This episode of the podcast focuses on what Bible lessons look like in elementary school. You’ll learn how often and for how long Charlotte Mason Bible lessons last at this age, how to teach the lessons, and we will share some of our favorite resources with you.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Vol 6, Chapt 10 Reading List

Paterson Smyth commentaries

Scripture Journals (ESV and CSB options) on Amazon or here

Bible Art Resources:

• Bible Picture Portfolios
• Bible in Art: New Testament, Richard Muhlberger*
• Bible in Art: Old Testament, Richard Muhllberger*

Bible Atlas Favorites:

• Holman Bible Atlas 
• Golden Bible Atlas*

ADE Bible rotation

Bible: Forms 1-2 Lesson Breakdown

Episode 128: Form 1 Bible Immersion Lesson

ADE on YouTube

*For OOP (out of print) or hard to find texts, try BookFinder.com

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Liz
…Liz Cottrill…

Nicole
…and Nicole Williams.

Emily
We are working our way slowly through Chapter 10 of Charlotte Mason’s Volume 6 all season long and we invite you to read along with us. The link to our reading schedule is in the show notes. 

So last week we started our series on Bible lessons in a Charlotte Mason curriculum and today we’re going to focus in on what those lessons look like in forms one and two, or grades one through six.  Elementary school. So Nicole, would you share what portions of the Bible children cover at these ages?

Nicole
Yeah, so in the Old Testament this journey begins in Genesis and it moves forward with selected stories from Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy…Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. And in this chronological sweep of the Old Testament narrative, children then learn about the patriarchs, the exodus, the wilderness, the conquests of Canaan, judges, and the early kings. So they’re really getting a lot of it. The PNEU programs, while they have just very small changes to them, like they stopped at this verse rather than this verse, it really was a set rotation. But we do have a rotation of this that you can access. We’ll link to it in this episode. 

Also to note that forms one and two, so that’s six years, families would have to cycle back through again. So this is a three-year rotation for these students and they would go back through again.

Emily
Well, and Old Testament is actually even four, right? And they cycle through.

Liz
So it’s a little different. Four for the old, three for the new.

Nicole
Yeah.

Emily
And with that, not every student is going to begin with Genesis, right? They’re just going to jump into the –

Nicole
Yeah, you have a younger, you know, now your child is in third grade and you have a first grader coming up, they’re just going to jump in where you’re at as long as everybody’s moving forward. 

So in the New Testament, these students, Forms 1 and 2, would cover the Synoptic Gospels. So they would have Matthew, Mark, and Luke, along with the first eight chapters of Acts. So it usually was about a year for each one of these – Matthew, and then Mark actually got combined with Acts; it’s short. And then Luke was the next year and then the cycle begins again, so you’re going back through. Nothing is rushed here in these lessons, but the stories are chosen kind of deliberately so not everything is included. There are omissions made which I’m sure you’ll talk about.

So this is from the creation to the early church that the children are using to start their Bible education, getting very familiar with.

Emily
And she specifically said narrative portion. Like, you when we get to those genealogies, we’re not reading those.

Nicole
Right.

Emily
And some of the more very scandalous stories that are included in the Bible are not covered in their Bible lessons for school because the children are narrating them.

Nicole
Right. Right. 

Emily
OK, so just before we go on, I just want to remind our listeners, we’ve talked about this in previous episodes, but volume six is not a comprehensive how-to teaching manual that we wish it was, right? And so we are also, as Nicole’s just pulled from, like you’ve been going back looking through the programmes, that’s how we developed our Bible rotation that we put on the website. And so it’s a summary.  It’s just not comprehensive. And so there are some details that she doesn’t talk about at all that we’re going to see in the programme. So we need to remember that she is referring her readers of volume six to the programmes. And so that’s what we have done for you.

So I’m going to cover the lesson format. You just gave us the big picture of all of the Bible that they’re going to read in these ages at these form levels. But what do lessons actually look like? Well, Bible lessons are weekly four times a week.  She did not do Bible every day. They did two Old Testament and two New Testament lessons each week and they rotate. So we do four out of five days. Charlotte Mason’s students did six days of school and she did Bible on four days but we’ve cut that. And at this age, Bible lessons are 15 minutes long and that includes every part of the lesson that I’m about to share with you.

Also, Bible lessons we see on every timetable that we have, they are the first lesson of the day and that was very intentional on Charlotte Mason’s part. All other parts of the time table would move around. She did math at beginning, math at the end, whatever, but Bible was always first because she thought that that gave the children the idea that the Bible was their most important lesson of the day.

So moving now, so that kind of gives you the framework for the week, but each individual lesson, every lesson, a short passage is read – about 10 to maybe up to 20 verses, but that would be really long. Charlotte Mason in volume one tells us that the passage that we read should cover a whole episode if possible. I know just with my own children reading about Balaam that was a many, many days lesson because we could not get through the whole passage in a single time.

And so each lesson covering that short passage begins with asking the students to recall what the previous lesson was. This is very important. Charlotte Mason talks about it linking the chain to the previous knowledge. We’re pulling that back to our mind and then continuing on. So they really are getting this consecutive knowledge of whatever subject they’re doing at school. So that is the same in Bible.

And then the method really can vary a bit. There is not a system. You don’t have to check every little part off because the passage is going to somewhat dictate what we have to do with it, right?  So, Charlotte Mason actually in this part of volume six mentions beginning reading from the commentary where the passage is pictorially treated. If we take that as “always begin every lesson with the commentary”, we’re gonna go, why did she want us to do this? It seems counter to…he’s writing the commentaries that she used, which I’ll share more about in a minute, to the teacher of Sunday schools, right? And this is not even in complete sentences, but I think the key is in that where the passage is pictorially treated. So he is really good at, he’ll say, “close your eyes and picture this” and he’ll give a description of what the setting was or some cultural custom that we would be unfamiliar with. So we’re not reading the whole of the lesson in the commentary, but just those vivid descriptions of setting. And Charlotte Mason in Volume one affirms what I’m interpreting here. She says that occasionally it might be a good idea to read a portion of the lesson. So for some, we just want to have some kind of setup of a lesson to get our children in the framework. Sometimes that could be a map or a picture and it’s not even part of the commentary.

So then the teacher reads the Bible passage, always reading the Old Testament. Sometimes they could read the New Testament for themselves because they’re not skipping verses or whole sections that they might be. But she said it was very important, and this is a habit that we’re going to start with them in these years and they’re going to continue it for themselves for the rest of their education, is the reverent expressive reading of the text because we want to engage them. And so that’s why she would read part of the commentary and set the scene for them so that they’re already imagining what the passage is going to be talking about.

And then the students narrate. And this is the unique thing about Bible lessons. She said in language as close to the Bible text as possible. So we’re training them to deal with the Bible a little differently than their other books they’re going to be doing. Charlotte Mason says, and this is a note from the programmes, it’s on every programme, “in all cases, the Bible text must be read and narrated without interruptions”. So don’t add explanation, don’t do your little sidebars, mom and dad. Don’t ask them questions or anything like that. Don’t let their questions come between the reading and the narration. That has to happen together at this age.

