7 Characteristics of a Charlotte Mason Education (UPDATED!) ~
Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool

Welcome back to my newest Simple Homeschool series, in which I’m going back in time to share my thoughts as a retired homeschool mom after 15 years of active duty.

This month I decided to revisit this popular post from the very first year of Simple Homeschool; I wrote it in 2010!

Obviously I have a lot more experience and thoughts of my own to share now, so I’ve updated the post below with them. Look for the red headings to easily spot those.

Let’s learn a bit more about Charlotte Mason education together:

Prefer to listen instead?

*****

If you’ve been homeschooling for long, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Charlotte Mason.

Her educational principles, which she developed in 19th century England, offer much to home educating children and families alike.

But what exactly is a Charlotte Mason education? How can you know if it will work well for your family?

Use this overview to help you decide.

7 Characteristics of a Charlotte Mason Education

1. Habits

Charlotte believed that the development of good habits within a child provides the foundation for early education. She wrote, “The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days.”

For this reason Charlotte advised delaying formal academics until age six, instead advocating play and work within the gentle boundaries of the family unit.

Charlotte saw good habits as so crucial that she recommended putting all else aside if a bad habit appeared, and working with the child (in a friendly way) to reconcile the issue before it could develop further.

Jamie’s thoughts on habits today:

Keep in mind that Charlotte Mason worked with children in schools, and was not a mother herself. Please have no guilt if you find that instilling good habits in your children is a lifelong endeavor – it is!

I agree with the delay of formal academics (in most cases), and that is what worked well in our family. However, I can remember feeling guilt over the fact that my kids did have bad habits, and this can feel even heavier to those of us who have children with a variety of diagnoses and special needs.

Habits are a big priority, but they are not our ONLY priority. Success in this area can take a decade or more to observe!

2. Style of Lessons

Charlotte Mason style lessons are short, especially for young children. The goal is to train the child to focus fully on their work, but only for the amount of time they are developmentally capable of.

For early elementary-aged children this often means only 5-15 minutes per subject. In older grades the duration extends to 45 minutes or more.

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt

When a child becomes restless, Charlotte advised changing the lesson to a different type of subject–maybe moving from handwriting to music study, or from math to handicrafts.

Short lessons means that more subjects can be incorporated into a school day. This fits with the Charlotte Mason philosophy of introducing many topics to children and allowing them to delve deeper into the ones that spark their interest.

Jamie’s thoughts on style of lessons today:

Yes! I 100% agree that short lessons are the best lessons, especially for littles, but boy did my Inner Taskmaster find it hard to stop without reaching the “official” end.

I felt like I didn’t get my closure and gold star! Looking back though, I would try to work with a timer/clock and mark where we leave off so we could return and begin the next time.

3. Living Books

Living books are the opposite of textbooks–quality literature (either fiction or non-fiction) written by an author with a passion for the topic. The writer’s passion and expertise breathes life into the book, as opposed to a textbook that gives impersonal overviews of many topics.

Living books present inspiring stories that engage the minds of children and adults alike, providing characters our children can look up to and emulate.

Jamie’s thoughts on living books today:

Yes, especially for younger ages, living books are the way to go! However, for those of us with a proclivity toward insecurity, please remember that this does NOT mean that you must only choose books that are 100 years old or were on Charlotte’s official reading list.

You’re looking for books, new and old, that have that spark of life to them that captures your own imagination and that of your child. You get to create your own list as you go!

4. Narration

A Charlotte Mason-style education uses narration as one of the central methods to evaluate a student. The goal is to teach a child to think and express themselves clearly.

Up until the age of 10 or 11, Charlotte advises teachers to use mainly oral narration with a child. After listening to a short passage of a book, the child will tell back, in his or her own words, important aspects of the story.

Letting a young child do this orally helps them develop analytical thinking skills without getting stuck by the physical mechanics of handwriting.

At around age 11 Charlotte Mason teachers begin having children do written narrations, which lengthen and become more in depth as children get older.

Jamie’s thoughts on narration today:

I experienced a ton of pressure in this area that we weren’t “doing it right.” It’s essential to remember that life with a classroom of students must be organized differently to life at home with a handful.

When I asked my kids to repeat back what they had heard…it often resulted in that deer in headlights look, left me feeling disappointed, and took away from the enjoyment in what we were reading. But there were other times when the kids were so excited about something they had read that they couldn’t wait to come and tell me every. single. detail.

This is narration at home, in the context of real life. The same way that we might summarize a book for our adult friends! So experiment with narration to see how or if it works for you, but feel free to allow it to naturally happen as opposed to forcing it.

5. Dictation

Dictation exercises introduce and reinforce spelling and grammar concepts.

Charlotte recommends using inspiring quotations or Scripture for dictation. The child studies the passage until they are certain of the spelling and punctuation. Then the teacher dictates the passage slowly while the child writes it down.

Formal grammar study is usually delayed until age 10 or 11 in a Charlotte Mason education.

Photo by Wonderlane

Jamie’s thoughts on dictation today:

I definitely agree with the concept of delaying formal grammar study as a general idea. Aside from Mad Libs and chatting casually about grammar mistakes in real life (as an English major and author, grammar is very important to me!), we delayed this formally even longer than Charlotte.

