Today’s podcast episode is part of our occasional series, Voices from the Conference. We will be sharing with you Morgan Conner’s talk from this past year’s ADE @ Home Virtual Conference on reading Charlotte Mason’s volumes. Enjoy!
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Charlotte Mason volumes reading schedule
Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and today’s episode is part of our occasional series, Voices from the Conference. As you probably know by now, we at A Delectable Education host a conference in February of each year, hopefully bringing some inspiration and encouragement to what is notoriously a dark stretch in the homeschooling year…at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere.
A few years ago, a worldwide pandemic forced us to move to the online format, and we discovered some benefits we wouldn’t have otherwise. Not only are Charlotte Mason educators from all over the world able to join us due to the virtual platform, so many have personally written to share how they wouldn’t ever be able to get away for a conference or a retreat except online.
We are so grateful to be able to pour into the broader Charlotte Mason community in this way, however, we know that many are still not able to participate, and even those that do often long for something more and that brings us to the Voices of the Conference series. We use these episodes to highlight one of the speakers or ideas that came out of last year’s conference. We hope you enjoy this little taste of conference and getting to know one of the speakers. We hope you join us at the next ADE conference in February.
Today we will be sharing with you Morgan Conner’s talk from last year on reading Charlotte Mason’s volumes. Enjoy.
Morgan
Hello there. Thank you for joining me today. Before we begin, let us pray. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Morgan Connor. I have five girls, ages 11 to 19.
I am a former speech pathologist and have had the joy of homeschooling my girls for 13 years now. We have been a Charlotte Mason family for the last eight of those 13 years.
At the beginning of our homeschool journey, I looked into all the different philosophies. I remember reading about Charlotte Mason, but I just couldn’t figure out how to put it all together, how to implement it in our home. Between my oldest’s kindergarten and fourth grade year, we tried, I think, four different curriculums. Nothing seemed to fit, nothing flowed well, nothing looked how I imagined our school and life would look like.
We were having a particularly bad year in 2016, and I was really, really close to throwing in the towel. I really was thinking about enrolling them in public school, but I decided to give it one more year and to give it my very best. And I began to ponder if I could do, if I just have to do this for one more year, what would I want to do? What if I always wanted to try and have not been brave enough to try? And it was Charlotte Mason.
So I decided that I was going to give Charlotte Mason my all, and I began to scour the web for information to put together a plan. And I came across a new podcast called a Delectable Education. And, um, it changed my life. I listened to all the episodes that they had available at the time and began to slowly change things in our home, but the biggest thing that helped me in my homeschool journey and my Charlotte Mason journey was that ADE always pointed back
to Charlotte Mason’s own words. It wasn’t their opinion. It was, what did Charlotte Mason say about this? And I began to be inspired to look at Charlotte Mason’s words myself, and I began to read Volume one.
I was so inspired that I began to research topics for myself. I’ll talk a little bit more about this later, but, the first big research project that I did was about the volumes. And, since then I’ve spoken about many other topics, written about many other things. But reading Charlotte Mason’s volumes has always been, and I think will forever be something that I feel very passionately about.
Before we get into details about the volumes, I want to start with a short overview about how the Charlotte Mason Method came to be. So, Charlotte Mason was born in 1842 in England. From a very young age, she knew she wanted to be a teacher, and her dream came true at age 19, and she taught at a, church school for several years. Later she became an instructor at a teacher training school. And then in 1880, she wrote her first geography book, and I’m sure many of you have that on your shelves at home right now.
She went on to write more, of course, but in 1885, her church asked for her help to raise money. She gave a series of lectures that were called Ladies Lectures, and those lectures were later published as Home Education.
It’s important to note that during this time, the educational system in England was
undergoing large changes. It was a very hot topic at the time. What she proposed in her lectures was so radically different from the current system in England, and also from what was being replaced. What she was proposing was something very new, and she was charting a new course with her philosophy, and the reaction to it was incredible. Several of her friends
and colleagues were so excited, they wanted her to form an organization so they could promote her teachings.