And then at the wrap of the lesson, there’s going to be some discussion. And we want to give the children some new thought of God. So we want to do this…that’s the overall objective, and I’ll talk more about that in a minute. But we’re not preaching at them. We’re not trying to apply this lesson that is so clear in the text to a child who might really need to learn that lesson, right? We want to give them some new thought of God.  And those often come from the commentary. And I would say that is the strength he will often bring out. “This is the point to be born in mind” or “impress upon the children this”. And I have been shocked and sometimes I think, that’s dumb, you know? And then that is what gets my child’s attention. And they continually bring that up from there on out. So I think that he truly was gifted and Charlotte Mason did as well.

So the Bible itself should be applying the lesson, the moral lesson to our children, right? We’re not going to be doing that. And if they bring it up and want to discuss it, great. So some discussion at the end. And then in volume one, Charlotte Mason talks about maybe looking at a painter by some masterful artist who is going to give them a reverent idea or just a different picture of it. So that could happen occasionally.

So that’s kind of your pieces, you can see it follows a basic structure, but it’s not something rigid that every single one of those has to happen every time. You do not need a picture every single lesson or whatever.

So as far as our lesson objectives, this kind of goes for the whole subject as well as each lesson. But like I said, new thoughts of God, that is the idea that we want to convey to them. We also want them to gain familiarity with the Bible text and its language. And again, that’s why we require them to narrate in language as close to scripture as possible. We also want to interest our children in the geography, the history, and the customs of the Bible, because that really helps us get a good framework for understanding the context of it. And so this is just a slow, methodical 10 verses, you know, about at a time, a slow chewing on the passage. But again, just like you said, Nicole, it’s not here and there and slip shot and, you know, pick and choose. It is a consecutive, she called it the gradually unfolding picture of scripture, right? The whole narrative.

So as far as teacher prep, my advice to you is be ready for this lesson. First of the day, it’s usually easy to like, okay, it’ll get us off on a good footing. But I find it helpful to read the passage and the commentary ahead of time. And the commentary is for the teacher, but there are times we might read a portion of it to the kids. And so from there, I will know, hey, you know what would really get my child’s attention is to find a map of this. You know, we’re talking forces coming from this side of the valley and from this, they’re meeting and having a battle. Like, let’s get an actual map of what this area is. We’re somewhere on a journey. Let’s show how far it is from Canaan down to Egypt or something like that.

But I think most importantly, we need to be in tune with the divine teacher. And I may need to discuss what my kids have brought up instead of what I had planned for the day. And that often happens, you know, and because we are encouraging them to dig into the Bible and relate to it themselves. 

So just to wrap up my portion of this, I wanted to share the resources. So these commentaries are by John Paterson Smyth.  Charlotte Mason extols them extensively in I believe all of the volumes that she talks about Bible lessons, one, three and six. And it was from these commentaries that she chose which passages to assign. So when we have on our Bible rotation, the passages from the commentary and then we tell you what passage, or what books of the Bible are covered or chapters, it’s not the whole of those chapters. And it’s in the order that Paterson Smyth, which when you get to the Kings is very different than how we would read the book of the kings in First and Second Samuel. 

And so this was what was assigned on the program. And you would have to go through the commentary to figure out which passages you were to read. And that was with the omissions that would be made so that we are not dwelling on the things that they’re age appropriately not able to dwell on or cannot narrate, like genealogies. Yeah, just keep that in mind. So go by this. And so, you have to read this as a teacher ahead of time to know our Bible…well, I’ll talk about that in a minute. 

OK, this is something that Charlotte Mason talks about having that would be good for children to own individual books of the Bible bound. She talks about that in volume one. I find it really helpful for me to do my lessons using a scripture journal. So this is just the Gospel of Matthew. And I can mark in here. I can highlight. I can write my notes of what I want to bring out or like remember here’s the map…that is how I prep. I actually write it in here but we just are reading this and it’s nice to keep on my school cart just by itself. 

We do have or I have created some Bible picture portfolios that coordinate with Charlotte Mason’s Bible rotation for Forms 1 & 2 and do curate some pictures that go along with the stories that you’ll be reading in a term but you could also use a good, well, here’s a two set or a double set. The Bible in Art, here’s the New Testament and the Old Testament. These are by Richard Muhlberger, I believe. Yes, Richard Muhlberger. But there’s lots of other books like that. And so I will often pull a picture and I make a note of that. 

So here is our Bible rotation that we have on our website. You can access this for free and we’ll have a link in the show notes. And that just shows you how much was covered in the term, but again, that was assigned from the Paterson Smyth commentary. And then if you really want some help with your lessons, we have gone through and made Bible lesson breakdowns, which coordinate the passages from the Bible. We break them down. So here’s exactly which verses you’ll read each lesson. And we took those from the commentary and also linked to the chapter. So you can prepare that portion. 

And finally, we do, this was, think, our very first product.  Schedule cards. We have these for each form level and if you want to know how I know Bible is four times a week for 15 minutes. We have these scaled schedule cards. You just cut them apart and they have a timeline so you know, okay, I haven’t gone over my maximum amount of lesson time for this day and helps you build your own schedule.  I encourage people to if you have multiple children print those off in different colored paper for each form just to help you not lose your mind. 

Liz
Which we definitely need. 

Emily
Yeah, mom you’re gonna talk about some common questions people have. 

Liz
Yeah because I can hear them even, you know, through the cyberspace here, you know, and I definitely talk to hundreds of moms every year. So I know some of the common hiccups, trepidations, stumbling blocks that we encounter. And one of them, I think, always with Charlotte Mason, is adding to what she says or taking away from what she says to do. 

So I have found over 30 years of doing Charlotte Mason, she was pretty trustworthy. And after all her years of teaching, she knew what could be done in the lesson. But one of the common things I think probably the worst thing we do is just to come to this lesson unprepared. And it does not take very much time to read those 10 or so verses and the little short notes that are in the Paterson Smyth commentary. And it makes all the difference with the children. They know when you’re ready and when you’re not. 

And another thing I find is just leaving out that whole discussion that Emily is talking about. It is such a rich time with our children and, you know, to read and narrate is a three or four minute process. You have a good 10 or 12 minutes to have conversations that are going to go into their heart and mind for the rest of their life. So skipping that conversation…I think one of the main reasons people often feel they need to besides being unprepared is simply that “all my children are too young to have any theological questions”. Well, I find that the younger they are, the more theological their questions are. Anyway, I just would encourage you never to skip the discussion time at all. 

And another common problem I find is that many times a mom feels that, or even the dad, that the dad should do the Bible lesson, you know, for the school because in the family they generally do the Bible teaching or sometimes they’re even pastors. I think it’s wonderful for dads to teach the lesson, but they should kind of understand what her point for this lesson was. It may be very different from the way you normally would teach a Bible lesson with your children. 

And I think one of the biggest issues is reading too much, not following the guidelines of the passages she actually offers. So we ignore the things that she omits and we read way too much content to them. 

I don’t know. Can you think of anything else that is just a really common stumbling block here? 

Emily
One we brought up last week that I just want to reiterate here that these are Bible lessons for school and it is not replaced by devotional time.

Liz
It’s very different likely from what you do in your family. 

Emily
I think the other thing is, if you go to a church with expository preaching and you want to align, well, at home, we’re going to study this because we’re doing this in church and it falls outside of the scope that you laid out, Nicole, of what your children would be covering. I think you’re really messing with the whole picture. And we’ve talked about that in the past few episodes, too. And since that may be wonderful to do for your family reading, please go ahead and do that to prepare yourselves. 

