Without Doors Charlotte Mason Curriculum

Artist study is an important part of your student’s educational feast, leading to a rich education. Charlotte Mason encourages students to study one artist at a time. Slowing down and narrowing the focus to a single artist will result in absorbing the beautiful work and contribution of one life.

Below are 5 simple steps to a successful artist study:

1. Choose an artist to focus on for the term.
2. Learn about the artist’s childhood, training, and contributions. Narrate the story of their life.
3. Study one of the artist’s best paintings each week. To do a picture study, look at the painting intently for several minutes with your students. Remove the image and ask your students to narrate what they saw. Narrate what you saw.
4. Display the painting in your home. Ask questions to further guide your students’ observations.
   What type of colors are used?
   How did the artist use space?
   How did the artist use proportion?
   If you could ask the artist a question, what would you ask?
   What would you title this painting?
   Did you like this painting?
   What did this painting make you think of?
5. Give your students an opportunity to create art inspired by the artist study.

Discover the joy of including artist and picture study in your educational feast!

Every child’s ‘Book of Centuries’ should bear witness to ‘a liberal and generous diet of History’…The children should be free to enter on their pages events and drawings which have interested them in their wide general reading of History (that ‘inexhaustible storehouse of ideas’) and of Literature.

The Book of Centuries and How to Keep One, by G.M. Bernau
A Book of Centuries is a timeline notebook in which each century is given a two-page spread. Charlotte Mason insisted on keeping it simple so students could view an entire century with just one glance.

Students age 10+ should add history dates, events, and people to their Book of Centuries. It will be an ongoing project over the course of their education.

Students should spend approximately 5-10 minutes per week adding important historical details from their weekly lessons. Making a visual connection between people and events by using a Book of Centuries will help students value and retain historical details from their lessons. Over time, they will begin to notice the interesting web of history.

A Book of Centuries is most engaging if students are also involved in choosing the people, dates, and events that are meaningful to them from their lessons. For this reason, begin a Book of Centuries by adding important family dates, such as birthdays and anniversaries.

The Book of Centuries is not limited to history lessons. When learning about historical people/events in any subject area, add details to the Book of Centuries. Examples of things to include in a Book of Centuries are: scientific inventions, mathematical discoveries, artists, hymns, poetry, quotes, maps, etc.

Students should feel free to embellish their Book of Centuries entries with small drawings that represent objects, people and events. No two century notebooks will be exactly alike.

The Book of Centuries is an excellent resource for elementary through university students, as well as for life-long learners. It is never too late to start. Making a visual connection between people and events by using a Book of Centuries will make history come alive.

5 Tips for using a Book of Centuries

1. Purchase The Book of Centuries: A Personal Timeline of History.
2. Personalize The Book of Centuries by adding family dates such as birthdays and weddings.
3. Write clearly and neatly.
4. Write lightly in pencil, in case there is a need to erase.
5. Remind your students to bring The Book of Centuries on the next trip to the museum.

Discover the joy of including a Book of Centuries in your homeschool!

Charlotte Mason called it a “Book of Mottoes”, others have called it a Commonplace Book. A Commonplace Book is a journal dedicated to selected portions of scripture, quotes, and passages from living books, historical figures, poetry, and hymns. Each Commonplace Book will be unique.

A Commonplace Book has been used by influential historical figures since Ancient Rome, and possibly earlier. Writers and scholars that have kept a Commonplace Book include Marcus Aurelius, Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many more.

Keeping a Commonplace Book encourages the habit of attention because it engages the mind in looking for and choosing meaningful passages while reading. Charlotte Mason encourages students to choose passages from their lessons.

Keeping a Commonplace Book is a project for a lifetime.

8 Tips for Keeping a Commonplace Book

1. Read other people’s books for inspiration.
2. Create your own Commonplace Book. Show your child your book and share how it has enriched your life.
3. Allow your child (age 9+) to choose a special hard-cover journal.
4. Demonstrate taking notes when you read, paying attention for passages that you’d like to add to your book. Children follow a parent’s good example.
5. Assign your child to choose and write a few passages each week. At the end of the week, gather together and share what each person has added to their book.
6. When adding a passage, include the date of entry and reference.
7. Be inspired to add personal reflections on each passage, as well as artistic accents.
8. Celebrate the wisdom and good habits that come with keeping a Commonplace Book.

Discover the joy of including a Commonplace Book in your homeschool!

Composer Study is an important part of the educational feast, leading to a rich education. Charlotte Mason encourages students to study one artist at a time. Slowing down and narrowing the focus to a single artist will result in absorbing the beautiful work and contribution of one life.

