Charlotte Mason Lesson Descriptions
ART
Students will practice using various types of materials to create art projects and learn skills necessary for each medium. Some of the art lessons will focus on drawing objects from nature (paired with the nature lessons).
Part of the Art lessons will be spent on Handicrafts and part on various forms of artistic expressions. Charlotte Mason emphasized again and again that education is the science of relations. That is, that people must form a relationship with ideas, people (past or present), things in creation, etc. in order to truly learn more about them. Miss Mason lists specific physical items (things from creation) as they relate to handicrafts:
“The children I am speaking of are much occupied with things as well as with books, because ‘Education is the Science of Relations,’ is the principle which regulates their curriculum; that is, a child goes to school with many aptitudes which he should put into effect. So, he learns a good deal of science, because children have no difficulty in understanding principles, though technical details baffle them. He practices various handicrafts that he may know the feel of wood, clay, leather, and the joy of handling tools, that is, that he may establish a due relation with materials.” Charlotte Mason, Vol 6 p31
In Miss Mason’s mind, handicrafts were not projects to be made and soon thrown into the trash. Instead, they ought to be something useful or beautiful, something that required the careful building of skills and kept at a level that the child could accomplish/complete with some semblance of success.
“The points to be borne in children's handicrafts are:(a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such a pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass.” Charlotte Mason, Vol 1, Home Education p 315- 316.
Our projects may take 4-12 weeks to complete, but they will provide training in dexterity and proficiency, a sense of accomplishment, as well as the ability to bless someone else with the newly acquired skill!
Other art skills such as brush drawing, pencil, charcoal or other types of medium may be learned and used.
BIBLE
The Bible is an integral part of the life of believing families. It is not something relegated to Sundays only, but should be taught and integrated all throughout the week. Charlotte Mason believed that children were capable of reading and understanding the actual words of Scripture, rather than hearing a watered-down summary with moralizations. The children will listen/read and let the words paint a mental picture of the scene and characters, and then narrate what they heard. Any crafts, drawings, or acting out will be enjoyable additions to the lessons, but not the bulk of it. There will be no homework for this subject/lesson.
The fine roll of Bible English appeals to children with a compelling music, and they will probably retain through life their first conception of the Bible scenes, and, also, the very words in which these scenes are portrayed. But let the imaginations of children be stored with the pictures, their minds nourished upon the words, of the gradually unfolding story of the Scriptures…” ~ Charlotte Mason volume I
NATURE & SCIENCE
Observing the changes and wonders in nature is the delight of many children. Miss Mason allowed generous time in her academic schedule for nature study. The consistent, regular habit of being outdoors over weeks, months and years through first-hand experience cannot be replicated in a textbook.
"He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant. He must be accustomed to ask why--Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is a leaf-bud sticky? And do not hurry to answer his questions for him; let him think his difficulties out so far as his small experience will carry him." ~ Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, p.264-265
The many benefits of nature study include mental breaks from heavy tasks, appreciation of art and beauty in creation, gentle physical exercise, fresh air and sun exposure, learning to love and care for creation, awareness of dangerous creatures or plants in the natural surroundings, attentiveness to detail, observation skills, and foundations for the future study of formal science.
While our Apiary Collective setting/location isn’t an ideal venue for nature study, we still hope to give chances to read books about creatures written in an engaging and literary way, as well as observe items from nature. Students will then practice drawing/sketching/writing about this object in a nature notebook and gain confidence in making nature notebooking a regular practice. Seasonal changes will also be tracked and noted month-by-month. We also hope to facilitate group nature outings (optional) a few times a month at other specified locations, following lunch and cleanup where we can practice this more fully.
Older students will begin studying science proper using living books and interacting with ideas through discussion, hands-on experiments and writing or diagramming information learned in a science notebook.
GAMES
In order to take a break from readings and narrations, some classes will enjoy board games and math games from Right-Start Math, Math with Confidence, and oter resources to practice mental math basic skills in a fun and interactive way.
