The Charlotte Mason Method Increases The Effectiveness Of A Home
School Reading Program
When it comes to home schooling, parents need all of the
resources they can muster. Designing curricula, scheduling field
trips, and tailoring lesson plans to children in different grade
levels can be challenging. Using children's literature to enrich
the curriculum you teach in the home learning environment can be
rewarding to both you and your children.
Charlotte Mason, a British educator whose life spanned the last
quarter of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the
twentieth century, fervently advocated the use of literature in
children's education. Often referred to as the founder of home
schooling, Mason pioneered a liberal arts approach to children's
education. In contrast to the rigid memorization required of
students during her time, Mason's educational theories embraced
the concept of instilling a love of learning in children and
exposing them to a wide variety of subjects.
Today, many parents use the Charlotte Mason method as a home
school resource. Several of Mason's key concepts relate to
reading in the home learning environment. The first is the
avoidance of what she termed "twaddle," or books that today
could be called "junk food for the mind." You're probably
familiar with the type, such as chapter books based on TV shows
that use overly simplistic sentences and rely on illustrations,
rather than words, to engage a child. Instead, the Mason method
opts for children's literature that is well written and
captivates the child's imagination with words.
Another of Mason's key concepts that relates to reading is that
of "whole books." She advocated that a child read a book in its
entirety, rather than simply reading book excerpts. Any parent
of a child educated in the public school system knows that
language arts textbooks are typically anthologies of book
excerpts. Mason felt that a work should be read as it was
written, as opposed to reading only a portion of the complete
book.
Narration is a third concept advocated by Mason. In contrast to
rote memorization and recitation, or testing that focuses on
what a child doesn't know, Mason felt that children should have
the opportunity to explain what they do know. After reading a
book, for example, a child could talk about what he or she
learned, could write about the book in a journal, or could paint
or sculpt a depiction of what he or she learned.
Charlotte Mason's teaching methods are easy and inexpensive to
integrate into home education. Developing an effective avoiding
"twaddle," by reading the whole book, and by incorporating
narration as a measure of comprehension - is an integral
component to the Mason method. Utilizing children's book reviews
will help in this effort, as will broadening the reading
experience by incorporating related individual and family
activities.