We used Fix It Grammar for a while; I loved those workbooks! Dictation is a bit like copywork, which I listed as one of the things I’d do differently of if I could go back in time.

But dictation was not a top priority for us until the teen years, and it doesn’t have to be for you to homeschool well. Try it and then decide for yourself!

6. Art & Music Study

Charlotte Mason believed in exposing a child to greatness in many forms, which is why she introduced music and art appreciation at her schools.

In Charlotte’s schools, one composer or artist was studied each term–both through experiencing the music and art, reading living books about the artist, and perhaps reproducing the style through art or music lessons.

Jamie’s thoughts on art and music study today:

Of course it is beautiful to introduce art and music to a child, yes! If this an area of personal passion for you as a homeschooling parent, then please focus on it and share your own inspiration. That always makes for beautiful memories and learning moments!

However, if it feels rote, remember that it doesn’t have to be as formal as it was in Charlotte’s schools to make an impact over your entire homeschooling years. You are spreading a feast for your kids, as Charlotte used to say, but you are NOT force-feeding them. There is a difference!

7. Nature Study

Photo by James Wheare

Charlotte thought children should spend as much time as possible outdoors, especially as young students.

Students kept their own detailed nature journals as part of their nature study and also used nature guides to discover and identify the natural world in their neighborhood.

Jamie’s thoughts on nature study today:

You do not have to spend several hours outside daily to have your kids appreciate and benefit from nature. Some of CM’s quotes suggest otherwise, and if that fills you with guilt, remember to look at the heart behind it.

Nature inspires us and is and worth getting into whenever possible, but your kids aren’t doomed to failure if they miss a day or don’t spend six hours outside in the rain LOL! We never did nature journals, but I know other families who have and have loved them.

Good and terrifying news: You get to be your own expert, on this and every other decision!

*****

Charlotte Mason’s ideas created an educational revolution when she developed them. She hoped education would open the doors of equality and opportunity to all.

She believed that, regardless of what social class they belonged to, children deserved dignity and respect. <— THIS is my biggest Charlotte Mason takeaway. Use her ideas out of dignity and respect for your individual children; don’t use them out of fear of failing your kids or getting it wrong.

Never put any homeschool philosophy or method above a precious child of God!

Charlotte expressed the hope in many a homeschooling parent’s heart when she wrote the following:

“The question is not,—how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education—but how much does he care?

And about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? And, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”

Further Links to Learn More (UPDATED):

• Modern Miss Mason
• Heritage Mom
• Ambleside Online
• Living Books Curriculum
• What is the Charlotte Mason Method? (a good overview)
• When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy for Today
  
• A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
• For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School

Has your family incorporated any of Charlotte Mason’s ideas? Please share what has worked for you.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Embracing Nature Study and Time Spent Outdoors ~
Written by Amber O’Neal Johnston of Heritage Mom

Though Charlotte Mason’s philosophy is often yoked to historical time periods and living books, these things alone don’t comprise a complete CM experience. There are many facets to explore, and one in particular – nature study- is an aspect of her teachings that intrigued and terrified me in equal measure.

In her first volume, Mason states, “We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.” While this concept resonated deeply with me, I had to sit back and chuckle because I was raised in the air-conditioning and had no clue where to begin.

At around the same time that I was introduced to Charlotte Mason, a friend recommended that I read Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv in which the author directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

His book builds a compelling case for the idea that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development.

Upon finishing Louv’s book, I went back to Mason’s volumes and found this quote: “He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant.”

Armed with Mason’s charge and Louv’s research, I became determined to make time in nature a major part of our home life and, therefore, our homeschool.

This commitment ran so deep that we relocated to a property where our children can confront nature – wooded landscapes, lakes, a creek, and wildlife – steps from the back door. I quickly embraced the new environment, one that I’d been dreaming of for years, but determining exactly what to do once we headed outside proved to be more challenging.

Through that experience, I learned that the biggest obstacle to embracing time in nature is not scheduling, location, or weather. It’s me.

Once I committed to pursuing nature study in an intentional way, we slowly learned how to observe plants, animals, waterways, fields, and forests.

Although I, the teacher, knew next to nothing about the natural world, I clung to Louv’s words: “It’s a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it’s even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it’s a lot more fun.”

Embracing Nature Study and Time Spent Outdoors

If you’d like to spend more time in nature with your family but aren’t sure how to start, these tips that we’ve picked up along the way can help you get the most from your time outdoors:

Collect objects. Forest findings like pinecones, nutshells, and wood slices or beachcombing treasures such as shells or driftwood can ignite your children’s imaginations.

Create checklists. Making plans to visit all the national parks in your state, chasing waterfalls, or climbing the area’s most scenic mountains can motivate you to head out and check another wonder off your family’s list.

Bring an expert. Discovering natural treasures on your own and letting the beauty of the environment speak to you are incredible ways to approach nature. Still, sometimes there are neat things that you’re unlikely to uncover without a little expert help. Occasionally, consider asking a naturalist or experienced friend to join you for an excursion.

Invest in gear. Having the right gear for whatever kind of terrain or environment your family prefers is critical. Being overheated, cold, wet, hungry, or unprepared can ruin good intentions for time spent in nature.

Ask first: Every time you plan an activity with your kids, ask yourself, “Can we do this outside?” The honest answer may be no, but the times you can give an easy yes make the question completely worthwhile.