GEOGRAPHY
For Miss Mason, Geography was not a boring add-on to the history lesson, nor was it a mere map with daunting country names to remember and spell. Instead, geography was an exciting way to travel in one’s own country, or around the world. This was particularly valuable in a day and age when world travel was not financially possible for most of the population. Using a book with language that conjured up mental images of the places and people described, paired with photos or objects (when possible), and maps, the geography lesson can be an enjoyable way to make a relationship with the people/animals/customs of a particular location. To then find the location on a map and recall it in the following weeks as review is not a chore, but a delight. Additional information such as names of land forms, oceans, cardinal directions, etc. are also included during mapwork time. The 5th/6th Class and 7th/8th Class will have assigned homework readings, but the younger students will read their books during lesson times.
LATIN (not currently offered)
In the world of education, Latin and Greek have long been considered a necessary component, as many of the works of antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages were written in these languages. Without knowing Latin or Greek, one simply could not access the knowledge available in these libraries. At the time of Charlotte Mason, this was true and therefore it was her primary reason for providing Latin lessons to students in the late 1800s and early 1900s. With the rise of translation into modern languages, this particular reason for learning Latin and Greek has lessened; however, each translation is only one person’s interpretation of a given work. As anyone who fluently knows another language can attest, there are certain phrases or nuances in every language and culture which simply cannot be translated precisely; knowing more of the original language closes the gap between you and what the author communicated. Additional worthy reasons for learning Latin include: exposure to the building blocks of learning a foreign language, learning nuances of another’s culture as it relates to the language usages/phraseology, knowing the Latin roots of English words (also science and medical vocabulary), a foundation and gateway to the other Romance languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, etc.), and the opportunity to read works of church history. Obviously, these high endeavors are much further down the road and must be pursued by someone with great diligence in order to attain that level of proficiency.
Our offering of Latin at Apiary Collective will be a VERY gentle approach (TPR or Total-Physical-Response-Based) which focuses on learning phrases, objects in the home, numbers, family titles, etc. There will be a website for parents to listen to the words and pronunciations in order to reinforce vocabulary at home. Otherwise there will be no homework for this class.
LITERATURE
Folk tales, Fables, Legends and Parables formed the curriculum of the early years in Charlotte Mason’s schools. Even long or unfamiliar names or words can be handled by young children if read to them. As children enter the middle school years, the difficulty level of the books chosen will rise. Students will begin to learn some technical terms like “setting”, “plot”, “story arc”, “rising action”, “character development”, etc. and comparative/contrasting aspects will be drawn out. Some readings will be done independently at home and both historical as well as modern tales can be enjoyed. Much of what was written above under the heading “Living Books”, as well as below under “Moral Imagination” applies to Literature as well. Older students (5th-8th grades) will have readings or an occasional written assignment for homework.
LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY & THE GRAND CONVERSATION
Students in Form 3 will alternate between Logic one year and a Children’s Introduction to Philosophy course the next year.
LOGIC
Logical fallacies are ubiquitous on social media, in so-called news sources, and in conversations among peers. Students will learn to identify various types of logical fallacies and how to think rightly.
PHILOSOPHY & THE GRAND CONVERSATION
Students at this age begin to ask big questions about life. This subject will explore how philosophers have attempted to answer many questions over the years. While some of these ponderings are written in Great Books, ultimately the source of truth is God Himself. Students will learn how to ask good questions, express them clearly in a group context, disagree politely, meet some famous philosophers and much more.
MORAL IMAGINATION
A significant part of the education of children involves helping them form and shape their ideas of what is good and virtuous; to learn that “it seems good to me” does not automatically equal “it is truly good”. Children have an uncanny ability to take moral directives “do this, don’t do that…” and reject them outright. Some good-intentioned authors have tried, unsuccessfully, to cloak morals in sappy tales which do not ring true to reality. Instead, great stories offer vivid depictions of struggles between good and evil, and show, rather than tell, how right and wrong play out in the world.
“Mere instruction in morality is not sufficient to nurture the virtues. It might even backfire, especially when the presentation is heavily exhortative and the pupil's will is coerced. Instead, a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself needs to be presented in a way that is attractive and stirs the imagination. A good moral education addresses both the cognitive and affective dimensions of human nature. Stories are an irreplaceable medium of this kind of moral education. This is the education of character.”
