How to Begin a Charlotte Mason Education

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Have you noticed lately how many superheroes seem to be around, ready to swoop in to save the world?

If Captain America isn’t right for the job, then Spiderman or Superman might fit the bill.

We homeschool parents might sometimes wonder if a caped crusader is available to help us manage our schooling and raise our kids. If this thought has occurred to you, then Charlotte Mason is a person you may want to meet.

Charlotte Mason was a British educator who had a gift for seeing through to the real goals of education, and showing others how to truly accomplish those goals. Charlotte revolutionized education in the late 19th century as she advocated giving children living ideas, utilizing a mentoring approach, and treating each child as an individual.

Among Charlotte’s most important ideas were the ideals and methods she shared with parents for training children and helping children grow into wonderful human beings. Charlotte understood children very well, and she understood how to “bring them up” well. She firmly believed that parents are in every way equipped to be their child’s best guides and teachers, and her books and writings are filled with practical advice on doing just that. It is for this reason that her ideas and ideals so strongly resonate with parents, especially homeschoolers. It is also why, if Charlotte Mason were a superhero, she’d be the person to get to swoop down into crowded workshops at the latest homeschool conference!

Charlotte wrote extensively, which gives us even today a wealth of her wisdom and experience to enjoy, and doesn’t require her to show up in tights or a cape. But it does take some time to get to know this new superhero of yours, and fully absorb all of Charlotte’s ideals and methods. You’ll find this journey pays off for your family life, and is well worth the time it takes to complete. However, getting started with some of Charlotte’s ideas is fairly easy. The way to begin is to start with some basics, and then add more of her recommended methods as you master the primary elements of Charlotte’s “way” with children.

To begin, let’s take a look at how to embrace the essentials of “Charlotte’s Way”: incorporate living books, begin a narration habit at home, and study nature.

 

Build Around “Living Books”

Living books was a phrase Charlotte coined to describe books worthy of a child’s time, books that develop their mind and speak to their heart. Living books make an impact on the reader, appeal to all ages, make the reader think, and have a plot that is memorable. They invite imagination and hold truth within their pages. Living books include classic themes of love, hope, sacrifice, or justice that appeal to all people, and give children ideals to strive for.

Charlotte despised empty books she called “twaddle,” that were ordinary or shallow. No, books must be full of depth and richness, because it is in reading them that a child acquires new ideas for themselves.

Inside living books a child may sail away into history, and make the experiences they have inside the pages entirely their own. In this way, Charlotte said, a child could linger long in history, begin to be at home in the ways of that period of time, and think the thoughts of people of that place. These become a “double-life” for the child, full of wonderful experiences that could be revisited again and again, and character “acquaintances” that would inspire them to reach for greater things.

To begin in Charlotte’s way, give your children living books to read on their own. Most books should be comfortably within their reading level, allowing for an occasional challenge. Most parents try to stick with a certain time period, so that children can fully immerse themselves in a place and time in history. Assemble a list of books that cover Colonial America or the Revolutionary War, for instance, or allow your kids to journey to ancient Egypt or westward with Lewis and Clark and the mountain men. You can find good books by checking out Newbery award winners, and book lists in homeschool catalogs, but the best way to know a book is “living” is to preview it yourself.

As your family begins reading, you’ll want to incorporate another Charlotte Mason essential skill,one that walks “hand in hand” beside the practice of reading living books — the habit of narration.

Develop the Habit of Narration

For Charlotte, there was an exquisite simplicity in using narration as an essential of teaching: it wasn’t complicated, it required no helps whatsoever, and children were naturally gifted at it! For narration, is quite simply, telling back. What parent hasn’t had a little hand pulling on theirs, insistently saying, “Guess what happened?” followed by a vivid account of a frog in the pocket or a tumble from a tree? Children are naturals at telling back in their own words anything they’ve absorbed or experienced, and Charlotte took advantage of this by incorporating the strengths of

narration into her teaching.

So, narration is actually very easy. Parents are already used to asking children questions that invite the child’s story — questions like, “What did you and Grandpa do together?” To develop the habit of narration, a parent simply extends that to have a child tell back something they have read about or heard in their lessons. Parents should have ready questions such as, “Tell me the story again, this time in your own words,” or “Describe George Washington for me.” Narration begins with leading questions like these, and is followed by active listening to your student “telling back.” It is important to show that you are listening, and interested, or the student will not be motivated to do his best in the narration, much as any storyteller will cut short his tale when an audience is not engaged.

Listed here are some sample leading questions. Each can be modified for a younger or older student as needed.

  • What did your character do in this chapter?
  • Tell me what happened in order.
  • Tell me everything you remember about [an event].
  • Describe how [a place] looks and smells.
  • Why do you think [a character] did that?
  • How is this story like [another familiar one]?
  • Do you think [the character] did what was right?
  • Do you agree with [a concept or idea in the reading]?

If a student seems “stuck,” or has a hard time adding detail, prompts can help elicit more from a student. The younger the student, the more prompts may be helpful. For older students, prompts can encourage the addition of fine detail, character study, personal opinion, or give them time to evaluate plot or meaning.

Prompts are simply leading questions that might incorporate some detail from the story to help remind the student of thoughts they haven’t shared. Some children take to narration of lessons as easily as they narrate about their own lives, while for others, it is a skill to be learned. Prompting will help ease your student into natural use of narration. However, at times a narration is weak because there is a concept the student did not understand, or unfamiliar vocabulary they’ve encountered. Use this as an opportunity to probe with questions to figure out where the problem lies. At times, you’ll need to help the student understand the concept or vocabulary, then go back and read part or all of the passage, so that they can successfully narrate for you.