To inspire a love for music in your home, follow these 5 simple steps:

1. Choose a composer (historical or modern) to focus on each term.
2. Learn about the composer’s childhood, training, and contributions. Narrate the story of their life.
3. Play one of the best pieces by the composer at least once a week, ideally several times throughout the week. Make this a dedicated time of listening. Model good listening habits for your student by joining them. Children can draw or color while listening if that helps them to focus.
4. Encourage students to identify the instruments while they listen. This will help them become familiar with each composer’s style.
5. After a time of active listening, discuss the music with students. Ask intentional questions.
   What instruments did you hear?
   How many instruments did you hear?
   How did this piece make you feel?
   If you could ask the composer a question, what would it be?
   What would you title this piece?

Discover the joy of including composer study in your educational feast!

Helpful resources:

• The Carnival of the Animals
• Classical Kids: Hallelujah Handel
• Bach and the Pipe Organ
• The Essential Herbie Hancock
• The Complete Max Roach
• Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound

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Copywork is copying an assigned passage in perfect formation, including exact spelling and punctuation, and using best penmanship. Copywork lessons should be short and supervised by an attentive parent.

Presenting students with carefully chosen passages from scripture, hymns, literature, and poetry reinforces proper spelling habits, while also improving grammar and penmanship.

It is important to intentionally choose meaningful and well-written copywork passages from weekly lessons. It is also important to choose passages that are appropriate for the age of your student.

Benefits of Copywork
Spelling
Students that have the natural gift of spelling can take a photographic image of a word with their eyes open and retain the image of the word with their eyes closed. An example of this would be the word C-A-T. Students who can visualize are able to see the word “cat” with their eyes closed.

Students that do not have a natural gift for spelling can improve their spelling by learning to visualize perfectly spelled words.

Once students see a misspelled word, the image of that word remains in their mind. This image introduces doubt. It is important that we minimize our students’ exposure to misspelled words.

Hasty or sparse reading can lead to difficulty with spelling. Exposure to quality literature and the habit of copywork will result in improved spelling.

Grammar
Charlotte Mason recommends beginning formal grammar lessons when students are nine years old. She recommends laying a strong foundation for students to be successful in grammar lessons by introducing the habit of copywork.

Students directly encounter punctuation and grammar through the habit of copywork, eliminating the need to clutter lessons with dull worksheets.

Penmanship
Students that develop the good habit of copywork will naturally develop improved penmanship. Some penmanship curriculum includes words and sentences that are detached from a student’s weekly lessons. Copywork is a cohesive tool that reinforces weekly lessons. The copywork journal becomes a treasured keepsake.

Copywork Tips

1. Choose a lined, hard-cover or leather notebook for copywork.
2. Choose quality passages that correspond with weekly lessons. Eventually students can choose their own copywork passages from living books, poetry, hymns, scripture, or quotes from historical figures.
3. Keep copywork lessons short. Younger students can begin with their name, gradually working up to one sentence. Older students can do longer passages, but should still limit copywork lessons to 5-10 minutes.
4. Closely supervise and gently guide students, giving them your undivided attention for 5-10 minutes, three times weekly. They will begin to form good copywork habit. With more experience, they will need less supervision.
5. Gently encourage perfect transcription, focusing on spelling and punctuation. If students misspell a word, quickly erase and redirect to proper spelling.
6. Make a habit of copywork, including it in your lessons three times each week.

What is Dictation?
After successfully completing copywork for a specific passage, students can progress to dictation. Dictation reinforces the practice of visualizing words, which directly improves spelling. For dictation, students transcribe the assigned passage into their copywork journal upon hearing it read aloud to them. Unlike copywork, students should not have an access to a visual cue of the passage when they do dictation.

Slowly read the passage aloud to students, once. Students should copy the familiar passage perfectly, including punctuation.

Discover the joy of including copywork and dictation in your educational feast!

Charlotte Mason discourages a focus on traditional quizzes, worksheets, and tests. Instead, she encourages a focus on regular narration and end-of-term exams.

If students are regularly narrating what they read and learn, they will have a solid foundation in their education.

The purpose of exams is to draw out what the students have learned throughout the term. When done properly, students will look forward to exams! An entire week at the end of each 12 week term is dedicated to exams in each area of the educational feast.

Students can do an oral or written exam, depending on your goals and expectations for your student. Record oral responses on a video or a voice memo. Save written responses in a narration journal or digital responses in a file on your computer. They will become a keepsake of things your students have learned along their educational journey!

Discover the joy of including exams in your homeschool!

Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of training children in good habits, beginning during the early years. She emphasized beginning with the habits of Attention, Obedience, Truthfulness, and Observation.

“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children. All day she is crying out, ‘Do this!’ and they do it not; ‘Do that!’ and they do the other” (Vol. 1, p. 136).

Obedience
Focus on training your child to respond to you with the habit of obedience. Do not foster or praise delayed or partial obedience, rather guide them towards quick and complete obedience.

“First, and infinitely the most important, is the habit of obedience. Indeed, obedience is the whole duty of the child, and for this reason—every other duty of the child is fulfilled as a matter of obedience to his parents. Not only so: obedience is the whole duty of man; obedience to conscience, to law, to Divine direction” (Vol. 1, p. 161).

“What is the object of family discipline, of that obedience which has been described as ‘the whole duty of a child’? Is it not to ease the way of the child, while will is weak and conscience immature, by getting it on the habits of the good life where it is as easy to go right as for a locomotive to run on its lines?” (Vol. 2, p. 166).

Attention
Focus on training your child in the habit of giving their full attention for a short period of time. Model the habit of attention by giving your child your full attention, without distraction.

“First, we put the habit of Attention, because the highest intellectual gifts depend for their value upon the measure in which their owner has cultivated the habit of attention” (Vol. 1, p. 137).

“Attention is the power and habit of concentrating every faculty on the thing in hand. Now this habit of attention, parents, mothers especially, are taught to encourage and cultivate in their children from early infancy. What you regard with full attention, if only for a minute, you know, and remember always” (Vol. 1, pp. 86, 87).

Truthfulness
Focus on training your child in the habit of truthfulness. Model truthfulness for your child. Give your child regular opportunities to retell events with an expectation of truthfulness.

“The child who appears to be perfectly truthful is so because he has been carefully trained to truthfulness, however indirectly and unconsciously. It is more important to cultivate the habit of truth than to deal with the accident of lying” (Vol. 2, p. 213).

“And she is training her children in truthful habits, by making them careful to see the fact and to state it exactly, without omission or exaggeration. The child who describes, ‘A tall tree, going up into a point, with rather roundish leaves; not a pleasant tree for shade, because the branches all go up,’ deserves to learn the name of the tree, and anything her mother has to tell her about it. But the little bungler, who fails to make it clear whether he is describing an elm or a beech, should get no encouragement; not a foot should his mother move to see his tree, no coaxing should draw her into talk about it, until, in despair, he goes off, and comes back with some more certain note—rough or smooth bark, rough or smooth leaves,— then the mother considers, pronounces, and, full of glee, he carries her off to see for herself” (Vol. 1, p. 47).

Observation
Focus on training your child in the habit of observation. Give him many opportunities to observe bugs, birds, people, trees, animals, etc. in action. Take him on observation walks. Sit in nature with your child and observe what is around you.

“An observant child should be put in the way of things worth observing” (Vol. 1, p. 69).

“Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way” (Vol 1, p. 57)

Train your child in one habit at a time. Resist the temptation to work on a long list of new habits all at once. Although the focus is one habit at a time, parents should expect excellence in each habit before moving to a new habit.

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Steps to Habit Formation

1. Make a list of habits to develop.
2. Choose one habit and write it in a place of prominence in the home.
3. Introduce your child to the habit, explaining the reasons it is important.
4. Encourage excellence in the habit for three to six weeks, or until the habit is fully formed.
5. Guard the habit, not allowing for regression into bad habits.
6. Habits need to be formed in a variety of areas including personal hygiene, household chores, and character development. There are so many habits for our children to learn! Where do we start?

Charlotte Mason gives over 75 suggestions of habits in Habits: The Mother’s Secret to Success.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

Hymns focus our attention on the goodness and glory of God. They are simple, tell a story, and are written for corporate worship. Beautifully, they unite generations as a tradition passed along to children and grandchildren.

Follow these 5 simple steps for a successful hymn study:

1. Choose a hymn to study for six weeks.
2. Study the history of the hymn. Then Sings My Soul, by Robert Morgan is a helpful resource.
3. Sing the hymn together as a family at least once a week (acapella or with digital/piano accompaniment), ideally several times throughout the week.
4. Assign a portion of the hymn lyrics for copywork, dictation, or recitation.
5. Choose a new hymn every six weeks for the duration of the homeschool calendar.

Discover the joy of including hymn study in your educational feast!

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Living literature is the foundation of a Charlotte Mason education. Living books can be fiction, non-fiction, biography, and nature lore. Living books are written using rich language that ignites the imagination and transports the reader into the character’s experience.