Each day that we can, my family embraces nature – sometimes to study something specific, occasionally to search for a favorite plant or find evidence of a familiar animal, and often with no expectations whatsoever.

My kids don’t know any other way of living, but this lifestyle is entirely new to me, and I’ve discovered a secret that I wish I’d known as a child: The woods make me come alive!

Whether you’re new to homeschooling or simply open to exploring a different approach to learning, I invite you to try integrating nature study and outdoor exploration into your routine.

Discover on your own how time spent outside can infuse your home education journey with simple pleasures and lifegiving ideas.

How do you incorporate nature and the outdoors into your homeschool?

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

“Oh my gosh, science is terrible,” I whispered to my husband as we made dinner the other night.

I’d just spent an hour helping our youngest kids build “model animal habitats” out of plastic baggies and straws, according to instructions in a science experiment book. (I’m pretty sure plastic and straws are more like animal hazards than animal homes, but that wasn’t mentioned in the book.)

I was whispering because I didn’t want the kids to overhear me, in case they accidentally agreed with me.

Prefer to listen instead?

“I kind of hate science.”

“Um,” he whispered back, “don’t you have a degree in science?”

Oh. Right. That is true. Research, discovery, questioning and revising our understanding of the world around us… I am a big fan of all these things.

Wait a minute, now I remember! I don’t hate science. I love science!

You know what I don’t love?

I don’t love digging through boxes of “science supplies” to find brass fasteners and tiny mirrors and a water balloon only to realize we still need cream of tartar and a toothpick, both of which we probably own but neither of which can we find.

I don’t love setting up “experiments” for elementary schoolers that could just as easily have been learned via “explanations” or maybe “a short YouTube clip.”

I don’t love projects that leave seven-year-olds frustrated that their “model ant” doesn’t look anything like a real ant, and that the project doesn’t answer any of their actual, legitimate questions about, well, anything, including ants. (For example: How does each ant know where to sleep in the anthill? Who assigns jobs in the ant colony? What’s the biggest ant in the world, what’s the smallest ant in the world, which ants bite, etc., etc.)

I don’t love setting up, then slogging through a project, then cleaning up, at the end of which my kids say: “Yeah, we already learned that from Wild Kratts.” Wild Kratts!

Instead of spending the whole afternoon on this, we could have learned it in 22 minutes, with no sticky substances spilled on the kitchen table!

I don’t hate science. I love science. I just don’t love the thing we were doing that was supposed to get our kids excited about science.

This is probably okay, seeing as I don’t remember doing any of these activities during my own elementary school career, and my science education still turned out fine.

Plus—my seven-year-old? She’s my sixth child. All my older kids have learned all about science, without me ever following a recipe for making a giant batch of kinetic sand!

So why were we doing this at all? Do you know who purchased the box of science supplies and the book that told us what to do with them? IT WAS ME. (My seven-year-old may feel that she is very grown up, but she does not have her own debit card for random purchases of batteries, paperclips, and Styrofoam trays.)

We usually go for interest-driven options that allow for independent learning around here. No one was even asking for a book of science experiments, so why did I buy this one that requires me to do all the experimenting?

I guess I was worried that my kids wouldn’t learn the scientific method without it, so I clicked “buy now.” I’m not endorsing that train of thought—it lacks logic, or even, like, thinking two steps ahead—I’m just reconstructing the events that got us here.

Luckily, even though I seem to have forgotten an important life lesson about not buying stuff you don’t want to use, I have learned this: you don’t have to finish everything you start.

There are things worth sticking to, for sure. But if a learning activity is sucking the joy out of learning, or the life force out of you, or the love out of science, that is not a thing to hold on to.

If you (or your kids) suddenly hate science—or read-alouds, or history, or your morning routine—it’s probably not you, and it’s probably not science. (Just like it’s probably not books, or history, or mornings.) It might just be the WAY you’re doing those things.

When something just isn’t working, it’s at least worth asking the question: Is this how this kid learns best? Is this how I work best as a parent? Is there another way? Is there a way that we might find challenging, sure, but also rewarding? Is there one of those?

For us, for science, the answer was yes, there is a better way. There were lots of ways my kids were already learning about science, and they really didn’t need a box of magnets and paperclips and two sizes of eyedroppers to spark their interest.

It turns out, I didn’t buy the science stuff to meet an actual educational need. I bought it because of a momentary worry that we might be missing something. There’s a difference.

So I put the box of science supplies away in the closet where I hide things to see if anyone ever asks for them again. (So far, no one has.) I closed the door on the whole thing. We don’t have to finish everything we start, and this was one thing we could let go.

And you know what?

Just like that, I love science all over again.

Do you also need the reminder that you don’t have to finish everything you start in your homeschool? What’s something that you recently put away in your closet, LOL?!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

“Now I don’t have to die to go to heaven,” my son grinned. “It’s right here.”

We were walking along the trails zig-zagging through the wild countryside of the property we would soon call home. Towering trees, low-hanging limbs laden with moss, a pond and trickling creek, old-growth stumps — it was all so lush and green and vast — as far as the eye could see.

But even as spectacular as the scenery was, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Seeing his wonder–rapture really–as he explored and discovered, head tilted back, gazing straight up, pointing here and there, “Mom, red-tailed hawks!”