Next Steps in Narration

When students are young, narration should be pretty much oral narration, though art could be considered a written way to have students “tell back” what they’ve absorbed. Charlotte advocated transitioning to written narration about the time students reach full competence with reading. For most children, this happens somewhere around 4th or 5th grade. Written narration should simply be considered writing what was formerly spoken, and leading questions can become the topic of paragraphs or short essays.

Another very successful way of transitioning and enjoying narration long-term is through notebooking. In Charlotte’s day, notebooking primarily meant “directed drawing” into a blank notebook because of the time in which she lived. Charlotte might suggest, perhaps, to students that they draw a savannah with examples of key plants, and list or draw the animals they would expect to find there. Today, notebooking can open a world of imagination if the notebooking is as rich as the study itself. Of course, the author must warn you that many notebooking sheets offered today are the equivalent of “twaddle,” offering students busy work and coloring pages, rather than getting the student to show what they’ve learned, or interact with information that allows them to use what they’ve learned. Don’t just accept notebooking pages that call themselves “Charlotte Mason,” but take the time to see that they are offering a rich educational experience.

Indulge in Nature Study

A final basic in the Charlotte Mason method is found in encountering nature. At first, you may think that nature study is difficult, as many of us have become used to the controlled environment and comforts of our homes. But Charlotte took her students out every day for nature study, even in her rainy, native England!

It is best to begin with a weekly outing. Any natural place is a destination: your backyard, a grove of trees at a nearby park, the beach, a creek bank, or even a wet ditch full of cattails! It doesn’t have to take all day, just start small. Allow children to stay long enough to enjoy nature, and use their senses to fully absorb the sights, sounds, smells, and the feel of the place around them.

While outdoors, have your children write out what they observe, draw a specimen, or even paste samples of plant leaves or flower petals into a journal. As you become adept at nature study, you can do more in-depth, even seasonal projects. You can collect nuts in the fall and create a three-dimensional exhibit with them. You can visit a farm to see baby animals in the spring, and have students write how they resemble adult animals, and how they do not. Online nature study or marvelous books can help students experience faraway natural places like national parks, rainforests, or volcanoes that they can’t, or won’t visit right away.

Still, nothing is a substitute for the quiet time spent on nature study, nor for hearing the chirp of wetland frogs, or hearing the flow of a creek in summer. Be sure to liberally indulge in nature study with your children, and you’ll soon enjoy it so much that you won’t want to miss out on this time!

What To Do Next

After you successfully integrate these Charlotte Mason essential skills into your homeschooling, you can move on to discover the many other methods and ideas Charlotte advocated. Charlotte’s writing provides us with great ideas for incorporating living math, artist study, poetry and music appreciation, and a lifelong friendship with Shakespeare. There’s no better way to learn about how to include these in your homeschooling than to read them from Charlotte herself, in her book, “Home Education.” It is in the public domain, so it can be found online, and has even been translated from the original Victorian English to a more modern version.

Why You’ll Find You Love Charlotte’s Way

As you begin to integrate aspects of Charlotte Mason into your homeschooling, you’ll find out just what kind of a superhero she is. You’ll discover that you are able to enjoy your children (and your school time) as never before, as you leave behind lecturing and testing and instead enjoy a journey of discovery right alongside your children.

Living books let your children see into places and times that they could never experience otherwise, and provide ideals of character for which to strive. They stimulate your children’s thinking, and give you daily opportunities to talk about the “real” things of life. Narration allows you a window into their own inner life, something that acquaints you with your child’s “true self ” for a lifetime. You are likely to find this enables you to keep communication lines open that might otherwise wither away in the teen years.

Notebooking creates a long-lasting record not only of what has been learned, but stores a treasure trove of family memories. Notebooks can allow children to specialize their interests, enabling them to blossom and grow as individuals!

Meanwhile, nature study enriches the soul, allows for deep thinking, and encourages a quiet, contented spirit. It allows children to see the value in things outside themselves, and marvel at new discoveries.

In short, Charlotte Mason’s ideas in every way help you as a parent to accomplish the very ideals you are likely wishing for as you raise your children.

Now that’s the kind of superhero that comes in handy!

 

The Author of WinterPromise, Kaeryn Brooks

Kaeryn Brooks is the author and creator of WinterPromise Publishing, a Charlotte-Mason based curriculum that blends the best of Charlotte’s ideas with rich notebooking, new ideas and technology.

WinterPromise integrates practical and fun activities, true-life experiences, and experiments with educationally-rich notebooking, can-do nature study, DVD suggestions, and website links. You’ll find the beginnings of a rich Charlotte Mason journey at www.winterpromise.com. Kaeryn and her husband rely on Charlotte’s advice to raise (and homeschool) their seven children.

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Whole-Child | Whole-Family

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Whole-Child

Education should not be one-size-fits-all nor should education be simply the accumulation of knowledge. Education should be tailored for the growth of the whole child with an understanding of the diversity of gifts and abilities our children possess!