Liz
Supplemental to school. 

Emily
Yes, I think we wouldn’t deviate from the lessons. 

Liz
Another thing that just occurred to me is that we have a tendency to say, you know, this commentary was written by someone of a faith persuasion that isn’t mine. And I just want to encourage you, you know, this is not to give all the commentary information that you would get as an adult. And that his purpose really was to help the teacher to bring some vital things out from the passage that’s under study. 

Emily
And that’s what you will see. It is very, he was an Anglican pastor, but Anglicans are known for the middle way. Like they are really kind of middle of the road. But he is not deviating into very doctrinal, denominational issues. It is the big teaching, the big idea of Matthew, the big idea of Luke. Well, he doesn’t do one on Luke, but Mark or whatever it is. And remember, you’re not reading it all to your children. So if there’s something in there you disagree with, great. Don’t talk about that. 

Liz
That’s why you read it ahead of time so you don’t get stuck. 

Emily
But his little descriptive passages in which he says “the point to bear in mind” or “bring this home to the children,” those are the parts to not miss.

Thank you for joining the conversation today. Next time, we are going to look at Bible lessons for forms three and four, which is grades seven through nine, as students go deeper into the Bible as they mature as persons. We have included links to all of the resources that we mentioned today, along with a podcast episode demonstrating the three of us doing a form one Bible lesson. And for the rest of the season we’re inviting you to read along with us. So that reading schedule I mentioned before is also in the show notes. We hope you do as we continue to spread the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method.

Why did Charlotte Mason think that the Bible was the most important subject in a child’s school lessons? What portions of the Bible are appropriate for children to read? And why should I include Bible as a lesson if our family already does regular Bible reading or devotions? In today’s podcast we are tackling these questions and more as we look at the Bible as a school subject in the Charlotte Mason curriculum.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Vol 6, Chapt 10 Reading List

Episode 17: Bible 2.0

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Liz
…Liz Cottrill…

Nicole
…and Nicole Williams. 

Emily
This season, we are exploring a Charlotte Mason curriculum and we invite you to read along with us from volume six of chapter 10. Check out the reading schedule in our show notes to follow along. Today we are beginning our series on Charlotte Mason Bible lessons. 

So Charlotte Mason categorized all knowledge that was due to a child in the Charlotte Mason curriculum in three areas. She called it knowledge of God, knowledge of man, and knowledge of the universe. And she opens up this section of chapter 10 by saying that it is knowledge of God that is “most important, indispensable, and most happy making”. She calls knowledge of God a “firstborn affinity”, recognizing that every person is born wanting to know God.  In fact, she says, “he is a child of God whose supreme desire and glory it is to know about and to know his almighty father”. So this knowledge, she believed, comes directly from the Bible, a literary form like we’ve been talking about. And it was actually from the Bible that Charlotte Mason derived her code of education, what gave her the foundational ideas of her philosophy. She found it in the Gospels summarized in: “let the little children come to me, offend not, despise not, and hinder not one of these little ones”. And she tells us that the most fatal way of despising the child is to overlook and make light of his natural relationship with Almighty God.

So as we’ve been talking about, education is the science of relations. It’s his duty to build relationships in as many directions, and all children have it in them and desire to know. And so that, since this is their primary desire to know God and to know about him, she wanted to give them the Bible.

She says that we should fill their imaginations with pictures, their minds nourished upon the words of the gradually unfolding story of the scriptures. And so she encouraged us to read full translations, not story Bibles, not retellings, because she thought that those talk down to children, that even six year olds were very capable of taking in ideas from the Bible itself. And I would have to agree with that after watching many students, not just my own children, come to their Bible lessons and just be fed.

She believed that Bible lessons were their chief lessons. And so they were the first lesson of the day. She thought that unconsciously or subconsciously taught them that they were the most important thing. It’s the only thing on the timetable that is consistent across the week, right? And so that they would look on them as their most important lessons. And the ultimate goal of Bible lessons is that students would know the Bible and having studied the word closely would know God and also how to seek him for the rest of their lives. Wonderful. 

Nicole
It’s so huge. 

Liz
Talk about a seed planted. 

Emily
So, Nicole, why don’t you tell us about the normal way in which we learn about the Bible, not in a Charlotte Mason curriculum.

Nicole
Well…

Liz
Here and there and anywhere, right?

Nicole
Here and there, family devotions, just little…little scraps kind of of it over time, maybe through our Sunday school lessons and things like that. 

Emily
And so against that, what is the whole scope of what my lessons look like for a Charlotte Mason? 

Nicole
Totally different. So this is really interesting, the way that Charlotte Mason very deliberately lays out this subject over the course of all of the years of their schooling. 

So in forms one and two, and that is six years, that’s grades one through six, they begin with the teacher reading to the student, the narrative portions of the Old Testament and the synoptic gospels in the New Testament. And these are the like, foundational. They’re just great foundational stories – creation, the patriarchs, the Exodus, the life of Christ. And that this is really meant to stir wonder in the child and kind of get these stories in them. And we’re going to go into more detail in each individual episode, but I just want to point out that the students would do this twice. They would read through these things two times, which really, when you think of the developmental level of your first grader compared to your sixth grader there’s so much wisdom in that. 

And then in forms three and four, which is your grade seventh, eighth and ninth, they’re really starting to have some independence here. And with that in mind, she wanted them to start reading for themselves. This was not a group activity anymore. They did use a resource, however, which we’ll talk about later that allowed them to read it with omissions because in form one and two, the mom would make admissions where it was necessary or the teacher who was teaching. But now those are made for them so they can just work and deal with the material directly. So at this time, they walk through the narrative chronologically again with the addition of the prophets. So they are adding to that. And then in the New Testament, they are reading Acts and John. 

But lest you think that they are going to leave out the synoptic gospels, this is where they start using a resource that is really special. They’re introduced to The Savior of the World. And The Savior of the World is poems that Charlotte Mason wrote, and it’s used in conjunction with a harmonized version of the gospels. And so they are slowing down, they are really dealing with each of those stories that they’ve learned for years, but now they’re really slowing down and dealing with them more deeply. 

And then in forms five and six, they again are reading these full books of scripture, going back through, but as well as the prophets they’re reading the wisdom literature, they’re reading the epistles… Here they’re reading, it’s more volume and more depth. Where maybe some of those omissions happened in the lower forms, there are reading more of that. And then at that point, they are completing the whole of the New Testament and everything but four books of the Old Testament. So they are really getting this broad scope over the course of their education. At this age, too, in forms five and six – and again, this is 10th, 11th, and 12th grade – they’re exploring more complex theology at this point, the poetic expression through The Savior of the World, they’re still reading that. They’ve got commentaries and spiritual biographies, all kinds of things. 

So I hope you can see that this is not a smattering of Bible or kind of an undirected list, but a very carefully considered journey through scripture through all these 12 years. She took really into consideration, Charlotte Mason did, the content that was appropriate for their age and the timing of that also. So yeah, 12 years and this slow and steady building. I think of it, I just had this mental picture as I was preparing this of these circles that kind of get bigger and longer and wider and that it just keeps growing on itself. 