I couldn’t believe this was where, Lord willing, our kids would grow up.

I grew up out in the country, and took for granted the gold-mine that was my backyard. I grew up hiking through the woods, forging the river to a friends’ house, building forts from limbs and twigs, climbing trees, planting gardens, holding still and silent watching the deer creep by.

These days, though, it seemed you had to choose between a roof over your children’s heads OR a piece of land, so I had long ago given up the idea of raising my own kids out in the woods.

So, when we fell into this gift of a place, that had a roof and land, I knew it was meant for more than just our own personal pleasure — I wanted the gift of nature to bless others as well.

All this was happening as I was reading Charlotte Mason’s The Outdoor Life of Children. Of course other books like Simplicity Parenting and Boys Should be Boys had said the same thing in a more contemporary context:

Regular exposure to nature is critical for the mental, emotional, physical, and intellectual health and development of children.

So, when my friend suggested that I host a homeschool co-op every Friday out here on our property, I enthusiastically agreed.

Actually I didn’t.

See, I wanted to bless others with our property, but a co-op made me cringe. I like the idea, and know they are a great benefit to many (Kris gives great ideas here), I just couldn’t fathom adding another responsibility and commitment to our already full lives.

So imagine my relief when all the interested moms gathered together at our property, and as we brainstormed about possible ideas and structures, the one unifying theme that tied all our hopes together was simply this:

We all just wanted Nature.

Most of us had already dialed in the 3 R’s for our kids. They were already involved in scholastic activities and even outside lessons.

No one wanted another thing that required much prep. What we all wished for was simply this: time for our kids to freely enjoy nature, with other kids, every week.

And so, Nature Day was born.

It is nothing impressive, just a time from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Fridays, for our kids of all ages to gather together for the sole purpose of enjoying nature together.

We usually have a “Nature Mission” during the first hour, some challenge for the kids to do either on their own or together. Then we enjoy a sack lunch together outside, and allow the rest of the afternoon for the kids to play and explore outside.

When we began, I was bursting with ideas for potential nature missions:

• Build a tree fort
• Scavenger hunt
• Leaf collection & identification
• Survival skills (start fire, filter water, build shelter)
• Holiday cards made from nature
• Field Guide practice
• Bird watching and identification
• Make homemade bird food
• Build a bird house
• Pond science
• Flower and leaf pressing
• Seed germinating
• Gardening (each have small plot)

We haven’t done all of these yet. It turned out that my kids are the oldest, so some of my ideas were a little lofty (4-year-olds should’t build fires?), and some days we simply go for a hike together and call it good.

And I mean that, we call it good because fresh air and time together and exploring the glory of God’s creation is just that — good.

The other moms have also done a great job coming up with fun activities like mushroom spore-prints, “stained glass” leaf window-hangings, and leaf turkeys for Thanksgiving. Scavenger hunts are always a win, and you can switch things up for each season, so that’s fun.

Next year, another family will have moved out to some land near us, so we’re looking forward to rotating who hosts Nature Day each week. While I’m thrilled to share our space, it will be nice to go elsewhere from time to time as well. Which brings me to my point:

You don’t have to live in the wilderness to host a Nature Day.

There are so many places — parks, wildlife refuges, local hikes and national forests — all it takes to host a Nature Day is a group of families who want to opt outside.

I love Jessica’s simple suggestions in this post. Perhaps even this Spring might be the perfect time to add something fresh into your weekly routine and transform Fridays into Nature Day.

Here are some supplies and inspiration:

• Our favorite Nature Journal.
• Some field guides we love. (We find them used at Exodus, our local book store.)
• Pocket microscope.
• Magnifying glasses. (Heidi has this one.)

And now, your turn! What are ways you incorporate Nature Study into your homeschool routine? Share your ideas!

This post contains affiliate links.

Finding the right resource for your homeschool at the right time is a breath of fresh air. It can feel like the missing link, the answer you’ve been looking for, the perfect fit as you enter a new season.

In our home this year, Trishna (10) and Jonathan (9) have moved solidly into a new period of learning, called Love of Learning Phase. (If the phases of learning are new to you, you can find an overview here.)

This new phase has come with increased interest in academics, and therefore, more work for this mama as I try to keep up with them!

Through that work, we’ve come across six resources that are currently working really well in our home. Here they are in case they might work for you, too.

1. Little Passports

I’ve had my eye on Little Passports for a while, so I was excited to try it out as one of their affiliates. It hasn’t disappointed us!

Each month we journey the world alongside the imaginary characters of Sam and Sofia. In the mail once a month a package arrives containing worksheets, postcards, little trinkets, and a “boarding pass” for online games they can do relating to that month’s country.

What an awesome, fun way to learn geography–the kids and I love it! As well as the world edition, Little Passports has a USA version too. It explores two states each month.

The website recommends the world version for ages 5 to 10 and the USA version for ages 7 to 12.

2. Teaching Cursive! This Method Works

I invited Trishna to learn cursive with me this year, and since she loves all things writing she gave an excited yes to the idea. So I started an online search to find the best way to teach her. I wanted a really simple method that would allow us to make a little progress each day.