  • Educate with the Multiple Intelligences in Mind
    • As a parent you understand your student in a unique way. You can see how one child learns differently than your other child. One may do best when drawing a picture in response to a question; the other may understand concepts well when asked to think deeply about an ethical or moral quandary. Education should mold to your child’s own learning style. Understanding the different forms of intelligence, helps us not only identify the intelligences our own children have but also helps us teach specifically to each child with their preferred learning method! It not only helps them, but it makes your job easier too! Your student will often engage easier when working within their own learning style! Take a look at the multiple intelligences:
      • Visual-Spatial Intelligence: This intelligence is characterized by the ability to see with the mind’s eye and spatial judgement. These students may like to take notes or draw pictures about what they are learning!
      • Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence: This intelligence deals with written or spoken words. Children with this intelligence may perform best when things are read or spoken about to them!
      • Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: Students with this intelligence are good at activities involving logic, abstractions, reasoning, and numbers. These students often enjoy strategy games!
      • Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: This type of intelligence relates to actually performing activities by moving or involving your body. These students will often perform very well when doing hands-on crafts or activities!
      • Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence: This area has to do with music, rhythm, and hearing. These students may be musically inclined or find that creating tunes to remember information works best for them!
      • Interpersonal Intelligence: Interpersonal intelligence has to do with learning with others or in a group. These students like to engage with others while they are learning!
      • Intrapersonal Intelligence: As you can probably guess this intelligence is the opposite of interpersonal intelligence. These students work best when they are on their own and working at their own pace!
      • Naturalistic Intelligence: As the title suggests students with this type of intelligence love nature and the outdoors. These students may be interested in science over other subjects and most likely enjoy spedning time outdoors exploring their world!
      • Existential Intelligence: This intelligence is a little trickier than the others. It relates to abstract thinking and philosophical questions. These students may enjoy thinking about questions that are not easy for you to asnwer for them! Brainstorming different solutions for something that is rather difficult to solve may be something they really enjoy!

Chances are you thought of your student when reading about a couple of the different intelligences! If you want to learn more about the multiple intelligences and how you can mold your students education to fit their intelligence best, read about it here!

  • Educate for Whole-Child Growth
    • Charlotte Mason viewed education as not only a learning experience but much more of a lifestyle. Education does not mean just learning facts, names, or dates, but education is a wholistic journey. Education should enable students to grow as people- socially, characteristically, and familiarly. We want education to encourage the every aspect of growth for your child.  For example, Adventures in the Sea & Sky teaches about bravery and gallantry. We want to use these people in history to show morals and ethics and to help you as a parent instill these characteristics in your student!
  • Empowering Self-Expression, Offering Self-Knowledge, and Encouraging Self-Confidence
    • Self-expression should be encouraged in education rather than discouraged. Our journals are written to encourage all different types of expressions and learning.

      You can encourage your student to express themselves via word, drawing, or even expression in nature. Giving children the space to think for themselves and learn to express themselves in the way that connects with them allows for personal growth as well as confidence. When students begin to grow in their self-expression their self-confidence grows as well. Allowing them the time to reflect on what they are learning and what they are feeling and thinking encourages self-knowledge.

Whole-Family

  • Make education a part of your family experiences by making memories together
    • We want education to fit your family! Education should mold to your family culture rather than running your life! Our adventures are designed to be malleable! You can change it to fit your family no matter your dynamic!
    • A great way to encourage learning in your children is through making memories. Life is made up of memories. We sit back and remember the little conversations we had with our grandma early in the morning over breakfast or the time our father pushed us higher on the swing than ever before! Memories are one of the best ways to help educate. Memories are best made when you can do it together as a family! It’s a great way to learn but it also is a fun way to build family culture! Discover how giraffes’ tongues work or how the medieval castles influenced their society in fun and interactive ways like visiting the zoo or taking a tour through historical buildings!
  • We do the work for you so you can maximize family time and relationship
    • We want you to focus on your family rather than having to focus on doing a lot of work! A Charlotte Mason parent-teacher focuses on discovering education together rather than just teaching the student. We want to do the work for you so you can focus on discovering your adventure together as a family!
    • We also create our themed programs for a wide variety of ages so that you can do adventures together as a family tailoring them to your students ages.  Many of our theme programs have specific resources created for older or younger students, but they will still be discovering the same information at the same time so you can do it together as a family! For example, our Animals & Their Worlds has a younger journal which focuses on having young ones drawing their responses or coloring in pictures or cut and past activities where our older journal has many of the same type of activities but also includes more written work. There are also resources such as the Alphabet Fun Pack which help younger learners work on their alphabet where as the older learners would not need to focus on this. We want our WP Families to be able to discover the joy of education together!
  • Make it simple or dive deep for whatever your family needs and enjoys
    • Our programs are chalked full of experiences and activities, but we don’t suggest that you do everything. We want you to choose what is right for your family! Some weeks you may find that life is just too busy – which happens! Life is unpredictable. Things happen! We want our adventures to encourage rather than discourage. We recommend that you go through the list and decide which activities sound exciting or will help cultivate a love for learning in your family! Ask your kids! Which activity or experience intrigues them! Someone like me – I love going to museums. I utterly love it! But other people love experiences in nature or art – go to a zoo or a symphony. Our guides are created to allow you to choose what to do rather than feel the necessity to do them all! Choose what’s right for your family! Don’t feel that you need to complete every activity!
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Charlotte Mason Inspired

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I’ve often been asked, “What exactly do you mean by Charlotte Mason Inspired?” I utterly love this question!

There is so much to Charlotte Mason one could write a book on just one aspect of her education — actually, people have! Charlotte Mason knew that education was not just merely learning things but was so much more! It was a life!

