Charlotte Mason’s curriculum includes singing. This episode focuses on the art of singing, reasons why it should not be neglected in morning lessons, and addresses not only the why, what, and when of this subject, but gives tips on what a teacher is to do who is not personally trained or competent in leading singing.

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“With such a programme before his pupils only the uninstructed teacher will put undue emphasis upon and give undue time to arithmetic and handicrafts, singing, acting, or any of the hundred specifics which are passed off as education in its entirety.” (Vol. 6, p. 73)

“Children have ‘Art’ in them.” (Vol. 1, p. 313)

“Hymns with a story, such as: ‘A Little Ship Was on the Sea,’ ”I Think When I Read That Sweet Story of Old,’ ‘Hushed Was the Evening Hymn,’ are perhaps the best for little children.” (Vol. 3, p. 143)

“Certain subjects of peculiar educational value, music, for instance, I have said nothing about, partly for want of space, and partly because if the mother have not Sir Joshua Reynold’s ‘that!’ in her, hints from an outsider will not produce the art-feeling which is the condition of success in this sort of teaching. If possible, let the children learn from the first under artists, lovers of their work: it is a serious mistake to let the child lay the foundation of whatever he may do in the future under ill-qualified mechanical teachers, who kindle in him none of the enthusiasm which is the life of art.” (Vol. 1, p. 314)

“I should like, in connection with singing, to mention the admirable educational effects of the Tonic Sol-fa method. 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.” (Vol. 1, pp. 314-15)

“[T]he 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.'” (Vol. 1, p. 315)

If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.

Home Education (Volume 1), Part V, Chapter XXI

Ourselves (Volume 4), Book I, Part III, Chapter XI

Little Songster

Children of the Open Air

Sing Solfa

Sight Singing School

The increasing popularity of Charlotte Mason’s method of education means an increase in misconceptions and misinformation. This episode tackles some of the “myths” that have circulated, particularly regarding what makes a living book or a textbook, what books are used in the Bible lesson, and that reading and narration are the only content of a lesson.

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“Again, we need not always insist that a book should be written by the original thinker. It sometimes happens that second-rate minds have assimilated the matter in hand, and are able to give out what is their own thought (only because they have made it their own) in a form more suitable for our purpose than that of the first-hand thinkers. We cannot make any hard and fast rule––a big book or a little book, a book at first-hand or at second-hand; either may be right provided we have it in us to discern a living book, quick, and informed with the ideas proper to the subject of which it treats.” (Vol. 3, p. 178)

“For the mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body; there are no organs for the assimilation of the one more than of the other.” (Vol. 6, p. 105)

“But we are considering, not the religious life of children, but their education by lessons; and their Bible lessons should help them to realise in early days that the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, and, therefore, that their Bible lessons are their chief lessons.” (Vol. 1, p. 251)

The Book of Golden Deeds

Parables From Nature

Child’s Book of Saints

Holy War

Confessions of St. Augustine

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Saviour of the World

Episode 10: Things

Sabbath Mood Homeschool’s Living Science Study Guides

This Charlotte Mason podcast addresses frequently asked questions: was Mason’s method designed first and foremost for the classroom? Is it essential to have a poetry teatime or morning time?

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“The Parents’ Union School, originally organised for the benefit of children educated at home, is worked by means of programmes followed by examination papers sent out term by term. When the same work, if not the whole of it, was taken up by Council Schools, the advantage of such an organisation was apparent, especially in that it afforded a common curriculum for children of all classes. By using this curriculum we were enabled to see that the slum child in a poor school compares quite favourably with the child of clever or opulent parents who had given heed to his education.” (Vol. 6, p. 293)

In Memoriam

Charlotte Mason died nearly a hundred years ago, but her ideas have continued to thrive. This episode addresses a few notions that exist that do not necessarily reflect hers. Based on listener questions, we address this Q&A to some of the myths that circulate.

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“Readings in literature, whether of prose or poetry, should generally illustrate the historical period studied; but selections should be avoided; children should read the whole book or the whole poem to which they are introduced.” (Vol. 6, p. 340)

“Knowledge is a state out of which people may pass and into which they may return but never a store upon which they may draw.” (In Memoriam)

Schools should only be admitted as Parents’ Review Schools if “the amount of time for each of these subjects shall not be more nor less than that stated in the Time-Table.” (“Suggestions” PNEU Pamphlet, 1906)

“There is no selection of studies, or of passages or of episodes, on the ground of interest. The best available book is chosen and is read through perhaps in the course of two or three years.” (Vol. 6, p. 7)

“We need not ask what the girl or boy likes. She very often likes the twaddle of goody-goody story books, he likes condiments, highly-spiced tales of adventure. We are all capable of liking mental food of a poor quality and a titillating nature; and possibly such food is good for us when our minds are in need of an elbow-chair; but our spiritual life is sustained on other stuff, whether we be boys or girls, men or women. By spiritual I mean that which is not corporeal; and which, for convenience sake, we call by various names––the life of thought, the life of feeling, the life of the soul.” (Vol. 3, p. 168)

The completeness with which hundreds of children reject the wrong book is a curious and instructive experience, not less so than the avidity and joy with which they drain the right book to the dregs; children’s requirements in the matter seem to be quantity, quality and variety: but the question of books is one of much delicacy and difficulty. After the experience of over a quarter of a century in selecting the lesson books proper to children of all ages, we still make mistakes, and the next examination paper discovers the error! Children cannot answer questions set on the wrong book; and the difficulty of selection is increased by the fact that what they like in books is no more a guide than what they like in food.” (Vol. 6, p. 248)

Madam How and Lady Why

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In Memoriam

A Delectable Education’s Schedule Cards

How closely should we adhere to all of Charlotte Mason’s principles and practices? This podcast explores the ramifications of taking part of Mason’s method, practicing some of her ideas or mixing in other curricula, and addresses whether it is positive or negative to be labeled ‘A Charlotte Mason Purist.’

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“The reader will say with truth–‘I knew all this before and have always acted more or less on these principles’; and I can only point to the unusual results we obtain through adhering not ‘more or less’ but strictly to the principles and practices I have indicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister had to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and appurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions of lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon’s antiseptic treatment; that is from the substitution of exact principles scrupulously applied for the rather casual ‘more or less’ methods of earlier days.” (Vol. 6, p. 19)

“We do not invite Heads of schools to take up work lightly, which implies a sound knowledge of certain principles and as faithful a practice. The easy tolerance which holds smilingly that everything is as good as everything else, that one educational doctrine is as good as another, that, in fact, a mixture of all such doctrines gives pretty safe results,––this sort of complacent attitude produces lukewarm effort and disappointing progress. I feel strongly that to attempt to work this method without a firm adherence to the few principles laid down would be not only idle but disastrous. ‘Oh, we could do anything with books like those,’ said a master; he tried the books and failed conspicuously because he ignored the principles.” (Vol. 6, p. 270)

“We have a method of education, it is true, but method is no more than a way to an end, and is free, yielding, adaptive as Nature herself. Method has a few comprehensive laws according to which details shape themselves, as one naturally shapes one’s behaviour to the acknowledged law that fire burns. System, on the contrary, has an infinity of rules and instructions as to what you are to do and how you are to do it. Method in education follows Nature humbly; stands aside and gives her fair play.” (Vol. 2, p. 168)

Art Middlekauff’s helpful article on this very topic