So in 1887, just two years later, they developed the Parents’ National Education Union or the PNEU. A few years later, they began publishing a monthly magazine called The Parents’ Review. And then the Parents’ Union School was established around the same time.
So the families would join the PNEU, they would begin to get the magazine, and then they would also sign up for the PUS, the parents’ union school, and they would be sent programs and timetables every term for them to follow. And so it was almost like a school at home. They were part of a larger school system, but they were doing this in their homeschool rooms.
And this continued for many years, but in 1914, the first public school adopted Ms. Mason’s principles, and it was a huge success. It’s called the Drighlington Experiment. Then after that, more and more schools began to get on board, and it was estimated that by the time of her death, there were 175 elementary schools using her programs, which is incredible. An entire educational movement that is still alive and well today began with a series of lectures
by a 43-year-old teacher. I think that’s incredible.
As I said earlier, listening to the A DE podcast helped me find my way with the Charlotte Mason method, but it was reading her volumes myself that truly transformed our school days. I feel very strongly that reading the volumes is the secret to success with the Charlotte Mason Method, and you are probably wondering, well, how? I’m glad you asked.
First of all, they’re inspiring. They inspire me, and I know they will inspire you. When you’re in the midst of homeschooling, it can sometimes seem very rote and routine. You’re in the thick of things, and we lose sight of why we’re even doing this. Why am I going to this trouble? Especially with a Charlotte Mason education because there’s a lot to it. It is a lot to ask of a mother. Charlotte Mason knew that it’s a lot. And so we may get discouraged along the way.
And, you know, in the homeschool world, Charlotte Mason is its own unique creature. And so even if you have other homeschoolers in your area, they may not understand the Charlotte Mason method. And so being able to go to her volumes and read her words and be reminded of why we chose this path is so needed. So I know that for me, there have been many times when I have been discouraged and the volumes have been such a balm to my weary soul, and I know they will be to yours also.
Not only do the volumes inspire me, but they give me practical help in educating and parenting my children. I don’t think there’s a better parenting book out there than volume two. It’s wonderful. And volumes one, three, and six all give us the details on the subjects in the feast. Volume six has the synopsis in there that gives us all sorts of wonderful details about her 20 principles.
And I find it interesting that when Charlotte Mason’s method was being introduced
to public schools, the PNEU sent Ms. Steinthals right to help the teachers. She told Ms. Mason that a lifeless dual class was making progress due to their teacher drinking in your books and principals. The volumes were what made a difference to that classroom, to that teacher, and I know that they will do the same for you.
Another reason why I think that the volumes are the secret to success is because they keep me balanced. I love that she provided us both principals and practices, but sometimes I don’t get the balance right. And this is not a new problem. Ms. Wicks wrote that, “in fact, some people who have seized this or that part of her teaching, not knowing whose it was
and have let it run away with them, have lost the balance and sameness, which marks Ms. Mason’s teaching all through.” I need the volumes to remind me of the overarching principle behind my day to today when I have fallen into just checking boxes, and we are all guilty of that.
I also need a kick in the pants when I am failing to spread the feast adequately, and I’m just letting my kids be, you know, born persons letting them do their own thing. So it is so important to have that balance. Ms. Wicks went on to say, “it is such a temptation to us ordinary folks to emphasize some part at the expense of the rest and soul turn of strength into a weakness. There is only one way to avoid this danger that is constantly to read and reread Ms. Mason’s books constantly to remind ourselves for first principles.” Amen.
Reading the volumes helps me because it allows me to think for myself. It’s just such a blessing that we have the resources today, like the ADE podcast and others, blogs, magazines. But at the end of the day, I am the one that’s responsible for my girls’ education. I am the one that is at that table having to decide what to do next, what to do when it’s not working out. I can’t just call someone and troubleshoot right in the moment. We can’t always ask for help. And I think sometimes we don’t need to. We have help readily available.