Our core values come from Charlotte Mason’s view of education — we just put a little WP twist to it!

We focus on

  • Joy
  • Curiosity & Discovery
  • Living Books
  • Nature Study

Let’s dive in!

Joy!

Joyful learning is essential to any education because joy is an essential part of any childhood.

When children are young their brains are developing faster and more than at any other time in their lives. So, making a positive joyful connection to learning is key to developing a love of learning that carries forward for the rest of their lives. It does not stop there. To instill lifelong learning habits and success learning and education should be infused with joy as much as possible. So many children have an experience in education that is dry, uninteresting, and certainly not joyful. But that is the opposite of what we want for our children to experience with WinterPromise. That does not mean serious effort and hard work are not a part of the process but in as many ways as we can for as long as we can WinterPromise desires joyful learning as a goal in each and every part of what we do.

Curiosity and Discovery

Children are naturally curious and enjoy discovery almost as soon as they are born.

Nothing is more natural to our young children than an inspiration to learn and discover. Too often it is assumed that as children grow older their curiosity will disappear and we need to educate them differently when that happens. This is not the case. The desire to investigate, discover, and be curious will develop and change over the years but education should be fanning the flames of discovery at every turn in education. The best learner is a learner that is self-motivated and excited (joyful) about what they are learning.

WinterPromise is dedicated to offering a variety of exciting learning experiences that students can dive into and enjoy. Not everything in our guides should be done because some of those things will not inspire joy but dry out interest. Fuel curiosity and see it become directed as students become older. This creates meaningful learning while also creating habits of lifelong learning for years to come.

Living Books

Living books are the centerpiece of how we develop our programs here at WinterPromise.

What is a living book? A living book is a book written by an author on a specific topic in a way that communicates their own passion while also being written and published in a way that may inspire others. Textbooks are often the standard in education but because of their delivery and format, they usually discourage excitement about learning. WinterPromise builds our curriculum around offering books that take you places, invite your family into a new experience, inspire interest in a great person of the past, fuel discussion about difficult topics and offers a chance to discover new and exciting people writing about new and exciting topics. This makes your reading together as a family or the reading your child does another avenue for fueling curiosity and discovery while enhancing the desire to read. We could not imagine offering an education devoid of the joy of living books. There is a magic to a good book that we can all sense but can’t quite pinpoint. A living book delivers that magic to your family.

Nature Study

Charlotte Mason believed that nature study was the foundation of all sciences and essential to a child’s education.

Nature study is a vital component of every program we offer because we believe that getting your child outside and observing the world around them is one of the best ways to enhance joyful learning and begin a life of curiosity. Children thrive when they are in the woods, looking at bugs in the garden, learning about plants and animals, observing and journaling what they see, and getting a little dirty in the process. The benefits of nature study are boundless.

Do you see a naturalist in your little boy or girl? Get them outside classifying, ordering, collecting, and seeing all that they can outdoors. Have a child who thrives with art? Get them outside and create what they see with paint, markers, or pencil. Do you have a child who loves music? Have them listen to the birds and the orchestra that is nature. Do you have a child that loves writing and words? Learn new words by talking about names and labels. Learn about metaphor and how nature is used as a metaphor to describe real life. Do you have a child that you want to develop those areas mentioned above? Get them outside!

Nature study is lifestyle and WinterPromise offers a no-prep way of making it a habit to get your children learning, loving, and living outside.

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BEING A CHARLOTTE MASON “PARENT-TEACHER” (a note from WP author Kaeryn)

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I remember when I first met Charlotte Mason…

Okay, not really “met,” but got to know.  I was immediately struck by Charlotte’s intuitive understanding of children and how to educate and train them.  I was also hugely impressed by how counter-culture Charlotte’s ways are in today’s world.

If you haven’t gotten to know Charlotte Mason yet, and you are hoping to be a good homeschooling parent, a great “Parent-Teacher” — or at least aiming that direction :), then you should “meet” Charlotte, too!

There are a lot of summaries of Charlotte’s ideas online, but here are the basics:

Charlotte Mason was a British educator who worked with children for years. She believed in exposing children to great ideas, wonderful literature, God’s Word in liberal amounts, and beautiful artwork, and she called for challenging them in a way that gave them a love for learning. She believed in teaching history, getting children to tell back what they know, and — most of all — Charlotte believed in joy!

As a Momma myself, this is what perhaps convinced me that I wanted to be a “Parent-Teacher” like Charlotte.  After all, if I couldn’t bring my children joy, and teach my children the joy in curiosity, in exploration, in discovery — what was parenthood for?

As I delved into Charlotte’s methods and thoughts, I found new ways we were kindred spirits.  It was a thrill to hear from someone who did not believe that raising your children meant teaching them to cram for exams, run around to endless extracurricular activities, and fall into bed exhausted at night.  Charlotte’s ideas were freedom.  Freedom to develop a lifestyle that was not at all like school, not at all over-busied, and above all — not self-focused.

The freedom we found was like finally breathing again.  It meant so much more, you see, than just that we’d found a homeschool method that worked for us.  In fact, we’d found a lifestyle!

