31 Days of Charlotte Mason: Finis

Well, we made it. Thirty-one whole days of Charlotte Mason! Before I wrap this up, I simply must spend a little more time thanking all of my wonderful guest authors. I could not have done this without them! Thirty-one days? It’s a long time. Keeping the momentum required more of me than I expected. And I’m still behind on the comments! Not to complain; I’m glad for every single one. My point is to give credit where credit is due, and it’s definitely due to this fabulous team of women.

Now.

I thought that the best way to wrap this up was to offer a list of resources. This will not be exclusive, of course. I have no way of knowing the CM world exhaustively. (Plus, I am, as you are all very well aware, biased in favor of my beloved AmblesideOnline.) So let’s say that, hypothetically, I’ve only touched on the tip of the iceberg here. Where do you go to learn more?

Blogs

Here are the blogs of the women who guest posted for this series (well, for those who actually have blogs). Some of them are more active than others, but at the very least you can check out the archives.

• At Home with Charlotte (Christy Hissong)
• Crossing the Brandywine (Amy Hines)
• North Laurel Home and School (Blossom)
• U Krakovianki (Karen Glass)
• journey-and-destination (Carol Hudson)
• Windy Hill Homeschool (Laurke)
• Snowfall Academy (Jen Snow)
• Gluten Free Cooking School (Mary Frances)
• Joyous Lessons (Celeste Cruz)
• Living Charlotte Mason in California (Naomi Goegan)
• Archipelago (the AO Advisory blog, where you can find Anne White, Wendi Capehart, Karen Glass, and more!)

Truth be told, many of my favorite CM blogs are on the list above. But here are a number of my other faves that are written by women who didn’t guest post for this series:

• A peaceful day (Jeanne from the AO Auxiliary)
• Dewey’s Treehouse (Mama Squirrel)
• Aut-2B-Home in Carolina (Tammy Glaser — good especially if dealing with learning disabilities)
• CM, Children and Lots of Grace (Katie Barr)
• Fisher Academy International (Amy from the AO Auxiliary)
• I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills (Melisa from the AO Auxiliary)
• Piney Woods Homeschool (Kathy from the AO Auxiliary)
• Where the Blacktop Ends
• The Winding Ascent (Megan Hoyt)
• Sage Parnassus (Nancy Kelly)

I feel like I’m forgetting a couple, so if you have favorites, feel free to share them in the comments.

Books

There are a lot of CM books out there, but my list is short. This is because, as I mentioned early on, my policy is to only recommend books that I have actually read myself, with the occasional exception of books highly recommended by trusted friends. Also, I can only read so many books about Charlotte Mason. I want to read her.

• For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macauley. I adore this book. It closely follows Miss Mason’s sixth volume, but puts it in a modern context. When a very busy young mom asks me what to read, I actually suggest this over Miss Mason, especially if she’s exhausted from pregnancy or nursing.
• When Children Love to Learn, edited by Elaine Cooper. This is one of the exceptions I mentioned, suggested by my real life, trusted and respected friend.
• Charlotte Mason’s Original Series
  • Read AO’s online annotated version for free
  • Buy a hard copy set
  • Buy individual volumes:
    • Vol. 1: Home Education: Training and Educating Children Under Nine
    • Vol. 2: Parents and Children: The Role of the Parent in the Education of the Child
    • Vol. 3: School Education: Developing a Curriculum
    • Vol. 4: Ourselves
    • Vol. 5: Formation of Character: Shaping the Child’s Personality
    • Vol. 6: A Philosophy of Education
• The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater. I haven’t read this, but word on the street is that I’m getting a review copy, which is awesome because this is supposed to be the definitive book, based upon Bestvater’s hard work and long hours of research.

I could go on but, honestly, there are already thousands of pages listed above, so something tells me that is sufficient for today.

Other Resources

Want to know what Miss Mason was actually doing in her classrooms? Reading her works will only give you one part of the picture. Here are some other resources to round out your perception of her practices:

• Lists of attainments for children aged 6 and 12
• A sample year: programmes from 1921
  • Form I (approximately 1st through 3rd grades)
  • Form II (4th-6th grades)
  • Forms III and IV (7th-9th grades)
  • Forms V and VI (10th-12th grades)
• Sample schedules for the different forms from 1908
• Much can be learned from the web archive of Victoria Waters’ old Charlotte’s Daughters site, which includes details on Miss Mason’s actual PNEU curriculum

When it comes to judging curricula, there are “Charlotte Mason style” curricula, and then there are curricula that attempt to duplicate what Miss Mason was actually doing, but in a contemporary, homeschool context. In my experience, when we start to hear criticism of a CM education not being “rigorous enough” either throughout, or in the upper years, the critics are not looking at what Miss Mason was actually doing, but what curricula that claim to be CM are suggesting online.

I am not capable of doing all that Miss Mason did. You probably are not, either. But I do consider her work an ideal toward which I am, and I do think that understanding what she was actually doing in her classrooms can help us best judge a CM curriculum, or recreate our own (for those of you daring enough to attempt to do so).

One Last Thing

Thank you all for joining me (us!) for the past 31 Days. I am now officially tired! With that said, please let me know of any more CM-related topics you would like to read about, or questions you still have. I may answer these (or convince another guest blogger to do it — ha!) in the near future, or I might simply save them for a 2014 31 Days Series (if I turn out crazy enough to do this again), but either way I would like to know about your areas of interest.

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Click here to go to the 31 Days of Charlotte Mason series directory.