This was a problem in Ms. Mason’s Day as well. Ms. Parish recalls the following story. “One of Ms. Mason’s principles is that method rather than system, should be our way to our end. Accordingly, there was a great elasticity about the conduct of the college. Perhaps this principle was specially evident during criticism. Lessons on Thursday morning is when Ms. Mason would criticize a student for doing what was apparently precisely the thing another student had been criticized for not doing the previous Thursday, thus reducing us to despair for what were we to do. And when we asked for the precise recipe, we were told to mix it with brains.”
Essex Chumley wrote an entire article about this called Recipe versus Thought. Many like those students wanted a recipe to follow when they had questions, but Chumley reminded them
that Ms. Mason left no recipes behind her. She said, “it is a very much harder task to recollect and apply a principle than to follow a precept. Hence all the recipe activity in the world. But we are all born persons. And the power to think is there in each of us, if we will, but use it to be a member. A living part of an living organism implies and entails the duty of careful thought. Members of the PNEU are fortunate in possessing Ms. Mason’s book by which to attempt the answering of their own questions and by which to test their answers here can be found a clear exposition of those laws of mind, those central truths upon which all PNEU method must be
based. Here, again, can be found sage advice. It is the part of every member to seek and find in his own mind the best means of applying those principles, that advice to new occasions and to particular instances.”
We may not be a part of an official PNEU, but I think these words are just as true for us today. We have her books and we can attempt to answer those questions ourselves.
Another reason I love the volumes is because they keep me from getting distracted from what’s most important. I’m not on social media anymore much, but I remember those days when a new shiny product would come out. Everyone was promoting it and singing its praises, and you were sure that it was going to be the solution to all your homeschool problems. And it’s so tempting to click Buy Now. But when I’m reading those volumes, I am reminded of what I truly need in my homeschool, what truly matters, and it helps me to keep my focus so much better.
Ms. Mason also lets her faith shine through all of her volumes. She reminds me of what’s most important. She constantly points us back to our Heavenly Father and reminds us of
what our ultimate goal in education should be: the knowledge of God. It’s not our children’s achievements. It’s not how much knowledge they have. She makes sure, when we are reading her words, she makes sure to keep our focus where it should be.
I want to read this quote from a mother, from In Memoriam. “Others will write of Ms. Mason’s work from the point of view of the trained teacher. But how much greater is the debt of the mother, who without any training at all, could teach her children through the method that Ms. Mason has worked out. It was she who made the impossible possible, who showed us term by term what books to use and how to use them, who taught us to take the children straight to the fountain head and let them learn from the books themselves. It was she who realized what home education might become, who changed the whole atmosphere of the homeschool room, who inspired us for our work, and gave us the power to carry it out. A pioneer who blazed the trail that many of us followed with keen enjoyment and grateful hearts.”
What a blessing that we still have Ms. Mason with us inspiring and teaching us, showing us how to do the impossible. Why wouldn’t we want to grab a hold of these resources that we have right at our fingertips and utilize them to the best of our ability?
Now that I have convinced you of the importance of reading the volumes yourself, you may wonder where to begin. There are six of them, after all. I mentioned earlier that my first big Charlotte Mason research project was about the volumes. I published two articles on Charlotte Mason Poetry. The first was called The Truth About Volume Six, and the second was called the Reception of Volume Six. And the purpose of those articles was to answer the question, what order should I read the volumes?
I wrote them seven years ago now, I believe when I was fairly new to Charlotte Mason. Since I have published those, I have grown in my understanding of Charlotte Mason. But my answer to the question remains the same: begin with Volume One and read through each in order, no matter the age of the child.
Why? I’m glad you asked. First, Volume one lays the foundation for everything else. Elsie Kitchings said that home education contains an essence all that Ms. Mason developed in her further writings and activities. She went on to explain that in part one, we get the child’s estate, a belief in which led to what has been called the Children’s Magna Carta, the Parents’ Union School. This belief also runs through every detail of the work set up in the programs. She says Part Two takes up out of door life. And this has led to the awakening of the world to the Bliss of Nature Study, a subject now learned in most schools. Part five deals with lessons worked out later and more fully in school education. Part six deals with the moral and spiritual powers of a child. This was worked out later in detail in Ourselves, while in parents and children, we get moral training from the parent’s point of view. So everything that comes later and the volumes and all of her writings and all of her work, it all has the foundation built on Home Education.
