Classics and great books
  • Use of a lot of classic literature from the West

Things I Love About the Charlotte Mason Method

• Living Books
  • No twaddle or books that speak down to children (or use “kiddie” language)
  • Good books only (See related post: Why I Decided to Curate Our Children’s Books)

• Providing a “Feast”
  • Study of art, music, nature, poetry are just as important as other subjects
  • We do a LOT of art and music appreciation in our homeschool!
  • Short lessons: CM encourages short lessons for each subject, which makes providing a bountiful feast possible.

• Habits
  • The importance of cultivating character through good habits
  • One of the reasons why I homeschool (and there are many,) is so that I can be intentional in helping my children develop good habits in the younger years. I know they will carry these on as they grow up and I want to make sure good foundations are made.

Some Differences between the two

• Facts vs. Ideas
  • Classical Education puts emphasis on memorization and gathering facts during the early years.
  • CM focuses on ideas and the relations that these ideas form in the mind of the students. She makes it clear that children are not “empty vessels” to be filled with facts. Worth noting that she advocates memory work as well but perhaps not as rigorous as a Classical Education would entail.
  • My take: I believe in the power of memorization and how knowing these facts will allow my children to naturally form connections as they grow.

• Importance of Art, Music, Poetry, Nature
  • Classical considers these as add-ons, CM considers these as very important
  • My take: CM for me!

• Use on textbooks and factbooks
  • Classical considers these as important, CM as reference only since living books takes priority
  • My take: I love living books we still use textbooks (I try to find well-written, “living textbooks” though!) But we read a ton of books anyway that I feel like my kids are well fed on both, by God’s grace.

• Method of teaching Language Arts
  • Classical encourages formal teaching, emphasis on grammar in the early stages (the stage itself is called Grammar stage after all, haha)
  • CM believes these (grammar, proper spelling, etc.) can be learned naturally by exposing the children to great books
  • My take: I believe in formal grammar in the early years. But it’s also true that my 5yo learned how to read and spell above his current level just by reading a lot of good books. So, I do formal grammar (Classical,) spelling (Classical,) and copywork for writing (CM) and they read a lot of good books (CM)

For Further Reading

Like I said, we are just scratching the surface here. There is really so much more to be said! If you are interested in learning more, here are some of my suggestions:

Articles:

• Susan Wise Bauer’s take on the differences of Classical and CM (Note: She is the author of The Well Trained Mind, my guidebook for Classical Education so this has Classical bias)
• SimplyCharlotteMason’s take on the difference (Note: Obviously CM bias haha)

Books:

• The Well-Trained Mind
• For the Children’s Sake
• When Children Love to Learn
• Consider This

* For more book recommendations, check out this article about my recommended books on homeschooling (which include these 3 titles.)

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RELATED POSTS:

• Recommended Books on Homeschooling
• How We Homeschool: 5 Years Old (Level K)
• How We Homeschool: 4 Years Old (Pre-K Level)
• Kindergarten Curriculum Picks for Luke (2020-2021)
• Curriculum Reviews (link to all our reviews)

FOR MORE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS, CLICK HERE!