Traits of Living Literature

• Written in narrative form, often in a conversational tone.
• Well-written with rich language (not short, choppy sentences).
• Well-told, igniting the reader’s imagination.
• Touches the emotions of the reader.
• Includes ideas, not just facts.
• Subject matter comes alive.

Beware of twaddle! Twaddle is to literature what candy is to food. Our children do not need to look far to find twaddle. Children gravitate towards books that feature familiar characters from movies and television shows. Unfortunately, those types of books often include a flat storyline and are written with short, choppy sentences. Just as candy is not our primary nourishment, twaddle should not be our child’s primary literary experience.

Charlotte Mason is clear, “They must grow up upon the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told.”

We have the opportunity to guide our children towards quality literature and provide them with a bookshelf filled with rich resources. We can train and inspire our children to choose living books. Consuming quality literature directly improves writing, grammar, and spelling.

Living literature can be found in a variety of places beyond your local library. Used book sales and garage sales can harbor literary treasures. Thriftbooks.com is an online thrift bookstore resource. If you know of someone that has a great home library, ask if you can borrow or swap books. Build up your own home library with your favorite living books. Some vintage living books that are out of print are available on the public domain, for FREE. Check out gutenberg.org and goodreads.com. There is a new interest in vintage living books and publishers are offering reprint versions. Many are worth owning!

Discover the joy of including a bounty of living books in your homeschool!

For suggestions and inspiration, see our Living Book Lists:

1. United States
2. Great Britain
3. Canada 
4. Nature Lore
5. World 

Developing the habit of narration is one of the basic foundations of a Charlotte Mason education.

Narration increases comprehension and quickly becomes a habit when integrated into weekly lessons. It encourages students to read and listen with attention. Narration also helps parents assess student comprehension in real time, to quickly address any gap in learning or misunderstanding.

Narration eliminates the need for dull worksheets. Worksheets often contain busywork and hinder joy in education.

Oral Narration
Narrative literature, such as fairy tales and Bible stories, lend well to narration. When introducing oral narration, students may initially need parent guidance retelling the details of a story in their own words. Modeling narration and asking engaging questions will help students develop narration confidence.

Written Narration
Oral narration is a precursor to good writing skills. If students are doing well with oral narration and copywork, they are ready for written narration. Written narration builds a foundation for more complicated writing assignments.

Students doing well with copywork are ready for written narration. Written narration should be used in moderation and should not replace oral narration. Written and oral narration are both valuable and should be used alongside one another.

5 Narration Tips

1. Summarize the last chapter or event to refresh the student’s memory before resuming reading literature.
2. Listen carefully as your students narrate the ordered sequence of events in their own words, encouraging them to avoid generalizations.
3. Prompt your students with simple questions, if needed. What do you remember about the story? Who were the main characters? Where is the story taking place?How did this passage make you feel? What is your favorite part?
4. Include discussions on moral topics.
5. Keep narration lessons short, beginning with only a few minutes and limiting it to fifteen minutes.

Narration Notebook

A Narration Notebook should include both lined pages for writing and blank pages for drawing. Young children can narrate orally or by drawing in their Narration Notebook. Older students can continue with oral narration, while adding written narration (and drawings) in their Narration Notebook. These notebooks will become a keepsake.

Discover the joy of including narration in your homeschool!

Home Education, by Charlotte Mason is a treasured resource on narration.

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• Artist Study
• Composer Study
• Hymn Study
• Living Book List: United Kingdom
• Living Book List: Canada

A nature journal is a place to record observations from nature walks or natural object lessons. A nature journal should have a hard cover for durability since it is used outdoors. It should have quality watercolor paper as it will become a keepsake.

Nature journal entires should include the date and location of the observation and a brush-drawing illustration of the observation.

Older students can include noted characteristics and species identification. Adding embellishments such as poetry, quotes, and scripture make each journal unique.

Brush-drawing is a technique using a detailed paintbrush and watercolor paint. To brush-draw, dip the wet paintbrush into watercolor paint and then lightly tap the brush on a paper towel before painting on the journal. Brush-drawing is drawing with a slightly damp paintbrush.

To start a nature journal, students will need a nature journal and a travel watercolor set.

Discover the joy of including nature journals in your homeschool!

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Charlotte Mason emphasizes the value of nature study in home education, beginning during the early years. Unhurried time outdoors is important for children.

Nature study gives a strong foundation in science, nourishes wonder, curiosity, and delight and develops lifelong habits. Nature walks, keeping a nature journal, reading nature lore, and hands-on object lessons are all valuable nature study experiences.