We totally scored with our discovery of Teaching Cursive! This Method Works by Linda Corson. A simple, spiral-bound book, it starts with the easiest strokes and letters and proceeds to more difficult ones.

The lessons (56 in total) take only 10-15 minutes a day, and that has also been a great fit. It’s long enough to learn something, but not enough to feel overwhelming.

This book contains the instructions/syllabus for teaching – your child doesn’t write in it, making it good to use with multiple children. I enjoy these lessons, too (& that matters for keeping up the inspiration value in our home!)

3. Learning Ally

Learning Ally, a God-send resource for our family, popped into our lives at exactly the right time. I had been praying for a tool that would help my daughter fall more deeply in love with books. She enjoys picture books, but due to a visual impairment needs large print to read.

Most chapter books for kids use standard small print, so that left her unable to read them independently. She isn’t ready for her own Kindle yet, so I had been on the hunt for something to help us through these middle years.

Then we stumbled onto Learning Ally and hallelujah! We found exactly what we needed. It’s an audio book resource for adults or children with visual impairments or dyslexia. Designed with those two groups in mind, you need a doctor’s note confirming your child’s diagnosis.

Once the proper forms have been completed and you’ve paid the annual fee, you have access to an entire library of over 75,000 books (!)–from young child through adult–to download and listen to on iPad, phone, wherever. Love this so much.

4. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

I plan to write more about this book soon, but thought it deserves a quick mention here. This scripted, formulaic approach to reading is not something I ever saw myself using as an interest-led learning mama, yet it has been the perfect fit for my Elijah (8).

And isn’t that what matters most?!

We started just over two months ago, and he’s already on lesson 80! Initially we tackled two lessons a day because of the letter sounds and combinations he already knew. Now that we’ve moved on to the more intense lessons, we’ve scaled back to one a day. He’s on track to finish before Christmas!

5. The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name

I’ve read the Bible all my life, and have read Bible stories for years to my little people. Yet this is the first children’s Bible that has actually made me tear up mid-sentence.

What an inspiring way to show how the Bible works together as one book, how it all connects and points to Jesus!

Stunningly beautiful and highly recommended.

6. Project Feederwatch

An overview:

“Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America.

FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution.”

This year’s bird count began earlier this month, but it’s not too late to join in! They ship kits out through February and counts can be submitted through April. This is open to bird watchers in both the US and Canada.

We’re having such fun identifying the birds at our feeder, counting them, and then reporting them via the online tracking system.

How about you? What resources have been working well and enhancing the love of learning in your home?

I’m not sure I would have been a very good homeschooler fifteen years ago. You see, the internet is such a valuable, expansive place for us. I’m amazed nearly every day by the endless variety of resources available, both free and paid.

We love our home-based and in town libraries, but there came a point in my daughter’s development where she craved something more formal. She wanted accountability beyond mom and dad. Lacking the right fit (so far) with a good homeschool co-op, we started looking around online for classes.

At fourteen years old, she is naturally ready for more.

This year we’ve had the opportunity to explore three different online learning tools/courses, each with varying degrees of formality and expense – I’d love to tell you about them today.

1. Family Herbalist Course

This is an eighteen month distance learning class created by Vintage Remedies. I’ll be honest, I campaigned for this one. I thought it would be fun to take a class with my daughter, and the idea of practical real life skills as part of our learning experience is something I’m always a fan of. The cost of this class is considerable, but it is a long program. Homeschoolers often stretch it to two years due to student breaks and vacations. Also, if you order a second set of materials (for a second family member), those are 50% off.

This course was not originally designed for homeschoolers, but word is spreading and it’s becoming popular among those in upper grades. (Vintage Remedies will be at Great Homeschool Conventions this year if you’d like to check them out in person.)

There is a more introductory course offered, but my professional background is in holistic nutrition so I thought we’d be okay with our choice, and it seems we are.

In The Family Herbalist Course,  students take exams, write research and philosophical papers, complete hands on projects, study health scenarios and design treatment plans (that is toward the end of the course), and so much more. This is truly an integrated program filled with chemistry, nature study, holistic nutrition and health, botany, aromatherapy, cooking, history, and of course, herbalism. 

My only criticism would be that the course name doesn’t capture the full scope this program offers; it is so much more than an herbalist course. Until you hold these books in your hands you can’t appreciate the many things you are about to learn.

2. Brave Writer

I learned about Brave Writer through Renee, she talked about one of their books, The Writer’s Jungle. I followed the ever so fun internet trail and found my way to Brave Writer’s online class offerings, and we chose Passion for Fiction.

This was our first attempt at a mom and dad hands off class. Emily loved it. She really needed something that was just hers, another ‘teacher’ she could do right by. She was also looking for a peer experience where she could interact in an academic setting.

There was a bit of a learning curve for me when it came to navigating the classroom and assignments, though Emily seemed to have no trouble at all (kids). After just a few days I was comfortably checking in behind the scenes on how things were going, and I was very pleased.

This class is “expensive.” I mark that with quotations because it’s all relative isn’t it? How do we put a price tag on quality learning? Well, we have budgets to stick to, that’s how.  I think most would understand, at $200, I expected quite a lot from this four week class. I mean, if I were to keep her in Brave Writer classes throughout the school year, this could really add up!

