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Combining Charlotte Mason and Thomas Jefferson Education
I discovered the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling early on in our homeschooling journey. I loved the idea of reading aloud to my children, and did not take a lot of convincing to leave behind most text books and embrace a literature based approach to educating my children. During the pre-school years we had spent much time enjoying reading together. Once “real schoolwork” started we, like most new homeschoolers, bought text books and began “teaching”. Somehow we had less time to read aloud. I was introduced to the Charlotte Mason method, and enthusiastically bought Karen Andreola's book “The Charlotte Mason Companion”. It was like a breath of fresh air, and I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly to this more relaxed approach, and the excuse to schedule reading aloud into our homeschool day. We began implementing Charlotte's ideas:
• Reading aloud “living” books
• Narration
• Picture Study
• Music Appreciation
• Learning Science from Nature (although ours is modified from the real CM approach described below)
• Mother Culture
• Self Education
• The Happiness of Habit
For those of you unfamiliar with the Charlotte Mason approach, here are some quick definitions:
“Living” books
Sometimes called “Classic” books – these are books you can learn something more from each time you re-read them. They are books you enjoy. In a sense, you form a relationship with the author. Written by a single author, never a committee, the love and passion the author has for his/her subject flows out from the book and makes a connection within the heart and/or mind of the reader (or hearer, in the case of children listening to it read aloud). The term “living” can also be applied to other fine arts – a musical composition, or a painting, for example.
Narration
Is the art of telling back what you have read (or heard being read). When a child has listened to a story, a chapter, or a paragraph (depending on age and ability, and the length of the book), he “tells back” what he has heard. Young children often do this naturally, and can do so with fantastic accuracy and detail, and many times amusing imaginative flair. Narration is a wonderful skill for us all to learn. To be able to narrate, the child must first of all pay attention to the reading. He must absorb it in such a way that he understands, then he must put the thoughts he has heard into his own words – he must get the facts in order, and be able to articulate his thoughts. His vocabulary increases remarkably as he tries out unfamiliar words he has heard, incorporating them into his re-telling.
Picture Study and Music Appreciation
Charlotte Mason encouraged the study of one artist at a time. An artist's pictures should be displayed, usually one or two at a time, in a prominent place in the home. From time to time have the children look closely at the picture, talk about the detail you see, narrate the picture – either tell about it or try to draw it. Play the composer's music. Read about the musician/artist's life.
Nature Study
Spend time outdoors! Enjoy picnics at the park, beach, or forest. Charlotte kept a Nature Notebook, and required her students to do the same. Any creature, flower, leaf or rock could be sketched into the notebook. Much detail the eye would normally miss is discovered when required to study an object closely enough to copy it. Comparisons can be drawn between the object and other subjects studied previously, and relationships noted. Discussion should take place, with the mother providing knowledgeable information from her field guide. The sketches should be labelled with the common and Latin name, and any other information the child wishes to record. Sometimes a diagram may be drawn, such as the parts of a flower. The Notebook can also be a place to copy poems about nature, or a quote from a book, or verse of scripture which has inspired the child.
Mother Culture
This is simply time for mother to read, reflect, and “recharge”. With all the giving out that a homeschooling mother does each day, she needs inspiration and encouragement going in as well. Take time to do something you enjoy, read challenging, interesting, and enjoyable books, most importantly, spend time each day with God.
Self Education
Each child begins educating himself as soon as he can think. Soon he learns to speak, and his education explodes with the ability to ask questions. Children must be lead to continue this self education throughout their lives. To take the responsibility for their own growing knowledge is crucial to a child's education. In the Charlotte Mason method, this is achieved through a steady diet of the best books, combined with narration. The child becomes engrossed and intrigued in the book, it becomes a part of him, and his enthusiasm to narrate serves to increase his retention, build comprehension, composition, and oral presentation skills.
The happiness of Habit
Habits are easily formed, both good and bad. Charlotte exhorts us to form good habits. Much as a railway track, once laid, is easily followed, so too, setting a schedule, or routine and disciplining yourself and your children to follow it, will become our natural path for the day. When good habits are established we need no longer spend time thinking about doing them, they become our automatic response.
After a few years, I came across another homeschooling approach, through a book called the Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver Van DeMille. Andrew Pudewa, from the Institute for Excellence in Writing, introduced the book at a conference I attended. After buying this book, I set about reading and putting it into practice.
Like Charlotte, Oliver stresses the importance of self-education. He says that for learning to take place, the student must take responsibility. The parent is not a “teacher”, so much as a “facilitator”.
The other important components of a Thomas Jefferson Education are “Classics” and “Mentors”.
When classic books are read, studied and discussed with a mentor, the student learns to think. He is not taught “what to think” (as in a fill-in-the-blank or multichoice text book), nor is he taught “when to think” (as in training for a specific job or profession), but “how to think”.
The parent reads the same books as the child (when old enough to read on their own). As the child's mentor, the parent must think about the book and ask herself the questions she will later ask the student. These questions must be open-ended, and provide meat for discussion with the student. The student should be guided to think for himself, and not merely parrot off the “correct” answer. The student learns to express his views and present them in a discussion with others in a group setting, or even in a debate.
This growing ability to think – to ask questions of himself and others – equips the student to be self-governing. He will become a leader in whatever sphere he finds himself – someone who will think “outside the box”, not lamely following the crowd, like the “fill-in-the-blank, multichoice” student will.
I have found that the Charlotte Mason method and Thomas Jefferson Education model work very well together. I tend to lean more towards Charlotte Mason for the younger children (when TJEd says they should be in the “love of learning” stage – setting foundations, good habits, and values). Once they have the foundations of reading and writing in place it is time to add some “meat” with TJEd. Even as young children, of course, many of the books you read aloud will be “classics”, and you will naturally discuss the books as you read and they narrate. The books will get more difficult as the child matures, and the discussions will become more challenging. Wonderful spiritual insights can come to light as you and your student dig deeply into classic books. The characters' values and morals (or lack of), and the consequences of these make great springboards for discussion on Biblical versus our culture's worldview. Your child will benefit from learning his own lessons from the decisions, good and bad, characters make. He will revel in the triumph of good over evil, and empathise with the downtrodden. Particularly in those young people who choose to challenge their parents' views, classic books will speak volumes into their lives without your having to point out the lesson.
So my advice is, start out with Charlotte Mason's methods, read, narrate, discuss, get the basics, the foundations of learning, habits of discipline, and values of the Bible. Begin to move into Thomas Jefferson Education when your student is ready –continue to read and discuss, and gradually require more of your student in the way of expressing his ideas – both in oral and written presentations. Watch your children bloom and grow into thoughtful, intelligent, excited young people with a love of life-long learning.