We’ve had a chance to live the Charlotte Mason lifestyle for a lot of years now, and we’ve just seen our lives change so radically from what they were before.  Here’s what I’ve learned along the way:

  1. I have never spent one moment thinking about how I wish I done things differently.  Our lifestyle works for us, and it works for our family.  It is a servant to, not a master of, our souls.  It supports our family — it does not “run” our family.
  2. My children have had enough free time to think big thoughts on their own, and that has allowed each one to blossom and develop in their own unique way.  They’ve had to time to explore the world their way, to be curious, to investigate, and it has made all the difference in how they relate to the world.  They reach out to the world and experience it, a true contrast to how many children have to depend on “packaged” experiences in classroom or sports arenas.
  3. The time we’ve had together that wasn’t “overplanned” and “over-scheduled” reaped so many more benefits than I could have imagined.  As my kids have grown up, I can see each day how much that has meant to their development.  They are comfortable with conversation, deep relationships, reading, and self-improvement.   We’ve had so much time together, time we used to mold our kids’ character and develop their relationship to Christ.  We’ve had time to teach them skills and common sense, courtesy and manners, and simple leadership skills like timeliness, follow-through, accountability, servanthood, and working as a team.

I really could go on and on.  In short, I am thankful every day that Charlotte’s simple wisdom traveled across time to whisper to me the things for which my “Parent-Teacher” heart was longing.  She pointed the way to a Christ-centered, family relationship-focused lifestyle that changed our lives.

So, when God gave us the opportunity to create a curriculum that would allow homeschoolers to really enjoy their journey, it only made sense that we build it the Charlotte Mason way.  We’ve included many of the concepts that Charlotte Mason advocated, and added a few we fancy Charlotte would have if she were living in this century!  We’ve made it easy to do yourself, without having to pull a bunch of things together on your own, so there’s still plenty of time to invest in the character of your kids.  Plus, we made sure to include the kind of life learning that so benefitted our own kids, and really stuck with them as time went by.

So, now, I whisper all of this to you, too!  Don’t wait!  Go out there and get some Charlotte Mason in your life!

It may be that WinterPromise offers you a start on that lifestyle, and we’d love that!  But be sure to meet Charlotte Mason in any case, so that you can develop a lifestyle that suits you as “Parent-Teacher,” and develops the promise in your own family!  You’ll never be sorry that you did!

Kaeryn

Curious to learn more specifically about Charlotte Mason?

Check out our blog Meet Charlotte Mason & Her View of Education!

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Meet Charlotte Mason & Her View of Education!

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Who is Charlotte Mason and what are the basics of her education?

Charlotte Mason was a British educator, who, in the late-nineteenth century, published books on education that were both down-to-earth and practical. Her book, “Home Education,” was innovative and influential to other educators of the time.

She fostered the idea that children could be inspired to learn and explore with joy the world around them. Today, many homeschoolers find her ideals are very relevant to their everyday lives and her ideas are practical and inspiring to both parent and child.

Charlotte Mason’s Fundamental Ideas

Charlotte Mason based her philosophy of education upon nine fundamental, practical principles. There are five “DO’s” and two “DON’T’s.”

DO’s:

  • DO provide intelligent reading in abundance.
  • DO introduce your student to culture and things of beauty — music, nature, poetry, and the arts.
  • DO teach your children to narrate, telling you back about their learning experiences in their own words. Notebooking is a part of narration.
  • DO build habits that shape your child, and teach the discipline of self-education for joy’s sake.
  • DO allow free time to develop as a person instead of a heavy homework load, especially in the younger grades.

DON’T’s:

  • DON’T teach your student to succeed for the sake of a grade; instead, introduce them to things that capture their interest and they will try their best.
  • DON’T plan on lecture times of teaching; instead embrace learning together with discussion, experimentation, and narration.

How Do We Measure Education

Charlotte Mason summed up her ideals about education into the phrase, “bringing up” a child. Karen Andreola, in her marvelous book, “A Charlotte Mason Companion,” sums it up this way:

We all wish our children to be well brought up, and when we have come to understand what that means, we know that we need to go beyond simply fitting the child with the basic skills to make a living . . . First and foremost in importance is the power to live the life God has given in the way God intended. In order to have this power, a person must be at his best in his heart, mind, and soul. He must know how to choose good and how to refuse evil.

We, as persons, are not enlightened by means of multiple-choice tests or grades, but rather by the other people in our lives that we have come to know, admire, and love… Children are inspired by relationships, and this helps form their personalities. And so, throughout their educational life, we put them in touch with persons, places, and things…When you give your child a Charlotte Mason-style education, you will be endowing them with the substantial things of our culture, and their interest in these things will naturally spill out, like a cup running over, into their leisure activities, even as they enter adulthood.

Children have the same needs as an adult — to have meaningful work that excites and motivates them to achieve more and more. Charlotte believed that traditional educational systems — designed for demonstrated success through testing — denied children the opportunity to grow in their souls. Education should strive to introduce a student to that which expands their knowledge and understanding of the world in a way that shapes them to be the person God intended them to be.

So lets dive deep into some of CM’s ideas!

Wonderful Books

If you talk to anyone about Charlotte Mason, the first thing they’ll mention will be her advocacy of — in her words — “Living Books.” Charlotte believed that a child needed to read books of quality that were written by people who loved their subject matter and brought their subject alive through action and character development. She felt that stories communicated to readers in a way that would excite, be remembered, and induce them to further interest in self-education. You’ll find the wonderful books we’ve chosen will help you toward these goals!

Culture
Introduce your student to the finer things of life, things of beauty and grace, and you will develop in them a taste for these things and a distaste for things that degrade and sully their lives. Our programs attempt to draw in these aspects to your students’ education, and our four-day schedule allows you time to delve into music and art as a separate pursuit.