Nature Walk
It is important to take nature walks in all seasons, creating an opportunity for intentional observation. The focus of the walk is observing nature in an unhurried manner, including plants, animals, rocks, trees, bugs, weather patterns, etc. Charlotte Mason recommends that families take nature walks together one afternoon each week. 5 suggestions to enhance a nature walk include:

1. Dissecting a flower or a seed pod.
2. Studying insects (release them when finished).
3. Observing patterns of ants or small insects in their natural habitat.
4. Using binoculars to observe animals.
5. Climbing a tree.

Nature Journal
Purchase a hardcover, watercolor notebook for nature journaling. The notebook needs to be durable since it will be used outdoors. A nature journal is a place to record observations from a nature walk or an object lesson.

Nature journal entries should include the date and location of the observation and a brush-drawing illustration of the observation. Older students should include noted characteristics and species identification. Adding embellishments such as poetry, quotes, and scripture make each journal unique.

Brush-drawing is a technique using a detailed paintbrush and watercolor paint. To brush-draw, dip the wet paintbrush into watercolor paint and then lightly tap the brush on a paper towel before painting on the journal. A travel watercolor set is ideal for nature journaling. To start a nature journal, your student will need a nature journal and a travel watercolor set.

Nature Lore
Nature lore is literature written by a naturalist designed to pique interest in the natural world. If you are able to include a physical object study that coordinates with the nature lore reading, it will enhance the lesson. Quality nature lore is often vintage and best read at a slow pace. Charlotte Mason recommends one 10 minute nature lore lesson per week, reading only 4-5 pages per lesson. Some beloved classics include:

Insect Life, by Arabella Buckley
Trees and Shrubs, by Arabella Buckley
Clara Dillingham Pierson’s Complete Among the People Series
James Herriott’s Treasury for Children
The Burgess Bird Book for Children, by Thornton Burgess

Object Lesson
An object lesson is carefully observing, listening to, touching, and smelling an object from nature. Object lessons can include plants, insects, leaves, bird’s nests, etc.

The result of regular object lessons include heightened observation in personal nature study, training of the senses and an increased interest in nature journaling.

For example, consider raising monarch caterpillars in your home – caring for them and watching them grow. When the caterpillars transform into a beautiful chrysalis, with accents of gold, you wait in expectation for new life to emerge. Watching them emerge and take their first flight is a powerful teacher.
A valuable resource to guide object lessons at home is The Handbook of Nature, by Anna Botsford Comstock.

Discover the joy of including nature study in your educational feast!

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Poet study is an important part of the educational feast, leading to a rich education.

Charlotte Mason encourages studying one poet at a time. The goal is to become familiar with one poet per term. Slowing down and narrowing the focus to a single poet will result in absorbing the beautiful work and contribution of one life.

Poet study includes a study of the poet’s life and an immersion into some of the poet’s best poetry.

Serve tea and treats while you study poetry to make it special. Take turns reading, reciting, and discussing the poetry.

Children thrive when given the opportunity to recite poetry. Poetry articulates emotions and thoughts otherwise difficult to put into words.

Recitation is a natural response to learning a poem and gives students an opportunity to share the gift of poetry.

Here are 5 simple steps to a successful poet study:

1. Choose one poet to focus on for the term.
2. Learn about the poet’s childhood, training, and contributions. Narrate the story of their life.
3. Once a week, brew some afternoon tea for your children and serve it with scones or cookies. Read a poem aloud.
4. Discuss the meaning of the poem.
5. Recite the poem.

Over the course of a 12 week term, your student will become familiar with the poet’s style and will start to feel comfortable in the world of poetry.

Discover the joy of including poet study in your educational feast!

Charlotte Mason describes recitation as ‘the children’s art’. Recitation comes naturally for children. The goal of recitation is to understand and communicate the nuance of the words in a chosen passage and to speak beautiful works beautifully. Memorization is the fruit, not the goal, of recitation.

Recitation passages should be drawn from poetry, hymns, literature, and scripture. Use short, simple passages and poems when introducing recitation. Gradually increase the passage length.

Eventually students should be involved in choosing their own recitation passages. Parents can guide students with the question: What is worthy of recitation? It is important to provide students with rich and varied recitation resources.

5 Recitation Tips

1. Students should stand with good posture when reciting.
2. The focus of recitation should be communicating the meaning and emotion of the passage.
3. Encourage eye contact to avoid reliance on written text, increasing natural memorization.
4. Recitation should not be laborious or hurried. Students should focus on pronunciation and speaking clearly.
5. Students should choose their own recitation passages whenever possible, resulting in increased engagement.

Discover the joy of including recitation in your homeschool!