“The great fairy tales and children's fantasy stories attractively depict character and virtue. In these stories the virtues glimmer as if in a looking glass, and wickedness and deception are unmasked of their pretensions to goodness and truth. These stories make us face the unvarnished truth about ourselves while compelling us to consider what kind of people we want to be.”
“The moral imagination is not a thing, not so much a faculty even, as the very process by which the self makes metaphors out of images given by experience and then employs these metaphors to find and suppose moral correspondences in experience. The moral imagination is active, for well or ill, strongly or weakly, every moment of our lives, in our sleep as well as when we are awake. But it needs nurture and proper exercise. Otherwise it will atrophy like a muscle that is not used. The richness or the poverty of the moral imagination depends upon the richness or the poverty of experience. When human beings are young and dependent upon parents and others who assume custodial care for them, they are especially open to formation through experiences provided by these persons. When we argue or discuss what kind of education or recreation our children should have we are acknowledging these realities.”
~ Vigen Guroian from: Awakening the Moral Imagination: Teaching Virtues Through Fairy Tales Essay
Fairy Tales, Mythology, and select Shakespeare plays will form the backbone of the lessons for this subject area, and the Teacher will bring out discussion and further questions about characters, good & evil, tie-ins to Scripture stories and teaching, etc. (or better yet, teach the students to ask good questions!), and by example, show how to continue to be formed by stories. Older students will have assigned readings for Moral Imagination.
[NOTE: If this concept is still unclear or you feel uncomfortable with these choices, please ask to see further material that we have available on the merits of Fairy Tales, Mythology and Shakespeare.]
OKLAHOMA STATE HISTORY
Form 2 students will enjoy an overview of Oklahoma’s History with corresponding literature and hands-on activities.
SWEDISH DRILL
Miss Mason advocated for a type of physical education that improved a child’s soundness of body, using habits of observation, attention and perfect execution. She believed that all aspects of a Person ought to be fit for God’s service.
“The object of athletics and gymnastics should be kept steadily to the front; enjoyment is good by the way, but is not the end; the end is the preparation of a body, available from crown to toe...” – Charlotte Mason, School Education p 102
“ ‘Ye are not your own’; the divine Author of your being has given you life, and a body finely adapted for His service; He gives you the work of preserving this body in health, nourishing it in strength, and training it in fitness for whatever special work He may give you to do in His world...” – Charlotte Mason, School Education (Vol 3), p 103
Swedish Drill is a form of bodily exercise that promotes balance, endurance, awareness of limbs in relation to the rest of the body, aligned posture, flexibility, a strong core, and proper breathing. Charlotte Mason believed these practices in particular would help counteract the effects of children’s lack of movement and limited positions at a school desk. It has been observed that some children find it difficult to return to the focus required for lessons after a vigorous session of traditional exercises due to elevated adrenaline levels. Swedish Drill focuses on muscle tone rather than aerobic activity. It involves a teacher calling out positions (limbs and core are placed in various positions) and the students respond by moving into the proper position. Movements become more complex and demanding, but the focus is on muscle control and attention to correct detail.
“…the teacher makes it his business to see that the body gets its share, and abundant share, of gymnastics whether by way of games or drill.” - Charlotte Mason – Home Education p 72
PRESENTATIONS
While some children are naturally good at speaking and aren’t afraid of standing in front of a crowd, others usually need some help in overcoming fears and hesitations. This is probably especially true of homeschoolers! Each week several students will have the opportunity to stand in front of their own class (not the whole Apiary Collective group) and give a short presentation. The age and comfort level of each child will determine how long he/she speaks at first, but the Teacher will, by degrees, encourage longer, more thorough and well-planned presentations, followed by a short question and answer time by the other students in the class. Students will also be encouraged to expand the scope of their curiosity to ask more appropriate interesting and thoughtful questions.
PRINT HANDWRITING
Form 1 students will practice their print letters, concentrating on proper formation and excellent execution. Students who have mastered all letters of the alphabet (upper and lower cases) will move on to copywork.