Narration
Narration is the art of “telling back.” To some extent this ability is inborn in our children. From their earliest childhood they tell us what just happened to them, or what their best friend just told them. Often we as parents are guilty of stemming their enthusiasm for relating to us in this way, when in fact, this skill, if encouraged to blossom and disciplined to be a part of their education, becomes an integral part of their understanding and an opportunity for reinforcement. Parents are encouraged to integrate narration into the program along the way as a habit, and we’ve even included different narration ideas for greater variety.

Notebooking
A great way to “narrate” is in written form. Notebooking has become popular among homeschoolers as a great way to reinforce student studies. Our “Make-Your-Own” history series and “Timelines in History” are exclusive resources designed to help your student learn the joys of notebooking.

Discipline & Free Time Fundamental to Charlotte’s approach is her belief that education needed a proper balance between the discipline of good habits and free time to enjoy. Our daily schedule will help you implement the daily discipline needed to acquaint younger students with the necessity of a habit of study. As students progress, our independent study schedules will allow you to make them accountable to complete their work according to a list for which they are responsible. Finally, high schoolers also have an independent study regime that will build the skills needed to easily move on to more education. And, all of the schedules we’ve created, allow, we believe, plenty of the free time Charlotte advocated.

Learning Together
All of our resources are designed to keep you interacting with your student for much of their studies. Time spent cuddling on the couch, reading together, contrasts well with the times you’ll work together to complete hands-on activities, or, as the student grows older, research activities. Watching an educational DVD, listening to a music CD together or preparing historical recipes all involve family time … and family memories. WinterPromise is committed to bringing together the perfect balance of resources to keep your family excited, interested, and sane!

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Multiple Intelligences!

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Did you know that your kiddo could have different intelligences? There are so many types that no learner is ever the same as another!

Let me explain a little more about multiple intelligences before I tell you the different types! The multiple intelligence theory was developed by Howard Gardner in 1983 to better define the concept of intelligence. His theory questioned whether the methods that were used to “measure” intelligence were scientific and complete. Gardner theorized that the traditional understanding of intelligence was too narrow and only really measured one or two types of intelligence. If two children are taught their multiplication facts in the same teaching style and one of them masters them easily while the other struggles; that does not necessarily mean that the first child is more intelligent than the second. Gardner understood that the second child would most likely learn the same information through a different method of teaching and may understand other topics easier than the first child as well.

Gardner understood that topic and learning style were an important factor in how children learn and how their intelligence should be measured. If you have homeschooled more than one kiddo I am sure that you will agree when we say that no kiddo learns just like another! When we create curriculum we keep in mind Garnders theory of multiple intelligences and make sure we integrate assignments and schedule activities of all kinds to make sure that each kiddos learning style is included!

Below we will explain the nine multiple intelligences and how WinterPromise has included things for each intelligence. While reading through you will most likely find that more than one intelligence sounds like they could relate to your kiddo! Many kiddos actually have more than one intelligence and may prefer learning styles from one or the other. As you read through try to pick out the intelligences that sound most like your kiddo and find the activities they learn best with. Knowing this information you can understand what your kiddos learning style is and be well equipped to pick out the curriculum that fits you and your kiddo each year!