The second reason you should start it with volume one is because the philosophy unfolds as you read through each volume. Elsie Kitching again wrote about this in 1952: “It is an intellectual
and spiritual adventure to be able to give a year or two to the consecutive reading of the Home Education Series in order to get some idea of the wholeness of Charlotte Mason’s thought to find that the gradual amplification of it passes from volume to volume and is a spur to reading.”
An advertisement for the PNEU Reading course stated, “The method of these volumes is a progressive amplification of the principles set forth. It is therefore desirable that the book should be studied in numerical order.”
Now, for example, I’ll give a example of this. In volume one, Ms. Mason opens parents up to the idea that they are the most influential teacher their child will have. Volume Two, which is called Parents and Children, expands upon this idea throughout the entire volume. She makes a wonderful case for parents being involved in their children’s education and not just their education, their spiritual education, intellectual, spiritual, physical, all of it. Volume three, the very first few chapters are all about authority in the school and in the home. Volume four equips Parents by means of a book for children that affirms these teachings. Volume five provides us with practical examples. And then Volume six pulls it all together with tying it in with the synopsis or the 20 principles and more. So there is a thread of thought that goes throughout and it unfolds as you read them.
And the third reason that you should begin with Volume one and go in numerical order is that each volume assumes that you have the knowledge contained in the previous books, even her last volume, Towards a Philosophy of Education. She explains this herself in in the introduction to volume six. She says, “This theory has already been set forth in volumes published at intervals during the last 35 years. So I shall indicate here only a few salient points, which seem to me to differ from a general theory and practice.”
The few salient points of the volumes is evidence is evident when we think about natural history in volume one. Ms. Mason provides 50 pages of the out of door life, and then she discusses Natural history as a school subject in about seven pages. In volume three, she only devotes two
and a half pages to, to this topic. And in volume six, it’s covered in four and a half pages.
Volumes three and six do not attempt to restate all that have been covered in Volume one. Readers were assumed to have the knowledge, and volumes three and six simply act as a summary and add on more relevant information or clarify some things.
So now that we’ve discussed what order to read them in, I wanna go briefly through each volume one by one and give you a little insight into what to expect from each one.
I’ve already talked about the importance of home education volume one that is the foundation of her other works, but what can you expect in the pages of Home Education? Well, she begins the book by making a case for why children deserve a better method of education, and how the gospels show us a better way to educate and treat children. She’s also rallying mothers to their duty. It’s very inspiring in the beginning. Um, she makes you want to do better. And I think it’s important to note that this was Victorian England, and so she’s making some radical statements here, but ones that were based and are based in the truth of God’s word.
Volume One and volumes three and six are the books that the PNEU recommended to parents and teachers so they could understand Ms. Mason’s method of teaching no matter the age. So on the programs that were sent to parents who signed up for the Parents Union School,
there was a note on there that said, for method of teaching “see volumes one, three, and six,” depending on when they were published. The ones that were published early would only say volume one, later they’d say one and three, and then after her death, they would say one, three, and six. So it has a lot of practical help on how to teach the subjects.
Like I mentioned before, we get the most comprehensive treatment of the topics of habit training and out of door life; there’s 72 pages on habits and like I said, 50 pages on Out of Door Life
and no other volume covers them so extensively. We also get a very important introduction to Mansoul, which plays a very important role in volume four in Ourselves. And she introduces us to this idea of the will, and it’s just very foundational for all that comes next for the volumes.
Let’s move on to volume two, Parents and Children. It contains what I think is my favorite chapter in all of Ms. Mason’s writings, chapter 25, called The Great Recognition Required of Parents. I think I quote it in my writing more than any other thing in her volumes. It’s just that good. I mean anytime I have a problem, I’m discouraged, I go read that chapter and I’m reminded of why God has called me to this vocation.
