Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived 1842-1923. Although she did not have children of her own to homeschool, she taught governesses how to teach their charges. Her teaching philosophy is often called the Charlotte Mason (CM) method.
When I was studying education in college, I had to study various educational philosophies and write my own. At that time, I chose a classical approach which certainly did not evidence itself in my years of teaching language arts in public schools. But many years later when life’s circumstances plunged me into homeschooling, I gravitated towards a literature based style. As I researched, I discovered that Charlotte Mason espoused a living education, full of living books. The more I read, the more I saw CM was a good fit for my daughter. Over the years, we have loosely used a CM approach to education. With Sprite now in 7th grade, I feel it has served us well and will take us into high school without any problem.
People often ask what books I recommend for learning about CM. To be honest, you should go straight to the source and read CM’s Home Education. It is in the public domain and even has a modern day translation if you find the Victorian English difficult to understand.
When I blog about CM, I tend to lean towards the practical application of principles. If you are new to my blog or to CM, I recommend you start with my Charlotte Mason Q & A . That page lists my best CM blog posts, all of which offer a practical look at applying CM to a daily routine. Another good starting place is Charlotte Mason Basics which gives a broad overview of what makes up a CM education.
Charlotte Mason Areas
Implementing a CM homeschool can see overwhelming at first. My best advice as you transition to CM is to start small. Choose living books and narration first. Master the use of those foundations first and then move on to a single other area (some options are listed below). Once it is established as a habit, add on another area, keeping the first, until you have converted your homeschool style to your satisfaction.
If you have questions about implementing the Charlotte Mason philosophy, please leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer it in a blog post.