Emily
So I just, every time I think about her Bible Rotation, I just think it’s so brilliant. And I’ve seen how it is so appropriate at each level. Like things I would think, they’re not ready for that, that they just take in hand. And my goodness, the theological ideas that my kids bring up when we do Bible lessons, it’s my favorite. But I’m also quite jealous that it was taking my whole adult life to arrive at some semblance, probably not even as thorough, through my own study, and they’re going to leave high school…

Liz
Yeah, and it is not a haphazard a little of this and a little of that. She has a trajectory that she’s on and they’re learning the main stories first and upon that foundation they base all the rest of it because it’s a huge book. You talk about living books. This is the quintessential living book, right? And, you know, it is actually the most widely read book in all of history and it still is, all over the world. And it’s also been so influential in especially the Western civilization, but increasingly throughout the world. Even if you don’t believe in God or believe that this is the book that tells about him, you have to admit that the laws that you believe in, the human rights, all kinds of cultural ideas, proceed from this particular living book. 

And I think that one of the things we have to understand is that this subject, it’s a school subject, okay? So this is independent from any other family participation with the Bible that you might have devotional or readings that your family does regularly. 

Emily
All good. 

Liz
All good. All essential. Keep on going. But the Bible lesson was a school subject. And so she is definitely making this a part of the curriculum. And it’s almost a curriculum in itself, as she says. And most of us, like Emily said, were much older to even begin to get a clue as to its inner workings. I think I was in college before I realized that Daniel knew who David and Joseph were. I had a lot of knowledge that was all scattered and mixed together, kind of like my public school education, actually. But the Bible speaks to every age. And by that, I mean every historic age. It has, for all time, spoken to men and individual ages from three-year-olds to 93-year-olds. You know? 

Emily

Yeah.

Nicole
Charlotte Mason said that religion has two aspects, the attitude of the will towards God, which confused me a minute. We’ll look at that. And the perception of God, which comes from a gradual, slow growing comprehension of the Divine dealing with men. 

So that first one, that the will’s attitude speaks to how the child sees themselves in relation to God. We’re thinking of reverence, obedience, humility. And these are all will-based. So that’s that first part. And then that second part is the perception of God that comes from primarily the stories and especially from the Old Testament. And Miss Mason, she really makes a bold claim with regard to this. She says the New Testament teaching not grounded in the Old often fails to produce a deep and personal thought of God.

Emily
I would so agree with that. I mean, I was much more familiar with the New Testament, but it seems like every Bible study I do is rooted in the Old Testament. And the more I am aware of the Old Testament, the more amazed I am at God’s patience and his long suffering and his faithfulness. 

Liz
It’s one story.

Nicole
Right. And that’s really what she’s saying is without the history, without the poetry, without the struggle, without the long view of God’s dealing with man, we miss that panoramic picture of God and how he works in the world and how he works with us. 

Emily
Yeah, that’s wonderful.

Thanks for joining the conversation today. Next time, we are going to begin to explore exactly how Bible lessons look in each set of forms, or as we would call them, grades or grade levels, in the Charlotte Mason Method. In the meantime, if you’d like to go deeper, we have previously recorded an episode on the Bible, and that is episode number 17. And you can find a link to that in the show notes, as well as our reading schedule. If you’d like to read along with us, we’ll have the page numbers that we’re going to be looking at very closely each episode we produce an episode this season. 

Thanks for reading along with us as we continue to spread the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method.

Are you lacking confidence in choosing your Charlotte Mason curriculum? In today’s podcast we are talking about what a Charlotte Mason curriculum isn’t by examining the principles Miss Mason gave us, so we can spread the feast of a living education with confidence.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Vol 6, Chapt 10 Reading List

Episodes on the curriculum:

• Episode 193: The Interdependence of a CM Curriculum
• Episode 266: The Utility of the Charlotte Mason Method
• Episode 280: The Simplicity of the Charlotte Mason Method

Episode 168: Habit Training

Episode 264: The Time-Table

ADE on YouTube

Emily
Welcome to A Delectable Education, the podcast that spreads the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. I’m Emily Kiser and I’m here with…

Liz
…Liz Cottrill…

Nicole
…and Nicole Williams. 

Emily
And all season, we are considering a Charlotte Mason curriculum. And we invite you to read along with us from chapter 10 of volume 6. You’ll find a link to the reading schedule in the show notes.

Last week we discussed the five principles that are the foundation, in Charlotte Mason’s own opinion, of a true Charlotte Mason curriculum. And from these, Charlotte Mason believed that there is an inherent principle, or “natural law”, she calls it, that should govern the choice of our students. So we must give them the knowledge that is due to them.

And that knowledge must be various because they are born persons with desires to know about all kinds of things and ideas, and education is really their building of relationships in as many directions as possible…and that each person is capable of getting this sort of knowledge especially when it is taken in in a literary form and learned through narration.

But Charlotte Mason had some further cautions for us about what a curriculum is not or should not be. And first, she says it is not utilitarian. 

Nicole
She really begins this section by turning many of our educational assumptions on their heads. So one of the things she points out here is that an education that’s built on preparing for exams leaves the child, she said, “less intelligent and less informed, except perhaps” – she gave a caveat – “in Latin and math.” So that’s what all of us came from, right? That was our education. And she’s saying that actually is a problem.  And it really flies in the face of our modern instinct to evaluate education based on test scores. But she really warned that that impoverished the children. So we can’t do that. 

But then, yes, she takes aim then at a deeply rooted idea of educating children for their future prospects, like their future job. And in particular, she talked about educating the boys to gentlemanly pursuits or towards the traits, one or the other. But you know, we do a very similar thing because in schools today, children are required in the ninth grade to choose what career they intend to go in so that their coursework can be aligned around that. And she just said, the education we offer is too utilitarian, like you said. 

So when we- 

Emily
Utilitarian meaning useful, right? 

Nicole
Right, right. So when we reduce a child’s education to what is useful, it doesn’t serve, like maybe it’s serving, we think it’s serving a practical end, but it’s not honoring the whole personhood of that child. 

Emily
I think about the end of volume six, it’s actually in the second book that has a whole, well, letter – I think it was originally published in the Times of London – about the scope of continuation schools. And she was advocating that we need to give these trades people something to think about. So that while they’re doing their factory job, so that they’re going to have a mental stimulation they can think about, oh, the novel that I was reading last night, or the new thing that I’m learning. 

Liz
Otherwise, what is the purpose of Latin or Shakespeare? We think, well, they’re never going to use that. That is a utilitarian way of thinking. 

Emily
Yeah. And I do really see this every single year with Charlotte Mason educators.  We may be convinced that children are born persons and we need to spread this wide feast, but I think at the root, and it’s probably because of our own education and just really our society at large, we still have so much fear that they’re going to actually be able to get into college. 

Nicole
Right. 

Emily
Because if they don’t get into college, they’re not going to get a good job. And so it really, really is so saturated into us, isn’t it? 

Nicole
It is. I was thinking the same thing. Fear. It’s fear. And it’s that we are looking at these young people and we are thinking, how are you going to support yourself? We’re not having faith that we got there, but we can give them something so much better than we had and they will get there too. 