On first glance, you might think that Volume two is less practical than Volume one
because there aren’t any details about how to teach subjects. But it is just as helpful and so inspiring. As I said before, I think this is maybe the best parenting book out there. It never fails to bring up in me to raise up my spirits, to rally me, wake me up to my duty that God has given me towards my children. And it, it inspires me to do my best. It’s just wonderful.
This volume is comprised of Parents Review articles that had been published earlier for the magazine and that she curated and put together herself in 1896. She says that she published it to give an example or a suggestion here and there as to how such and such a habit may be formed, such and such a formative idea may be implanted in fostered.
During my research on Ms. Mason’s volumes, I came across this interesting quote that shows how important this volume is to the whole of the philosophy. This goes back to that idea of balance. “It is found that even where teachers have read only Home Education and School Education, this idea that teachers only need the programs to succeed still persists. And therefore it has been urged that Parents and Children should be read as well as offering a more detailed study of the principles behind the practice than the other two volumes, and so making the theory in these two more evident.” So, a very important piece of work.
Volume three. Mason published her third volume School Education in 1904. Like volume two, it was comprised primarily of articles from the Parents’ Review. There are also some conference papers included in there. She went back and handpicked the best, her best writings from the previous seven years and arranged them in just the right order.
School Education is full of big ideas. She talks about masterly inactivity, the science of relations, and the three educational tools. She also discusses authority and docility in the beginning, and it’s wonderful chapters there. And then she saved the last few chapters for the actual implementing of her method, which I think is amusing that, you know, same as in Home Education, the lessons part is at the end, and that’s the same in School Education, the lessons come at the end. You would think that would be the lead, but, but she had a very good reason for this. She says, “I have left the consideration of a curriculum, which is practically the subject of this volume, to the final chapters because a curriculum is not an independent product, but is linked to much else by chains of cause and consequence.”
Volume four, Ourselves, like the others, began in the Parents’ Review in 1901 and was published in 1905. Ms. Mason recognized that children needed some moral training and couldn’t find a suitable book. So she wrote one herself. It was later published as two books: book one
for those under 16, book two for those over 16. On the programs, it was studied as part of citizenship beginning in form three. She says in the preface, “the point of view taken in this volume is that all beautiful and noble possibilities are present in everyone, but that each person is subject to assault and hindrance in various ways of which we should be aware in order that he may watch and pray.”
This is the volume where she brings back that topic from Volume one of Mansoul. And she takes students on a journey through this amazing country and helps them discover both, like she said, the beauty and the hindrances to be found therein. And then in book two, she utilizes examples from their literature and Bible readings to expand on these joys and pitfalls in Mansoul.
Every time I read this volume, I am just so surprised by how well she seems to understand human nature. She was given a remarkable insight, that this Victorian woman can relate so well to a 21st century woman in rural Arkansas. It’s just amazing to me. But it goes to show that such feelings are common to all, to our children, to us, a hundred years ago, 200 years ago. It’s a really fantastic resource for our children and for our own selves too.
Now, in 1906, Ms. Mason reorganized the volumes and called them the Home Education Series. So one through five are part of the Home Education series. When she was editing volumes one
and two, she removed large portions of those and placed them in a new volume, Volume five, called Some Studies in the formation of Character.
Now, I’ve been out of the public school system for a long time, but I know that character training
was a huge push then. And I have seen character training books for homeschoolers too. So I think it’s still quite popular. But Ms. Mason has a distinct take on character training as stated in the preface of volume five. “I should like to urge that this incidental play of education and circumstances upon personality is our only legitimate course. We may not make character our conscious objective. Provide a child with what he needs in the way of instruction, opportunity and wholesome occupation and his character will take care of itself. All we can do further is to help a child to get rid of some hindrance, a bad temper, for example, likely to spoil his life.”
She goes on to remind us indirectly of principles four and five, that we are limited by the respect due to the personality of children. So then how do we form their character if we’re so limited?