SOL-FA (not currently offered)
Sol-Fa (also known as solfège, solfeggio, solfeo, and solfa) is a type of musical instruction that assigns syllables to each note of the musical scale. Variations on this system of notation have been around since the 11th century. Typical music notation in English is given with the alphabetical letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G. These are definite pitches that do not change (middle C on the piano is always the pitch of middle C). In sol-fa, however, each of the 7 notes on a scale has a name (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti). If transferred into another key, the sol-fa note names remain the same. One of the aims of teaching sol-fa is to teach inner hearing, reading and singing music in your mind. Just as one learns (step-by-step) how to read letters, form words, sound them out, read fluently aloud, and then read silently, one can learn the steps to read music so that it can be played out in the mind silently. This is called inner hearing. Hand signs accompany the sol-fa notes as an added kinesthetic aspect to this musical education. Charlotte Mason advocated for using this method of musical education as a firm foundation for further musical pursuits later in adolescence and adulthood. This method aligns with her idea of “things before signs” — meaning that to understand things such as pitch and harmony, and to be able to listen and hear something in music should happen before being introduced to the corresponding musical notation.
"I should like, in connection with singing, to mention the admirable educational effects of the Tonic Sol-fa method. [See Appendix A] Children learn by it in a magical way to produce sign for sound and sound for sign, that is, they can not only read music, but can write the notes for, or make the proper hand signs for, the notes of a passage sung to them. Ear and Voice are simultaneously and equally cultivated. Mrs. Curwen's Child Pianist [See Appendix A] method is worked out, with minute care, upon the same lines; that is, the child's knowledge of the theory of music and his ear training keep pace with his power of execution, and seem to do away with the deadly dreariness of 'practising." (CM Vol 1, p 314-315)
SPIRITUAL FORMATION AND WORLDVIEW
Building on the solid foundation of familiarity with the Biblical narrative, students will be exposed to the evidence for the reliability of the Bible, the historical personhood of Jesus, His death and resurrection, and other issues that skeptics tend to question. Since the time of Charlotte Mason, our society has only increased its skepticism for Christian faith. Students will see that Christianity is a reasonable faith.
Additionally, a biography or autobiography of a Christian will be assigned to be read outside of class and narrated in written form.
SYMPOSIUM
This is a gathering of all ages together weekly to enjoy beautiful music, beautiful words and beautiful art. Our selections are very loosely based on the Bible Lessons for the year. All selections will change every 6 weeks (we will keep the same artist for 6 weeks, but change the painting weekly). A Recitation Notebook with all of the year’s selections will be provided for every child except those in the nursery and we encourage families to use these resources during the week at home; however, it is not required.
BEAUTIFUL MUSIC
Hymn: A song with rich theology and vocabulary set to a musical arrangement; practice singing for worship together.
Folk Song: A song with cultural heritage sung in the past “by the people, for the people”. Lyrics may be humorous, romantic, or melancholy, but these songs have been a part of American/another culture for decades if not centuries. Sung together.
Composer Study: A composition written by a composer with musical value to be enjoyed. Musical palettes will be expanded as we listen to and appreciate the complexity of the arrangements and styles of each composer.
BEAUTIFUL WORDS
Scripture Recitation: A selected passage from the Bible, recited in unison.
Poetry Recitation: A selected poem appropriate for children, recited in unison.
(NOTE: The purpose of recitation is not memorization, though it is likely that your child WILL memorize these selections if you choose to repeat them daily at home. Rather, recitation is the practice of beautiful speech: pronunciation, elocution, volume, phrasing, clear diction, etc. when read aloud in public. Such skills can be beneficial for situations such as Scripture Readings in church or Bible Study, or other such public speaking. Presentations (later in the day) will also reinforce this skill.)
"I hope that my readers will train their children in the art of recitation; in the coming days, more even than in our own will it behoove every educated man and woman to be able to speak effectively in public; and, in learning to recite you learn to speak.”
“Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing, and it is well to store a child's memory with a good deal of poetry, learnt without labour...” ~ Charlotte Mason
BEAUTIFUL ART
Artist Study: A painting by an artist, studied silently for 5 mins as a group, and then put away. The children will recall from memory the details of the painting. This encourages the habit of attention, a major theme in a Charlotte Mason education.