Emily
Well, next Charlotte Mason said a curriculum is not or should not be selectively chosen.  And this also steps on a lot of our toes, think. She said that it doesn’t cater to utilitarian subjects, just as you were talking about, Nicole, so that they can get good jobs when they grow up, right? But it also doesn’t cater to our children’s likes and dislikes. These are the emails… 

Liz
Or our dislikes. Yes, yes. Or even their whims. You know, like they have an absolute interest in this.  Our natural desire is to want to feed that, especially home educators. 

Nicole
Right. 

Emily
We think this is one of the positives about this. But Charlotte Mason said, “spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programs and each small guest assimilates what he can. All sit down to the same feast and each one gets according to his needs and powers.” So our children, they don’t know what they’re going to love. 

I think about myself. You know, I went to a liberal arts college and had to take multiple classes I never would have signed up for otherwise and found some abiding interests to this day that I love. So we don’t, they don’t know what they want really, especially putting the reins in your six year old’s hands, who likes to study all about, I don’t even know what, you know, nothing that’s good for him, right? 

But also rooted in this is she admonished us that we don’t know what God is preparing them for, right? We can’t see into the future, how each person is going to find their use in the world, like she says. And so we are instead giving them this wide and broad feast that is not selected to each child. It’s the same feast for all the children as she said, right? And that is enabling them to build relationships in as many directions as physically and humanly possible for each of them, right? And then that also helps them expand their horizon and relate to others who don’t necessarily have the same ideas and interests and vision of life. Charlotte Mason says, “it is a wide programme founded on the educational rights of man. Wide, but we may not say it is impossible, nor may we pick and choose and educate him in this direction, but not in that. Our part, it seems to me, is to give a child a vital hold upon as many as possible of those wide relationships proper to him.” 

So a Charlotte Mason curriculum is going to be a vital cohesive whole, right? Every single practice or how to do each kind of lesson, every single lesson flows out of these fundamental principles that she has laid out for us. We can’t just choose isolated subject curriculum. How I’m using “curriculum” is how we normally think about it, but subject material, right? Like we can’t say, I’m going to do this for math and this for grammar and this…and if it’s not coming from a Charlotte Mason philosophy, the philosophy is an applied philosophy, the principles have to flow out into the practices. She says “there is no part of a child’s work at home or at school without an informing principle underlying it”. 

And so we have to realize that really every resource, every material out there already has some kind of educational philosophy. You can’t help having an educational philosophy. And we have already seen how deeply rooted the one we’ve been brought up in is, and still even affects us even after we’ve been convinced to go a different direction. Charlotte Mason’s curriculum programs are integrated in deep ways. I think we even do a disservice when we pick and choose from different Charlotte Mason “curriculum”. Right? Because each curriculum out there is a whole subject of study and it’s trying to accomplish these things that she laid out for us, right? Did you have something you wanted to add? 

Liz
Well, I’m just thinking about our online classes and co-ops that often clash too. 

Emily
I have known even, you know, different local schools…and students really pick up on it, especially if they’ve been educated in a Charlotte Mason way. They know that the curriculum itself is respecting them as persons. And when they are forced to do maybe a more textbook approach for some subjects, they feel it and can resent it, right? So just keep that in mind as you’re jumping around, even from year to year, you’re missing that whole feast, because it’s not just within a year of a child’s education that’s cohesive. It’s the whole scope of their 12 years or however many they’re being educated at our homes.

As Miss Kitching, who was Charlotte Mason’s, well, she was her right hand woman, actually. And then she became her successor for the Parents Union School. She wrote, “every book and every subject has a niche to fill. It cannot stand alone, nor can it be omitted from the program without weakening the whole organism.” She’s not even talking about omitting a whole subject like Swedish Drill, which I did for a year, guys. She’s talking about even every single book in the curriculum, that program that was sent out, was so vital to the work of the whole. 

So that is daunting. It seems like, OK, I don’t have as much leeway as I thought I had. I’m wondering also, I look at those curriculum programs and there’s like 20 some subjects on there. How in the world are we supposed to accomplish all of this?

Liz
This is why we call it a feast. And we’ve already warned you that we say the food terminology a lot because it’s a great analogy with Charlotte Mason. But you just think of a big banquet table that has all kinds of delicious things, and some things maybe don’t look so great, but then when you eat them, you’re like, I want some more of that. So the wide curriculum might be 20 or more subjects. And that does seem daunting to us because we can only wrap our mind around maybe three or four things at a time.

But it is all possible because it’s taken in in small doses. It’s because of the short hours that they have, limited time every morning. And there’s no homework afterwards. But she said that the short lessons and especially the use of narration multiply time, right? In fact, she says in one place, it quadruples the time the teacher has to cover a subject with a student or present it. And a lot of it is based on the fact that narration means the child is building the habit of attention. So full attention, no time to dawdle, no time to dilly-dally causes a lot more learning. They’re always listening to the reading or reading with the expectation that at the end of the reading, they must narrate or tell back what they understand. 

And we accomplish this with a time-table, right? Because there’s no way to get through 10 or 12 subjects in two and a half or three hours every day without having a guide. I think of it as the curbs on the road or the traffic signs that help keep pointing you in the right direction. This is where you turn. I actually just said to a mom yesterday, the time-table is kind of like our GPS for school.

Emily
Yeah, it is for sure. And Charlotte Mason said in her first volume, when she’s literally talking about the habit of attention, that the time-table is the very first principle of education upon which a well-ordered school room is built. And so, like we mentioned, the principles that Charlotte Mason talks about are not confined to her short synopsis. There are principles throughout her volumes. 

Another teacher, actually, Charlotte Mason wrote a paper called “Education Theory” and that was the first part and then Miss Drury wrote “Practice” and in that paper she said “a time-table punctually adhered to is one secret of the carrying out of the program in its great variety, partly explains its efficacy.” She’s talking about the variety of the time-table. Not only is it keeping us to those short lessons “Yep. Oh Bible’s done. We move on to the next thing in it.” You do feel like that all day long but that is giving the child’s brain a break, right? To attend to something that is like a listening lesson is a different kind of mental faculty or mental process than to attend to their math lesson. And so just by switching frequently to various subjects, various mental skills, it gives their brain breaks and it doesn’t over fatigue them. And that enables them to, for two and a half to four hours, depending on their age, really focus on the thing, the lesson at hand.

Liz
And no one, not even an adult can focus for even as long as 30 minutes straight. So this is just being respectful of a child’s young mind. Attention is developed over time. They don’t have long attention, but we can make powerful use of the short amount that they do have if it is full of really good things. And basically, she said, every lesson with a living book must be narrated and a lesson without a narration is wasted. So they have that expectation and that helps them pay attention and then the narration helps them absorb what they’ve just taken in. 

Emily
So when we’re talking about short lessons, some of them are as short as about 10 minutes and some of them are as long as 40 in the highest forms. So that’s still a shorter lesson than any of our high school classes, right? And those 40 minute lessons for high schoolers, they still have some short lessons in between there to help vary their time. So when we think about what a Charl Mason curriculum is not, it’s not going to be sitting at your math lesson until it gets done, regardless of what the time-table says. 

Liz
We’re moving with the clock and the clock marches on whether we like it or not. 

Emily
And it’s going to have various, every day is going look different.  It’s going to have these short lessons and we’re going to require narration, not fill in the blank worksheets, right? So those are some markers to look at.