What I found is that it was worth it for us. Assignments were  posted by a certain due date in the virtual classroom to be read by the teacher (Nancy) and fellow students. Nancy gave incredibly detailed and supportive critical feedback on student work. I wondered if this level of feedback (paragraphs, at times) would be possible in a typical school setting.  She was also very prompt with email replies when Emily had a question.

My favorite part about Nancy’s teaching style (and I think it’s an important talent for anyone teaching online to have) is her ability to take the screen away with her conversational tone and genuine interest in these young writers. I think Emily found the student/teacher connection she was looking for.

Students also commented on each other’s work. There were no more than 25 students in the class with a nice age range of 12-18 years – which appeals to my belief in multi-aged learning environments.

Class ended last week, and I’m hoping to see some kind of report or overview from her teacher, but I’m not certain that is part of the deal. It would be nice though, to meet up with parents on the backside of things.

3. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

A few months ago we moved to the country and have thoroughly enjoyed the abundance of birds in our backyard. Soon after unpacking our boxes we set out to the farm store and bought ourselves a bird feeder. Each and every day we were identifying various birds, sometimes by the dozen.

A blog reader reminded me of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a wonderful resource we’ve enjoyed for years but hadn’t visited in a while. In particular she told me of their Project FeederWatch program. We didn’t know about that!

$15 in materials later and we felt like semi-professional scientists helping the researchers at Cornell. Highly recommended! We make our reports via a special website.

From their website:

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.

Like any family, we consider our unique circumstances when forging our path in life and in learning.  We try to remain open to the changing interests and needs of our growing-so-quickly daughter, expanding our classroom to the virtual world is an example of that, and it has been a positive experience for us.

Have you tried online classes? What has your experience been?

This past spring all of us here at Simple Homeschool shared our curriculum choices. In my contribution to that series I talked about the curriculum we’ve used so far for elementary reading, writing, and math.

But of course there is a lot more to our homeschool routine than just those subjects.

Today I want to share how we teach science to our elementary aged children in the context of every day life, without a set curriculum.

I have found science to be one of the easiest “subjects” to teach our children.

I know it will get trickier as they get into the higher grades and so we plan to start using curriculum sometime during the junior high years.

But so far interest-led science has worked well for us.

Here are the four methods we’ve used.

Nature Study

Nature study is a popular practice among homeschoolers and for good reason – it’s a wonderful, hands-on way to learn about the natural world.

Although we often think of nature study as being for young students (in the Charlotte Mason tradition at least) famous naturalists like John James Audubon spent a lifetime doing nature study.

Nature study isn’t a precursor to real science it is real science.

Much has been written about the why’s and how’s of nature study, including last Friday’s post and other great posts here at Simple Homeschool.

Here’s a few more places to check out:

• The Magnifying Glass A collaborative online nature journal
• Nature Study, FIMBY Style It doesn’t all have to look like classic CM
• Life Sized Field Guides from Journey into Unschooling
• The Outdoor Hour, Nature Study Close to Home Home of the popular blog carnival
• Nature Study in action at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Play

One of my children’s favorite activities is to build paper airplanes. My son particularly enjoys this and I’ve found a few how-to books over the years to encourage this activity.

I sometimes question encouraging this activity as planes whiz over my head and land in awkward places around the house.

Photo by Renee Tougas

Building paper airplanes is play. Building paper airplanes is also the beginnings of the study of aerodynamics.

Your child’s day is full of this kind of play.

Building, mixing, taking stuff apart. Digging, planting, putting stuff back together.

Many of these will make a mess of your kitchen, living room, and yard but it’s very worth it, science is necessarily hands-on.

Children’s play is not “supplemental” to their learning. It is their learning.

The connections they make in their own minds as they build paper airplanes, mix baking soda and vinegar, plant a garden, and dig in the backyard lay the foundation for their future study of physics, chemistry, biology, and geology (to name just a few).

Photo by Renee Tougas

So much of what children do, the activities they naturally engage in, are scientific inquiries. If you follow their lead you’ll find ways to use their play as a jumping off point to study a scientific subject more in-depth.

Questions

This winter my husband and son took a day trip to the New England Aquarium because my son loves the ocean and aquatic animals. Marine biologist is one his many “when I grow up” aspirations.

The destination itself was a science activity. But one of the conversations they had in the car on the way there triggered a whole separate study in mechanics.

It all started with a question, “Daddy, how does that machine work?”

Questions are the first step in the scientific method. Children ask lots of questions. It’s how they learn. Children then are little scientists in their own right.

Teaching your children science can be as easy as helping them find the answers to their questions. Thank goodness for Google.

My own son’s question about machines led to an explanation about hydraulics (my husband’s an engineer and can explain this pretty easily, it would have required some investigation on my part) and subsequent child-led study.

Photo by Renee Tougas

This wasn’t part of any curriculum and wasn’t in my “lessons plans”. It all started with a question and willingness to help our children understand their world.

Kids are hard wired to ask questions and seek explanations. In other words, they are hard wired for science.

Reading

Reading is intertwined with the above three points but is also a stand alone science activity.

You read when you use your guide book to identify plants, follow the instructions in the paper airplane book or look up the answer to your question.

Not everything we learn about science is always initiated through nature, play, and questions. This is where reading is so important.

Having a variety of science books on hand (with a homeschool libary or regular visits to your public library) will expose children to ideas they might not otherwise encounter.