Well, that’s what the volume is all about. In part one she discusses, or she has multiple fictional scenarios, but they’re true to life, with suggestions of what to do with temper tantrums or lying, those sorts of things, and sometimes what not to do for it. In part four, she utilizes literary characters and works to demonstrate the formation of character and how it relates to her philosophy.
And I also just wanna say real quick, I just recently reread part three of this book. Now that I have read them all I skip around a lot. I had forgotten how helpful that section is. And so even when you’ve read the volumes before you, that’s why you just read them and reread them because you find help in there that you didn’t notice the first time. You know, my children are older now and it just hit me different than it did the first time I read it, I guess.
So now we get to volume six. Almost 20 years passed between the publication of volume five and six, and Volume one and six span over 35 years of time. So much happened between those time periods, but when she finished volume six her writings from the beginning to the end were so consistent. And as Elsie Kitchings said, there said, there is a thread of thought that you can trace through all of them. And it’s remarkable how consistent.
She finished an essay towards a philosophy of Education in October of 1921, but it wasn’t published until two years after her death. So it was published in 1925. The Parents’ review stated that the last volume is a final summary of theory and practice. It consists of two books.
Book one contains an expanded version of her synopsis. So she took those 20 principles,
the synopsis that she wrote. She first wrote those in 1904, but she took those and expanded on them and did more explanation. And it’s, it’s really an incredible resource when you’re studying the 20 principles to just read through her writing on that. he knew it was gonna be a great resource and it was, or it is, I should say. Book two contained several important papers that she wrote between 1912 and about 1919. And during this time, her method was beginning
to spread into the public schools. And so a lot of these articles were written about this topic.
And so they are really, I think she wanted them in the volumes because they were so important to the overall movement, to the overall goals of the PNEU. It is truly a tremendous capstone on her life.
And so you’re convinced that you need to read them. You know, that you’re supposed to read them from one through six, you know a little bit about what’s in store for you as you read through them, but maybe you already tried once and you’re a little intimidated because of the writing style or the things that are contained in it. I ust wanna tell you a little story ’cause I can relate.
I can distinctly remember the first time I read Jane Austen. I was so excited. I had just begun the Charlotte Mason journey. So many people were talking about Jane Austen in these circles. And I had never read her before. I hadn’t even watched the movies. And so I was excited. And for the first 50 pages or so, I was completely lost. I didn’t understand anything that was happening.
I didn’t understand like, okay, what is an entail? How am I supposed to, it doesn’t explain that. How am I supposed to know what that is and why is it such a big deal? The culture of early 1800 England, I didn’t understand why a lady couldn’t introduce herself to her own neighbor. That, you know, that was completely foreign to me. And also just the manner of writing. You know, Jane Austen writes completely different than a modern author. And I almost gave up
’cause I felt like I was wasting so much time looking these things up, trying to figure out what an entail was, I was like, this is too much work. This is too much trouble. It’s not enjoyable.
But at some point my brain shifted and started to become accustomed to her style of writing. And it was somewhere around 50 pages or so into it. And I stopped having to look up so many words. Maybe I had already looked up all the ones that were gonna be in the story, I don’t know, but I did. I was like, huh, I haven’t had to look up a word in a while. And I was actually able to understand and enjoy the story.
I’ve reread it so many times. Pride and Prejudice is probably my favorite book. Persuasion, sometimes it’s my favorite. And then sometimes it’s Pride and Prejudice. They’re really tied, honestly. And Jane Austen is my favorite author, but at first I didn’t even wanna finish reading her books.
I have found that something similar happens when reading Charlotte Mason. Just like Jane Austen, she has a unique style of writing and that sometimes it’s confusing. I know that sometimes I’ll read a paragraph and I think that she’s stating something as fact, and then at the end of the paragraph, she refutes it. She’s like, and of course we know that that is not true.
And I’m like, oh, yes, yes, we knew that. I knew that when I was reading it that. But it just takes a little bit to get accustomed to her style. But once you do, it will begin to make more sense.