Emily
Thanks for joining the conversation today. If you’d like to go deeper on any of the topics that we touched on today, we have some episodes that you might like. Numbers 193, 266, and 280 talk about the cohesiveness of a Charlotte Mason curriculum. We have an episode on habit training, episode number 168, and specifically on the time-table, if you’re wanting to develop the habit of attention. The time-table episode is 264.

And next week, we are going to begin our series on Charlotte Mason Bible lessons as we continue to spread the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method.

Have you ever wondered what makes a curriculum Charlotte Mason or not? Charlotte Mason herself gave us principles based on her idea that children are born persons. This season of the podcast, we are going to be working our way through chapter 10 of volume six and answering that question: What is a Charlotte Mason curriculum? Join us in this episode as we start to answer that question by exploring points 11-15 of her educational principles.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Vol 6, Chapt 10 Reading List

ADE’s Short Synopsis Episodes

Episode 204: Short Synopsis Points 9-12

Episode 206: Short Synopsis Points 13-15

Episode 5: The Science of Relations

Episode 8: Narration

ADE on YouTube

Emily

This season we are reading through chapter 10 of volume six and we invite you to read along with us. You can find a link in the show notes to the reading schedule that we have created to go along with this entire season.

We’re talking all season long about a Charlotte Mason curriculum. And today we’re going to look at really, what is a curriculum? Should we define that before we get going? What is a curriculum, mom?

Liz

It’s just the subjects that are contained in a program of study. 

Emily

Yeah, a lot of people think about the curriculum as the specific resources or books or materials that we use, and those go into the curriculum. But basically, the curriculum is that big structure of what subjects we’re going to be studying, right? 

So today we’re starting out right where Charlotte Mason did.  And that is the principles that make her method unique and effective. 

So volume six is her final volume. She actually wrote this in completion before she died, but it wasn’t published until after her death. So she had finished writing it. And the first – it’s made of two books – and the very first book walks through what we colloquially call her 20 Principles, but what she referred to as her Short Synopsis. This was the first new volume that she wrote in 17 years. As far as her homeschooling, her home education series, where her educational philosophy goes, she wrote other books during that time, but this is the last and it had been quite a while. So this is maybe the end of her life looking back at how her method had been implemented, particularly in England and in English speaking homes around the world throughout the empire.

So Charlotte Mason wanted to include the application of her method since it had been so long, because between writing her fifth volume and the sixth, there was what she called the Liberal Education for All movement. And that was putting her method into the state-run elementary schools, mostly in the North of England. And so she had a lot more, we would say, data about how her method worked for children of a diverse social cultural background.

So as I said, volume six is comprised of two books and the first is going to go point by point through her short synopsis. Some people refer to it as the 20 principles. There are 20 points and they’re all interrelated. These are not the only principles Charlotte Mason talks about though, just to clear that up. We are going to be discussing chapter 10 all season long. And so in that chapter, she lists five principles, principles 11 through 15, at the heading. And so that’s what we’re going to discuss today. We do have episodes on all of the points of her synopsis if you’d like to dig more deeply into the others. 

But let’s start out today as we look at what makes the Charlotte Mason curriculum. I think it’s important to note that volume six is a summary of her philosophy and practice. And so our conversation this season will be guided by chapter 10.  But we’re going to be referring to other volumes and other resources that Charlotte Mason and her fellow teachers and educators wrote and things that she describes in her other volumes of the Home Education Series because we get in very condensed nuggets in half of this book, right? It’s not even the whole book. It’s very condensed things that she talks about at much greater length in other places.

Nicole

I often share the idea that she was at 47 pages of Nature Study in Home Education, the first volume, and like two pages in volume six. So it is assuming that you have a little bit of background knowledge. 

Emily

Yes, and she did not consider it a standalone volume, but just wanted to frame her philosophy in the context of the synopsis and also to bring forward that experience that she and other teachers had had as it went out into a broader audience than originally were practicing her method. 

Okay, so I just want to note that in the other volumes of Home Education and especially in this chapter and the rest of the book, she specifically refers people, if you want to see how this looks, to go look at the programmes of the Parents Union School. 

So when we say programmes, that’s what we’re meaning. We do have, I think is it 39 consecutive programmes plus some other outliers there that we have studied ourselves as we’ve learned how to implement this method. We’ll be bringing all of that knowledge forward for you all since those are not being sent to you term by term like they were for teachers in the PUS. Okay, so just keep that in mind that her comments in this section give you a big picture of what her curriculum, what her method, does, but it is not comprehensive. It is not the one stop shop that probably all of us wish it were. 

Liz

Yeah, if only.

Emily

It would be a lot easier to figure this out. Well, let’s go through each of these points briefly. And I’m just going to summarize what the crux of them are. And maybe you guys can help flesh out a little bit for our non Victorian ears. You know, what do these mean? What is she talking about? 

So point number 11, this is the first principle undergirding a Charlotte Mason curriculum and she says that a curriculum should be “a full and generous curriculum, taking care only that all knowledge offered to him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas.” So why do you guys think that is important or you know help explain a little bit more about what that means to us today? 

Nicole

Well she said in volume three that it’s not lawful that we pick and choose subjects. So this is a very serious thing, but she also points out, just like these words, as many as possible of the interests proper to him. So this was broad, not because we’re just trying to see what sticks, but because she felt like this was very important that they have all of these subjects that were proper for them. And then she points out, and this is in that same quote in volume three, that “we’re providing what will become the great field before him, which in all his life he will not be able to explore.” So we are just starting this child on a life, like just setting before them all these interests that might take hold and maybe not, but a lot of things…this is growing a person, you know, not just…

Emily

And it really is because we view him as a person that we see that he demands all of knowledge in all of these different directions, right? Mom, what do you think she means by vital knowledge? Or can you help explain that a little more? 

Liz

I think vital means alive. You know, we don’t want just a lot of dead facts that lead nowhere. We want things that actually trigger their thinking and inspire their imagination and cause them to ask questions about what’s next and what does that mean and that sort of thing. Don’t you think? 

Emily

Yeah, yeah, exactly. We often quote or misquote or sum up her thing that the dried bones of fact must be clothed or enfleshed with living ideas.  And that is such a core tenant of her philosophy. Facts alone are not enough to inspire our imagination. 

Liz

Because the mind lives on ideas, not information. 

Emily

Yes, that’s how it grows. The idea has to take root. 

Nicole

Right. She even says it requires nourishment to function. And these ideas are the nourishment, the same way the food is the nourishment for our bodies to run and play and do all the things. 

Emily

So you will hear us use lots of food analogies. 

Liz

They work real well. 

Emily

Okay, so moving on to principle or point number 12. She says “education is the science of relations.” That phrase will come up a lot, but it’s simply that a child has natural relationships with all kinds of ideas and things. 

Nicole

And very specifically, like you said, a child has those relationships.  This is really where the work of their education comes in because these ideas are coming in but then they have to grapple with them. They have to work with them and then they become a part of them and what that looks like in one child isn’t the same as what it would look like in another child.

Emily

It is his duty. So when she says education is the science of relations, the science of relations is the act or art of building those relationships, right? And that alone is what education is in Charlotte Mason’s mind. 

Nicole

Absolutely. 

Liz

It’s between the child and what he’s learning. It isn’t between you and the child. 