9 Multiple Intelligences:

  • Visual-Spatial Intelligence: This intelligence is characterised by the ability to see with the mind’s eye and spatial judgement. Kiddos with this intelligence often learn best from seeing or drawing things on their own. They love drawing activities and probably are pretty artistic and creative! Your own little Picasso!
    • These students learn best from creative activities, highly-illustrated books, seeing physical timelines, drawing, and notebooking! (All things that WinterPromise offers in each one of their programs!)
  • Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence: This intelligence deals with written or spoken words. Kiddos who have this type of intelligence demonstrate good reading and comprehension, story telling, and are also good at writing. If this is your kiddo you probably know that they love reading books or having books read to them, and they are probably pretty good at speaking and narration. These students learn best by reading information, writing down their thoughts, and notetaking.
    • WinterPromise includes colorful notebooking pages with prompts for students, living texts for all students to read from, timeline cards to study from, and discussion topics for families to talk about while they are learning for students with this type of intelligence!
  • Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: Students with this intelligence are good at activities involving logic, abstractions, reasoning, and numbers. These students have great abstract thinking and prefer to figure things out in their head rather than use their hands or visuals to figure things out. While this intelligence correlates heavily with the “traditional” type of intelligence they may not always learn best from traditional teaching. These students benefit from outlining the main points, and activities that rely on logical thinking.
    • WinterPromise includes key fact narration, important information repetition, chapter or lesson information outlines for students to fill in or learn from, as well as logic based activities. These students would excel in the game chess (p.s. if you have a logical-mathematical learner you might want to check out our chess programs!).
  • Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: This type of intelligence relates to actually performing activities by moving or involving your body. These students love trying things for themselves as well as can often be labeled as too excited. Rather than thinking of them as too excited to stay seated WinterPromise understands that these students learn best when they can experience it with body movement!
    • WinterPromise always includes “Try it yourself!” sections, hands-on activities, and tons of fun experiments for these students to do as often as they would like!
  • Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence: This area has to do with music, rhythm, and hearing. These students often like to listen to and make their own music and often may like to listen rather than speak. Creating little tunes to remember things by or simply listening to a lecture may sometimes be the best way for them to learn and understand something!
    • WinterPromise includes weblinks to videos, musical games, schedules for books that can be read aloud to them, and options to watch certain DVD’s relating to their program in order to help these kiddos learn best!
  • Interpersonal Intelligence: Interpersonal intelligence has to do with learning with others or in a group. Kiddos with this type of intelligence may be extroverted, sensitive to others moods and emotions, and cooperate well when working with others. They may also struggle when left alone to perform certain tasks or may not enjoy doing school alone rather than with friends.
    • WinterPromise includes family projects and crafts, leadership tasks, group discussions, and prompts for discussing feelings or emotions about or related to what they are learning!
  • Intrapersonal Intelligence: As you can probably guess this intelligence is the opposite of interpersonal intelligence. These students would rather work alone than in a group and often are content playing or entertaining themselves. These kiddos are probably also very adept at understanding their own feelings and have a strong sense of self.
    • WinterPromise includes journaling, independent activities, connection opportunities with characters in living texts or books, and tons of other activities that can be done solo rather than in a group for students with this type of intelligence!
  • Naturalistic Intelligence: As the title suggests students with this type of intelligence love nature and the outdoors. They most likely have a strong connection with animals and nature. Kiddos who have this intelligence are probably relatively interested in science and understand it easily.
    • WinterPromise includes programs focused on nature topics, a scientific resource in many of their programs where students will observe and journal throughout the year, as well as outside activities and observation projects! Be sure to check out the programs Equine Science and Animals and Their Worlds if your student has this type of intelligence!
  • Existential Intelligence: This intelligence is a little trickier than the others. It relates to abstract thinking and philosophical questions. While it might be hard to tell if your student possesses this type of intelligence while they are younger, you may still be able to tell! Students with this learning style will often ask questions related to world structures, emotions, and other questions that as a parent might be hard to answer because there isn’t one true answer. These students may also be very connected to their beliefs or interested in the beliefs of others as well. These students learn best from studying questions that they think of as well as asking questions to others.
    • WinterPromise includes abstract questions, topic starters for “food for thought” discussions, as well as facts and questions meant to get students to think deeper on certain topics for students with this type of intelligence!

You may have read through these intelligences and picked out each one that your kiddos have, or you may still be questioning a few of them. This is okay! As you homeschool and grow with your kiddos you will better understand their intelligences and maybe even notice that they may start to change as they get older! Knowing what learning methods best suit your student is always a trial and error process but thankfully with these intelligences defined above families can get a better start and what they can be looking for in a curriculum to best suit their kiddo for the year!

If you are unsure about which intelligences your student has, reach out to us and speak with us about your student and we can help you pick out their intelligences as well as find a program that fits you and your kiddo best!

Click here if you’re interested in reading more about Howard Gardner’s books.

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Integrating the Outdoors into Your Homeschooling

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Spring and summer often bring the hope and excitement for being outside. For families in general we understand intuitively that being outside is good for our kids and for us. Families that homeschool usually seek to bring the outdoors into their education for their children. In this new series we will explore how best to take advantage of the outdoors in our homeschooling and what posture we as parents should have toward this important goal.

In this post I would like to focus on the actual reasons that being outside is beneficial for your kids. Likely, most of us already have an idea as to why it is good but may lack specific reasons. When we examine the reasons for why something is true (or why we believe it to be true) we often have better clarity and motivation on that specific topic. With that in mind, here is a list of some of the major reasons the outdoors will enhance and are an important part of education.

More than just a different context, but never less.

First, it is important to realize that the outdoors provide more than just a different context for your students to learn. At the same time, it will never be less than that. At the very least you can take them into different scenery which will help them be more creative and more engaged.

Active students and students that are outdoors experience a general academic benefit.

Similar to the last one this will encourage you that even if you don’t feel you are doing something creative or unique with your outdoor learning you are still bringing broad benefits to your child. Studies show that students who are active and outdoors experience a better education.

It offers learning experiences with all senses engaged.

The outdoors offer a fantastic opportunity for you to engage all of their senses all the time. Even though it is not all focused on what they are learning they are simply more engaged outside when they are touching, feeling, and smelling the outdoors.

Problem solving and nimble thinking is promoted.

When a child is outdoors, they are constantly problem-solving or investigating, even when they don’t realize it. Children walking down a path discussing the trees and soil are at the same time avoiding pitfalls, finding stumps to jump from, and looking (or running from) bugs. So much is happening, and this is very healthy for their minds and development. Kids love it too!

Nature and outdoor curiosity are the foundation of sciences, scientific investigation, and cultivates curiosity.

British educator Charlotte Mason believed that promoting nature learning and curiosity was essential for every student as nature investigation is the foundation of the sciences. Do you want your child to excel in STEM? Get them outside early and often! It develops curiosity, joy in experience, and connects them to the idea that they need to investigate and explore the world around them.

ADHD/busy/fidgety students excel in this environment.

Many of our children are either ADHD or are simply busy and active. Often these students experience one of two extremes. Either they need constant stimulation to stay engaged or they are overloaded with stimulation and need calm and space. The outdoors unique serve both students. The outdoors offer loads of stimulation and experience for students craving engagement. While at the same time, it also provides a calm and soothing context for students normally over-stimulated inside. The outdoors are incredibly designed by God to speak to us and help us. Amazing!

Next time we will discuss how our attitude and posture toward outdoor learning is key to making it a success.