And, just like in Jane Austen, there are culture references that we just don’t get. She refers to Punch, that’s the one that I always think of. Punch was a popular magazine in her time. Everyone would’ve known what that was, but that’s not common knowledge for us. She mentions educationalists and philosophers and she doesn’t really explain who they are or what they believe. She seems to assume that we will all know who Russeau is. But I have found over time that most of the time when she mentions these folks, she is describing their beliefs.
So she may not have say “Russeau believes…” but she gives us lots of clues
that tell us what he believes. So you don’t have to be an educational history major to be able
to understand her writings.
I tried to find that where she, um, made a reference to Shakespeare character, but she doesn’t say that it’s Shakespeare. And I’d never read Shakespeare other than Romeo and Juliet the first time I read through the volumes. And so I didn’t understand what, I didn’t even know
what she was referring to, I had no context for understanding it. And then now I see that she was just casually referencing a literary character, and she does that a lot. Same with biblical references. She just has casual references to them because they were so familiar to her and probably to her readers. We’re used to now people telling us specifically this is a Bible quote,
or this is a reference to this Bible story, and that that’s just not how she writes. So you won’t always catch or understand all of her references.
So, okay, I’ve just given you all these reasons why it can be a little bit difficult. So how, how do we deal? How do we make heads or tails of her writing? I think you can go about it two different ways. I’ve done both, so I’m not telling you one way or the other. I’m just saying choose one and maybe do it different for different volumes. I don’t know.
But one way I have done it, read her volumes when they’re brand new to me, was to read relatively fast and just know that some, or most of it, is just gonna go over your head. Only look up the stuff that you truly have to know because it, like, you know, the whole chapter doesn’t make sense. Unless you know what this word means, don’t stress because you don’t know who Waverly is. You know, that is not the point. So you go into it knowing that you’re not gonna get everything and it’s okay. I did that the for pretty much the first time I read volumes two through six. That’s how I approached it. I just read through them real quick and let it go over my head and just took in what I could. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Another way that you can do it is to read slow. Look up as many words and references as you can. Write notes in the margins, you know, keep the dictionary, keep your phone handy with the dictionary in Google. There are annotated versions of the volumes that I’ve seen. But I think sometimes it’s good for you to dig for the answers instead of having it right there next to you. But there’s no shame in an annotated version, I don’t think. And then with each read through you’ll understand more and more.
And, and so just like with Jane Austen, let’s see, so I’ve been eight years in, so it’s probably been eight years since I read Jane Austen. I’ve since read some nonfiction about Victorian England. Even though her novels didn’t take place during the Victorian era; they were before that. But I have gained even more knowledge of why things were the way they were. I understand the way that they dressed, what they’re referring to. And so as you grow and learn, your knowledge builds and, and just adds up to where you’ll read through the volumes one day and be amazed at all that you understand. So don’t get discouraged.
Now as I’m reading, this is my personal method of study, even if I’m reading fast, I do this, I just may not do as much of it. I highlight anything of interest and sometimes we’ll scribble little notes in the margins, particularly things that I know that I would want to look at again another time. So sometimes it’s just an exclamation point or a heart so that I know that I particularly loved that section. So I highlight in my volumes. I make a note on a separate piece of paper
of things I don’t understand or want to look up. And I use the dictionary or Google if I can’t understand by the context alone.
And then it’s not uncommon for me to have to read a paragraph once or twice or three times to be able to understand what she wrote. So occasionally I will make a, a chart or a graph or an outline. I did this for volume four. I do it every time I read it pretty much, because Mansoul is made up of houses and there’s lords and so it’s very similar to system of government. So I make made a chart that showed what all those different hearts and houses and lords were. And that way I can refer to it as I’m reading.
You may notice that there are study questions in the back. These were created as part of a course that they offered the Mother’s Education Course. It was written that they were created as a help to study and to indicate points which the author considered significant. So I used them the first time I read Home Education. And I haven’t really used them since. I didn’t personally find them exceptionally helpful. But that may be different for you. You may find them fantastic.