Emily

Right, right. And it’s not as is maybe commonly interpreted that all knowledge is in some way connected, but it’s all connected inside of him because he is making those relationships. And just the way that you’re talking to someone and they say, “that reminds me of…” it’s because they’ve taken in and have already built a relationship with another idea that then they see another thing. It can be completely unrelated in your mind, but this happens with my kids all the time. They’re like, “it’s just like ____”, and I’m like, “how…?” And they’re making that and building that relationship.

Okay. So point number 13, she says a curriculum must do three things. The first is it must give the student much knowledge. Second, it should give the student various knowledge. And third, it should give the student knowledge in literary form.

So again, this kind of goes back to 11 like the feast must be broad, right? But it’s not just the volume of ideas that we give them, right? We need to give them ideas in all different directions, all different subjects, right?

Nicole

Miss Wicks had a comment. She said “when we remember that knowledge is truth, we know at once that no part of truth can be omitted without wrecking the whole.” And I think this is something that we’ve got to keep in mind with the whole “much knowledge” thing because…and maybe I always get those two – much and various – they seem to overlap, but there is some uniqueness to the two. 

Emily

Much is like quantity.

Nicole

Yeah. 

Emily

And various is the kind. 

Nicole

Right. So, you know, we’re going to have science, but we’re going to have multiple kinds of science threads in there. So I think that kind of helps me to understand that a little bit. But if we pick and choose here and there, we don’t get that interconnection. The child doesn’t get the interconnection of the science to relations without this.

Emily

And what about knowledge and literary form? Why did she say that was essential for a curriculum? And what does she mean? What is literary form? 

Liz

Words. And she specifically meant in a narrative style of writing, not just independent little sentences put on a page. But we are word people. We were made to respond to words. And she believed that knowledge was taken in most normally and readily through the literary format.

Emily

Mmhm.  And often when she uses the word literary, she’s also talking about the caliber of writing. Like you said, mom, it’s not just words strung together, but they are so fitly spoken. She talks about poetry in that way. But even she talks about the French science writer Jean-Henri Fabre, who was writing about science in a way that was very poetic. And she was lamenting the fact that we didn’t have that in our English language. 

Nicole

She even goes so far to say that our minds just reject anything that’s not put in that form. And we know it’s true. We’ve all read things that are just dry and we get done and we’re like, wait, I missed it. I was thinking about something else, but something that’s literary captures us. 

Emily

Yes. And I do think there’s an exception to that. And I think moms might be hearing you say that and go, “but my kid loves to pour over those like factoid and blurby books.”  I would argue that they’ve already built a relationship with the thing, right? They’re just adding to their store of knowledge on that topic and they have gotten some idea in some way that is more fit. 

Liz

They’re collecting at that point. It’s not what’s inspiring. 

Emily

Yes. It didn’t initiate the relationship. It’s just adding to it. 

Well, point number 14 is something that we’re going to talk about a lot this year and that is narration.  It is the primary means by which children take in the knowledge. So instead of just having these, you know, we’re presenting this wide feast, it goes in one ear and comes out the other…to stop that from happening, the child needs to take it in and digest it. And so narration is like mental digestion for these ideas, right? 

Liz

Yes. And she said that knowledge that wasn’t reproduced in some way was a waste. And it’s to me kind of like, pouring water into a cup that has a hole in the bottom. It’s just going to be lost. 

So narration literally means to tell. And so the children take in some of the literary knowledge that they have in their book and they tell back what they understand or what they can explain from what they’ve just received. It’s usually oral. Sometimes it’s written too as they get older, especially.  And they do this after one reading. So we don’t go over and over the same material. They hear it once, and that guarantees their attention to the material. 

Emily

Yes, and in fact, that is her point number 15, which is the end of these five principles that she reiterates for us to consider as we think about a curriculum. And she says, “only allow a single reading.” And there should be no teacher questioning or drilling or summarizing for the student, right? So they hear the reading as you’re saying once and then they’re asked to narrate. Now, as they get older and more adept at that, there is some time that can lapse in between, but this is the primary at the beginning of their education. 

Nicole

Right. There’s a couple of things with the single reading that are really important. First of all, if they know that they will have to reread it, or that they can reread it, one or the other, they’re either being forced to by studying or they can just go back, they won’t pay attention that first time. And that is prime. This is work. 

In fact, I have this quote here, Ms. Farrell says, “think of the time you saved.” But Charlotte Mason then goes back and says, yes, but that’s actually not the primary value with this. She specifies “for that child he makes use of the authority which is in him to attend that way in its highest function as a self-commanding, self-compelling power.” She says “to make yourself attend, to make yourself know this is indeed to become a king.” So this is like a power but it takes work. It does. And if any of us try it we know it’s hard it’s hard to do so but this is really the crux of them being able to remember. 

Emily

And all of this should sound very different than traditional methods of education, right? Allowing our child to narrate not what we think is important, but what the textbook curriculum company says is important, but what they have taken in. So it’s giving us a glimpse into the relations that they’re building, but it’s also, science has proven their studies on this, that that’s how we transfer things to long-term memory. But Charlotte Mason said that the only way we can encourage that to happen is if they know and they absolutely attend. Because if they’re just, you know, la-di-da, gazing out the window, totally distracted, they’re not going to be able to do it. And they should feel that lack, right? 

Nicole

Right.

Liz

Right, so as you were saying about the textbook, they decide ahead of time what the child needs to get out of the chapter. And we have those little comprehension questions. And it’s also not what you as the parent thinks the child should be getting. Narration literally tells you what they did get out of the reading. 

Emily

Yeah. So after she lists these five points, and if you’re reading along you can see how she does this, she actually has a summary of this section of the synopsis in there. It’s not a separate point to it. But she just needed to impress upon her audience then, and we need to know today, that all children have it in them to learn. And she says she believes and she demands us to believe that they have greater potential than we realize. Every single student. It’s not due to their heredity or their circumstances in which they were brought up. Not just clever children can learn in this way or be educated. And it’s not just for children of educated classes. I think that is what I love about this volume when she opens it in the preface, which we don’t have on your reading schedule. But she talks about the soul of the mining children being awakened to knowledge and it’s beautiful. 

Liz

Yeah. 

Nicole

Also in a separate Parents Review article, she makes the comment, “thought breeds thought, and that the children familiar with the great thoughts, which is what we’re providing them through this kind of education, take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body to growing.” And she goes on to say that “we must bear in mind that growth, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the soul end of education.” So all of this work that they’re doing, again, this is for the person that is being grown, not just that child check education is done. This is for growing a person.

Emily

Do you have any thoughts, Liz? 

Liz

Yeah, I mean, it’s just what you’re saying is making me think that we’re giving them the fuel that is going to keep them burning to know more. 

Emily

For their whole life. 

Liz

For their whole life. So it’s not about what they got out of this specific lesson today. This is a seed that is being planted that will sprout at some point in the future.

Emily

And we never know when those are. We may think that they were seeds that fell on the stony path, right? And only to come find out that they somehow have germinated and become a flourishing plant in their life. 

So I hope you can see that this curriculum, these foundational principles of a curriculum that makes a Charlotte Mason curriculum was absolutely revolutionary in her day. She saw herself as creating something new, or she got ideas from various places, but how it was all synthesized and put together in her method was revolutionary. And her proof of that is in these hundreds of children that previously were thought to be uneducatable, right? But they proved them wrong. They’re taking in Plutarch and Shakespeare, and their teachers are going, “what in the world? How is this even possible?” 