I can’t even begin to list all the science exploration we’ve done this way. Sitting on the couch or around the kitchen table.

Our children have loved David Macaulay’s Way Things Work and The Way We Work. We also own a variety of children’s science reference books published by DK and Usborne, to name a few.

Photo by Renee Tougas

Our goal for elementary science is not to cram our kids’ heads with scientific facts and information they have little use for. Instead we explore the natural world, build brain connections with hands-on inquiry (play), encourage and answer questions, and discover new ideas with good books.

Early years science–it’s “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

What are your goals for elementary science? What methods do you use?

Though we’re not always consistent with including it, nature study is one of our favorite ways to spend some of our homeschool day.

It’s fun, relaxing, interest-led learning in a real-world, hands-on environment.

Following are five tips for making nature study an anticipated part of your family’s education (because you’ll be learning, too, Mom):

1. Utilize The Handbook of Nature Study – The Book and the Blog

The Handbook of Nature Study, by Anna Comstock is the comprehensive nature study book. Written by the late founder of the Department of Nature Study at Cornell University, this detailed reference guide was originally written for elementary school teachers.

The first few chapters explain the how’s and why’s of nature study. After that, the volume is broken down into sections on animals, plants, earth and sky. The sub-sections and the index make it easy to find information on nearly any nature-related subject imaginable.

The Handbook of Nature Study blog offers fantastic direction for getting started, from the Outdoor Hour Challenges, which encourage you to get out and study nature as a family, to notebooking and journaling pages. It was the blog’s author, Barb, whose passion for nature study ignited the interest in our family.

Photo by Kris

2. Keep a Nature Journal

Yes, this means you, too, Mom. When your kids see you getting excited about nature study, they’ll get excited, too.  I modeled my nature journal after a picture of one I saw in The Handbook of Nature Study.

I did not put any expectations on my kids’ journals. I wanted it to be something they wanted to do, not something they had to do. I encouraged them to draw pictures, make rubbings of leaves, tape leaves to the pages, or even include quotes or poetry, like I enjoyed doing, but I didn’t require it.

A good resource for getting started with a nature journal is Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles Roth.

3. Give Everyone a Camera

This may not be feasible in every family, but at this point in our family’s lives, each of my kids has their own digital camera – either a hand-me-down or one they’ve received as a gift. We all see the world differently as evidenced by the variety of photos we take.

My kids seem to enjoy nature study more when they are encouraged to photo journal our outings with pictures of the things that catch their interest. We rarely go on a nature walk with a detailed agenda. I may encourage the kids to look for things like different types of tree bark or a variety of mushrooms, but generally I like to just let them look for things that catch their attention.

Photo by Kris

4. Pack a Nature Backpack

We keep a nature backpack in our van so that we don’t have to worry about forgetting something and so that we’re prepared for impromptu nature walks. Included in our backpack are:

• Nature journals
• Pencil boxes with colored pencils, writing pencils, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener
• Binoculars
• Magnifying glass
• Sandwich bags (in case we find an interesting specimen to bring home)
• Field guides

5. Join a Nature Center

Some of you may be blessed with great places to observe nature in your own backyard. If, however, you’re like us and live in a subdivision, you may want to join a nature center. We have a couple of options in our area and the inexpensive membership was well worth having a place where we knew we could go hiking and be sure to see different types of plants, animals, and birds.

Don’t overlook nature preserves or national parks in your area either. These are typically free and offer some great opportunities to observe nature.

Photo by Kris

Nature study doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – a complicated undertaking that adds more stress to your life. I encourage you to utilize these tips to get out and see how enjoyable and relaxing it can be to explore the world around us.

Do you include nature study in your homeschool? What tips would you add?

It all started with a little red berry. A little red berry and a toddler. I had taken my children to the park to play. My daughter, a toddler at the time, was roaming about the playground, just a few feet away, and then disappeared from my view around a corner.

I was after her immediately, only to find her in a clump of red berry bushes, saying “Eat. Eat.” Not knowing what they were or if she had managed to eat one or not, we grabbed a few twigs off the bush and loaded up in the car.

We stopped at my husband’s work, a mere 1/2 mile away where he went to the landscaping department with a twig to identify. I headed to the nearby City Hall and Library.

After phone calls with Poison Control and our pediatrician’s office as well as a visit to the City Parks Department, we determined that the plant was harmless and that she would be fine, whether or not she had consumed a berry.

Mother’s heart attack averted.

In the meantime, my teenage son was doing some research at the library. His topic?

Edible Wild Foliage

This little scavenging experience had prompted him to wonder whether or not there were plants outside of a vegetable garden that could be eaten safely. In fact, he discovered a whole world of information and experiences in the realm of wild, edible foliage.

What ensued was our family’s journey into following a child’s lead in education. I learned so much, directed by my son’s interests and his love of learning.

(Wow! Maybe this whole homeschooling experiment is working!)

Following Your Child’s Interests

Depending on the subject at hand, I recommend this as an enriching opportunity for the whole family. Consider these questions when assessing a subject to pursue:

• is it safe?
• does it fit your family’s mission?
• can it lead to further enriching study?