And I know lots of people have utilized them and loved them. So that is an option. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to study. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong. You can go super detailed, you can go super broad, anything in between, and you’re gonna get a blessing from it.
So the first time I read volumes five and six, I read ’em as fast as I could. I was working on a project and I needed to have read them. And so I didn’t highlight anything. I didn’t do any, I just read ’em. But when I’m reading along with my reading group, I go really slow because we’re reading a very small amount in a month. And so I go through it and I look up things and so you can do both at the same time. I’m frequently reading two different volumes, one with my reading group and one on my own. And like I said, a lot of times I skip around, especially when I’m doing research for a project or writing project, I’ll read sections of volumes.
And I just wanna say I highly recommend reading the volumes along with a group, just even if it’s just one other person. It’s so helpful to discuss what you read with another person. Because I can remember lots of times in our group where one of us would have a question and the other because of their unique experience and knowledge would be able to answer that question, or one would interpret it one way and one the other. And then we would have a discussion over, oh, you know what? I think you’re right. I think that’s what that means.
And there’s been a few times where I have disagreed with Charlotte Mason on something, but then when we discussed it in a group, I was able to come to a different conclusion because of the input that the others had. So it’s just a huge help to be able to talk it out with at least one other person. And it does not have to be a huge, formal, big deal. We just meet casually and share what we’ve highlighted and discuss it and talk about questions we’ve had and that’s it.
And we go home. But I always leave understanding the volumes better than when I got there.
Now let’s talk about how much you should read at a time. I do have a schedule for each volume to share with you. You can use it with your reading group or on your own. If you want to read the volumes through in a little over a year, you can change what I have scheduled as monthly reading assignments to weekly reading assignments. And then if you do it that way, it’ll take you 57 weeks to get through all of the volumes. Emily Kiser once said that 50 pages per day will take you through all six volumes in six weeks, less than three pages a day it’ll take you two years. And then any amount in between allows you to read them in a good time. So whether it takes you six weeks or two years or four years with your reading group, just read them. And you could really just decide that you’re gonna read for 10 minutes a day that, you know, during
the first 10 minutes of nap time or the first 10 minutes after your kid’s bedtime, or the first 10 minutes when you wake up, or the first 10 minutes after your cup of coffee that you’re just gonna read. And you’ll be amazed at how much ground you can cover and how much you’ll learn just by doing that.
And before I leave you guys, I just wanna say a quick note about buying the volumes.
I personally own some of the pinks and some…they’re called the Pinks, the original ones that were republished by the Andreolas I think in the eighties. So I have four of those and then I have two of the floral soft covers from Living Book press. Those that I personally own, I bought them the first year that I was doing Charlotte Mason homeschooling. I have seen the Simply Charlotte Mason study edition. And they’re beautiful. They’ve got a large font, they have wide margin, they really are good for studying. I can see how that would be. ANd I have glanced over the annotated version from CM Plenary. I saw them at a conference once and, and just flipped through ’em real quickly. And they seem like a good buy if you want that annotation. And I also have gifted the hardcover additions of ourselves from River Bend Press. I’ve gifted them to my girls and my nieces and they’re beautiful. River Bend Press, their hardcovers are just gorgeous.
So all that to say, just choose the one that fits your budget that you think is the prettiest. I wouldn’t order the ones from Amazon that are like the facsimiles. I’ve heard people talk about those not being good quality, but you can read the reviews on those and figure that out for yourself. But if money is the issue, because I mean, when is it not ever an issue for us homeschoolers, right? They are available for free at Charlotte Mason Poetry
and they’re done very well on there. So even if you can’t afford to buy them and read a hard cover, you can still read them for free. So don’t let anything stand in your way of digging into this amazing resource. I promise you will not regret it.
I just wanna thank you all for your time and attention today. I appreciate you joining me as I talk about this topic that I love so much. I hope you learned something new. I hope you’re inspired to pick up the volumes yourself. You won’t regret it, I promise you. Thank you.