And I think it’s just as transformative today. We have heard from mothers over the last 10 to 15 years who have children with extreme special needs who show up, you know, and when we are feeding them and allowing them to build relationships in all directions, they just astound us.

So just in conclusion today, as we wrap up this episode, though Miss Mason developed her curriculum and method of education 150 years ago in a different context and really a different world than we find ourselves in, we and thousands of other educators believe her philosophy to be as relevant today and universal because it is based on what is true about all persons.

Thanks for joining us for our conversation today. We will be continuing this conversation about what makes a Charlotte Mason curriculum next week, looking especially at what it is not as we continue to spread the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. If you’d like to learn more, we have episodes that go deeper into Charlotte Mason’s synopsis, as I mentioned at the beginning.

Those are episodes 204 and 206 covering this section, but again, we have them for all of the synopsis. We also have episode number eight on narration and episode number five on the science of relations, if you’d like to dig a little deeper into those topics before joining us for our conversation next time.

We’re back for season 11 of the podcast! Listen to hear about everything that is new at A Delectable Education along with a unique opportunity to read Charlotte Mason along with us.

Listen Now:

Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)

ADE Vol 6, Chapt 10 Reading List

ADE on YouTube!

Teacher Helps

Teacher Training Videos

• High School Algebra demonstration lesson
• Form 1-2 Bible demonstration lesson
• A Method for the Madness: Organizing Home and School workshop
• Imagination, The Missing Ingredient workshop
• Conducting a Special Study workshop
• A Point or Two of Correction and Critique: Assessing Your Students’ Compositions workshop
• The Habit of Remembering workshop
• School Planning, One Bite at a Time workshop

ADE’s Patreon Community

ADE at HOME {Virtual} Conference (First weekend in February, access for 3 months following)

Theo of Golden, Allen Levi

Every Moment Holy, Vol. 3, Douglas Kaine McKelvey

Emily
Today, after 10 years of podcasting, we’re going back to the basics and covering a Charlotte Mason curriculum. We will be following Charlotte Mason’s words and writings in Chapter 10 of Volume 6. Chapter 10 is called The Curriculum. So we have created a reading schedule that you can study along with us. So you’ll see the dates and the topic and the page numbers. And it’s usually very few pages per week. 

So along with that, as I just said, each week, we are going back to a weekly podcast release schedule, which is a lot of work for us. But we’re getting excited about all of the things that we’re going to cover this week. We will also be doing our best to keep each episode short and to the point, very succinct.

So each subject or part of the curriculum is going to be a series of episodes. And we also have a new format. For the first time ever, you can watch us as we record these episodes. And you can watch along at A Delectable Education on YouTube. So we have a lot of new things out this summer. Nicole, would you share with us some of those?

Nicole
Well, I know how much everybody loves Jono’s scansion exercises and he has a second one coming out. So that is really big. And then Melissa Peterman is going to have year three of Swedish drill and also a new resource that is for scouting that is the tassels that the students in Charlotte Mason School would have used. And it gives us just a lot of really good direction and is updated for modern students. And gives some good direction for our scouting. We, Emily, mostly, has done forecasting for The Citizen Reader, Ourselves Book One, English Literature for Boys and Girls, and Age of Fable, which is gonna be really helpful to people. And she’s written map questions for the US, which I think are… 

Emily
So those are for the 10-minute map exercises that people email me on the regular: “What do we do for the year?” 

Nicole
We also have some new teacher training videos that I think are going to be really helpful for you. Two of them are demo lessons. There is a high school algebra demo lesson, which is excellent. I strongly encourage you to watch that. Even though it’s done with a class, but even if you’re doing it with your family, it’s super good. And then there is, Emily did a combined form one and two Bible lessons. So that’s really helpful. There’s also several workshops. We have Emily’s “A Method for the Madness: Organizing Home and School”. Nobody needs that. Yeah, we’re all together. Liz’s “Imagination, The Missing Ingredient”. So good. I have one called “Conducting a Special Study”. And then we have one by Morgan Connor, “School Planning, One Bite at a Time”. And I know this is coming out right when you’re probably like trying to get that together. That is super excellent.

“The Habit of Remembering” by Jessica Becker. Again, Jono has “A Point or Two of Correction and Critique: Assessing Your Students’ Compositions”, which I think will be just very helpful to people. Check all those out. 

Emily
Liz, do you want to tell us about the upcoming conference? 

Liz
Just looking ahead and it’s really just around the corner. Our sixth annual ADE at Home conference begins February 6th and runs all the content for you through May for your convenience so you can listen to any or all of it whenever you like. And our theme this year is going to be “Generous Hearts, Minds, and Souls”. So early registration begins November 28th and runs through January 15th. I’d also like to announce that at the book club, we will again have, I mean, at the conference, we will again have our book club. And I’m going to announce the selection for this year, not an ancient classic, but a relatively brand new book that is a treasure that we have discovered and love so thoroughly and just want everyone to join in with us. We will be reading Theo of Golden by Alan Levi. So get a copy and start reading so that you can join us then to discuss it and.

It’s always a really grand, enjoyable occasion. 

Emily
Yes, I love that part of the conference so much. Super good book. And we’re all looking forward to rereading it very much. 

Nicole
I’m trying to hold myself back until it’s a little closer to time.

If you are a Patreon member, or if you’re not and you want to know what we’ve got going on over there, we submit each one of us something every week, well, we take turns, one new thing a week for the most part. There are coupons, discounts, like early coupons for the conference. Liz writes articles that are just very encouraging, sharing book lists. You have a lot of strategy tips for both the home and the school room, how to get organized. I share a lot of nature study stuff over there. There is so much over there. You know, Patreon was…the idea behind it is it’s a way for you to support a podcast that is free. You know, we’re just giving you our content. But if you want to try to support us and encourage us in some way to sign up for that. But we really try to give back as much as we can. And it has just turned into a very robust community over there. So I would really encourage you to check it out. 

Emily
And all of those teacher helps that you just mentioned, Nicole, that we, the three of us create, we release those on Patreon before they’re released to the general public. And we so appreciate our Patreon supporters feedback on those. They’re kind of like our beta testers. And we just really love them and appreciate them very much. 

Emily
Thanks for joining us today. Next time, we will be diving right into Volume 6, chapter 10, and discussing the foundational principles that make a curriculum Charlotte Mason. 

So I want to conclude this very first episode of Season 11 by reading a prayer from Every Moment Holy, Volume 3. This is a liturgy before teaching. So feel free to listen to this again before your first day of school if you haven’t had it already.

God who in wisdom laid the world’s foundation, remind me it is no trivial task to teach, to inspect and wonder, to discipline and discern, to see the world through the eyes of those still fresh in learning it, to show them nature as you made it, and invite them to know it more fully.

Teaching often seems summed up in mere grades and emails and papers and raised hands and disruptions, but really it is a feast, a community, a gift, a discovery of the world and its inherent value.

We see in teaching a divine act that forms and shapes, it weaves in all of history and matter and truth and goodness and offers it to students in a way which may guide their thoughts and their decisions and may change them for good. Amen.