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How Does Understanding Intelligence Help with Homeschooling?

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It was a Wednesday. That worst day of the week — hump day. We’ve all been there.
Sometimes they’re all Wednesdays.

This particular Wednesday was memorable because it was the first day I tried to school
my fourth-born — my “busy” child, better known as my little “terror on legs.” The child that
— as his Sunday school teacher kindly put it — didn’t have a lot of “sit” in him.

Yeah. The woman was a master of understatement.

On this particular Wednesday, it became clear in less than five minutes that what had worked with my older children in the way of schooling and instruction was not going to work for this little blessing from heaven. He’s not a homeschooler, I thought. He’s not even an unschooler.
Then it hit me. He’s a not-schooler. I’m doomed.

You know this child. You probably have one. Or two. Hey, maybe you’ve got a whole pack of not-schoolers at your place. These wonderful children are gifted — we know that. But in moments like these, it seems their only gift is a marvelous ability to make it clear they’re not-lists, not-facts, not-tests, not-sitting-still-in-chairs, and most definitely not-words-on-paper.

My little not-schooler needed something else. But what?

I put the schoolbooks away for that day, a week, more than that. There was no sense in using methods that weren’t going to work, so I did my own homework, and looked for answers. What I found fundamentally changed how I taught my children — all of them — not just my “not-schooler.” In fact, it changed how I related to them, person to person. It was the power of understanding the multiple intelligences. In the years since then, this knowledge has influenced how I talk to my children, how I approach giving them information or encourage them to disclose their thoughts or feelings.

It’s even inspired me to create a curriculum that harnesses the power of multiple intelligences. It’s fundamentally changed how I view the mission of education.  It was out of this search that WinterPromise came to be.  I wanted other parents to be able to reach their kids in a way that truly connects with their student’s own giftedness.

So What Are the Different Learning Styles, or Multiple Intelligences?
As I dug in, I found that the theory of multiple intelligences was first offered by a man named Howard Gardner in 1983 to more accurately define the concept of human intelligence. It was a new way to conceptualize how people think about intelligence, talk about it, and teach to it.  Gardner’s theory helps educators and parents alike to understand the different ways that people take in new material, how they process their world, and even how they interact
with others.

The fundamental point of Gardner’s theory is that there is no such thing as a single intelligence, but rather there are multiple intelligences. Most people are quite gifted in a few areas of intelligence, are capable or average with a few, and are less likely to use or integrate a few others. Gardiner described nine different intelligences.

Each of us is unique in our use of and level of function within each intelligence. So, if we could exactly represent how each person uses and functions in their assortment of intelligences, it would be as if each one of us had an “intelligence handprint.” How many and which fingers were used in the handprint would fairly represent the individual intelligences, and the handprint as a whole — how the fingerprints were laid down, the roll of the hand, the position a person most utilized — would demonstrate how each of us, in our own one-of-a-kind way, functioned in bringing together our favored intelligences to accomplish a task or think about the world around us.

As I looked over Gardner’s list of intelligences, I could see the beginnings of a path to reaching my not-schooler. Gardner’s list of nine intelligences includes these: visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential.

How Does This Make a Real Difference to Parent-Educators Like You and I?
This! Though I had only the first glimmers of understanding in looking over the list, I could already see this was something that made sense with what I saw in my children. My firstborn was a born student: she loved to read, create through art, and complete worksheets. My second born joined her in an enjoyment of school, for he was social, and simply turned school into a way to connect and enjoy learning together through collaboration. My third-born? Loved to think big thoughts and could sit so long he outlasted me. But my not-schooler? It had been difficult to figure how being able to ride a bike without training wheels at the age of two could serve him well as a student.

But now I had a guide! A way to find his intelligence “handprint” and connect to that! I couldn’t wait to find out more, so I delved in farther. It was obvious my little not-schooler had a bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, with all his daredevil antics atop a bike. So finding active ways to engage him was also an obvious conclusion. Not so obvious was discovering that not only did my not-schooler more willingly participate in active learning, but that bodily exertion itself is thought to open up his pathways of learning. Let me repeat that. The acts of moving, jumping, tracing with a finger, tapping a foot in rhythm — it actually opened up pathways to learning in my not-schooler that simply seeing or hearing did not. He
actually learned by the ACT of doing!

The multiple intelligences, then, do not merely describe a child’s preferred learning environment, but in fact suggest optimal ways for children to process  information that enable the child to more rapidly take in information that can be used with greater functionality. As a unique individual, each child has their own learning superhighway, specially designed to transform information input from mere data into learning experiences. The key is for us as parent-educators to find their unique superhighway, and utilize its on-ramps with these optimal learning avenues.

As I began to see my not-schooler’s bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, I also began to see his other intelligences: his visual-spatial intelligence, which was strongly influenced by doing and seeing at the same time, and his intrapersonal intelligence, which enabled him to learn well on his own by trying new things. He actually didn’t mind trying and failing, which my firstborn hated.

To reach all of my children with these newfound insights required me to dive deep into the multiple intelligences, and understand each one’s superhighway with its unique on-ramps. Are you ready for more?

In my next post, you’ll discover each of the nine intelligences Howard Gardner described, so you, too, can discover what learning avenues best connect with each of your kiddos. Find that post here!

Plus, you’ll find out just how WinterPromise’s rich curriculum has been created to reach all of the multiple intelligences in your family!

Kaeryn Brooks, WinterPromise Author

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