We established that hiking and discovering wild, edible foliage fit those three criteria. We knew that this was an established hobby based on the vast number of books on the subject. We knew that, as a family, we wanted to enjoy the great outdoors more, even though I am a total nature wimp. We knew that a study of botany would pay off both as an interest and as an academic pursuit.

So we set off on a journey. Here’s are three tips I learned along the way:

Encourage

Jump in. Your kid’s interest in rockets, dinosaurs, or what plants you can eat along the trail may not be the same as yours. However, we want them to be lifelong learners. If they know we are willing to accompany them down the path, they are reassured of our support as well as our companionship.

Tell others. By sharing the news with others who care about your child and his education, he gains even more supporters. The grandparents have latched onto this activity with both hands, providing books and tools to further the investigation. Even my publisher got into the act by sending my son a cookbook on the topic, The Wild Vegan Cookbook by Steve Brill, a leading expert on edible wild foliage.

Provide opportunities. Since we want to keep this adventure safe and fun, my husband takes the kids hiking. While it involves a little amount of work in loading people up and arriving at the destination, my son appreciates the efforts and the whole family is involved.

Equip

Once you’ve determined a subject to pursue, you’re going to need to tool up. By providing books, equipment, and companionship, your child has what he needs to learn about his new hobby and explore his world, supported by you, his primary teachers.

Enjoy

You’d be surprised at how infectious this new interest can be. In our case, since I knew my son was open to eating new wild foods, I kept my eyes open to new cultivated foods, like cress, mustard greens, eggplant, and prickly pear. We’ve enjoyed foods that we wouldn’t otherwise have explored, thanks to this new interest, and even created some new recipes in the process.

What started as a toddler’s exploration of a park plant transformed into a teenager’s interests and hobbies and a complete botany study. It’s been a wild adventure, literally. Yet, it’s been full of laughter and learning. What more could I ask for?

How do you follow your child’s interests in learning?

Written by contributor Heather Bruggeman of Beauty That Moves

Of the many gifts that come with homeschooling, the one I am truly loving right now is the freedom to make changes as needed. Doesn’t it seem rather impossible to sit down over the summer and plan an entire school year, sight unseen, knowing how the whole thing will unfold?

Despite careful research and planning, the science curriculum we chose was all wrong for our daughter.

And it wasn’t for lack of trying. Several approaches, on our part and hers were put forth in an effort to find a workable place with this text. We very carefully considered the idea of switching before doing so. Sure, we invested good money in the book; but more importantly, we value commitment and dedication, and do our best to instill those same values in our daughter. We didn’t want to send the wrong message.

You can’t walk away from everything in life that isn’t super fun.

I don’t expect her to feel warm and fuzzy about every single part of our school day. As humans we need to grow and stretch ourselves in new directions. It’s okay to be bored sometimes, to persevere at other times, be diligent, work hard. As a family, we value all of that.

However, it is also important to know when your child isn’t persevering, they’re enduring. There is a difference.

The writing on the wall says it’s time to make a change.

How did we know it was time to move on?

The subject was not self initiated.

• Yes, I believe a little struggle builds character, but having a bad day or a bad chapter in a subject is not the same as almost never having a good day.

There was no lingering.

• We look for the lingering moments as homeschoolers, don’t we? The lesson provokes an idea that leads to research and ten books checked out of the library. The concept is applied to all sorts of play long after ‘school’ is over.

She used to love this subject.

• Years prior, in school and in play, science was always thought of as cool, fun, interesting! Now the spark was totally gone and there was only one variable in the equation.

It was over the holidays that we made the exciting decision to switch – because we can, we’re homeschoolers! We are free to redirect ourselves as needed, and it felt incredibly good to put that freedom into action.

How are things now?

I am not kidding when I tell you that all is not only good in our science world, things are excellent and there is even talk about it being a “favorite” subject.

• There are twice weekly experiments.
• A “lab journal” that is added to with each experiment.
• The textbook layout aligns with my daughter’s learning style (orderly).
• Assignments are well organized.
• Critical names, dates, definitions are nice and bold, italicized, featured.
• Lessons flow with a familiar sequence.
• A companion DVD contains supplemental videos and demonstrations.

The reason we let go of one curriculum (Oak Meadow – Physical Science) and made a new choice mid-year (Apologia – General Science) has little to do with one being better than the other. They are designed very differently–and that has made all the difference for the style of learner my daughter is.

My daughter likes the systematic flow that Apologia offers. Modules are well organized with key words and phrases clearly emphasized. There are plenty of experiments that work well and are presented in a clear step-by-step approach with a useful list of supplies for each one. There is a pre-test and and a final test with each Module, giving a sense of completion and accomplishment (for kids that seek that type of experience). These are all methods that work for her as opposed to the slightly more organic approach of Oak Meadow. Assignments and experiments are more blended into the lessons, sometimes catching us by surprise from paragraph to paragraph.

For us, it was about finding the correct style with which to deliver the content.

It is so easy as a parent to wonder – am I doing this right, was that the best choice, do I show enough grace and patience? We can be pretty hard on ourselves. So indulge me as I get a little mileage out of this (not so minor) success…

We didn’t love science, and now we do love science. All because we read the writing on the wall and decided not to worry about the financial investment of the first curriculum, but rather focus on the overall investment of the human experience. I think we got this one right.

Have you had a recent highlight in your homeschool? Big or small, tell us about it.