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Went to Bed Montessori, Woke Up Charlotte Mason


Kal-El, Once Upon a Time

A funny thing happened to me last year.  I went to bed one night a Montessorian and woke up the next morning in Charlotte Mason Land. (Is there a word for people who use the Charlotte Mason method in their homeschools?  Like "Masonites" or something?)

Those of you who follow me on Instagram @whatdidwedoallday are probably not surprised.  For those of you who only follow the blog, I am much more active on Instagram lately than in this space.  It is a much easier place to share the little moments from day to day.  This space is good for the "big idea" times though.

Anyway, this was all a big surprise to me.  I didn't even know it was "Charlotte Mason" until I had been doing it for months and months.  It certainly wasn't a planned transition although it was certainly a child-led transition based on observation and response.  Last fall I wrote about how our school year started out with a funky feel and how I fixed it.  I provided the boys with more of the types of learning experiences they were craving and asking for and less of the types they weren't.  All of a sudden they couldn't get enough literature-based learning.  At the same time, all of the things that seemed like "peripherals" in our Montessori-inspired homeschool started to take on a starring role.  Our day was chock full of history stories, literature, composer study, poetry, narration, dictation, copywork, picture study, drawing, notebooks full of little bits of our "favorites" from everything we were learning, a notebook full of interesting vocabulary words, Bible reading, hymn studies, Bible verses memorization, living math books, and the study of virtues and/or habits.  ALL of these things are things I introduced to the boys because of my study of Montessori.  All of them are part of a Montessori environment.  In fact, I'm not sure that what we are doing has "left" Montessori at all.  Maybe this is what Montessori looks like as the children approach adolescence?  As you run out of "presentations" that have "materials" the elements that remain have their day in the sun.

I don't know for sure and the days of "dying to know" what happens now in a "real Montessori environment" are behind me.  Kal-El will be twelve this December and is nearing the end of "Montessori elementary."  Maria Montessori had some very interesting things to say about adolescents, but the path isn't mapped in the same way that it was for the previous developmental stages.  We have no plans to move to a farm this year either.  If you would like to learn more about how Montessori can look in adolescence outside of an Erkinder program I recommend looking at the Montessori Rocks website.  But even beyond the Montessori crystal ball going dark, I've been teaching the boys at home now with Montessori observation of the child and preparation of the teacher and environment at the heart of our homeschool for many years.  I feel good going forward with that observation and preparation as my guide regardless of what the result is called or whether it matches what someone else would do.  However, I can tell you this, it matches a WHOLE LOT of what the Charlotte Mason method does.

I searched to find resources to fill our new needs and little ways to make my life as a their homeschooling guide a little easier.  I wasn't confident that I would find any because all of these were areas where I had never found a lot of resources via the Montessori literature I was reading or the Montessori companies I was used to frequenting.  I have a theory I am nurturing that these elements play a big part in a Montessori environment but are talked about less simply because they lack special "materials."  I wonder if because they take up so few album pages in relation to presentations that have "materials" they look less important on paper.  I have a feeling trained Montessori elementary guides have been taught the place of these elements in the environment but their training, specific to multi-age classrooms of thirty, wouldn't translate to the homeschool if they did try to pass it on.  I don't know, it's just a theory.

 Despite my misgivings I did find a lot of help, but over time I realized all the help I was finding had "Charlotte Mason" written on it.  So, I found some things to read about Charlotte Mason.  I have to say I am confused.  How did she know how *I* was going to want to homeschool *my* kids?

I have no intention of attempting to become an expert on Charlotte Mason, but I do enjoy reading about how to do the jobs I do as a mother, wife, and teacher better.  I am finding myself continually excited to find interesting writings that apply so specifically to the things I do with my boys every day.  As I do this reading I keep thinking things like "I wish I had know about that resource/company when I was looking for Montessori picture study help," "I wish I had known this information about fitting habit formation into a Montessori homeschool," or, "I wish I had this training in teaching my Montessori child narration."

So, I will continue to share on Instagram and, when I have something bigger to say, here on the blog.  Is it Montessori? Is it Mason?  I don't know.  I have to say that I think that anyone who carefully observes children is bound to reach some conclusions in common.  I've also said it before that a Montessori homeschool isn't going to look like a Montessori school and maybe that makes it look a lot more like Charlotte Mason sometimes.

I'm not actively "trying" to emulate a Charlotte Mason homeschool.  We have been a Montessori-inspired homeschool for a very long time and this is just what grew from that.  There are hints of all the Charlotte Mason we do in the Montessori literature and there are hints of Montessori things we do in the Charlotte Mason literature.  There are Charlotte Mason purists just as there are Montessori purists and I'm sure I will make neither of those groups happy.

For those of you who have Montessori-inspired homeschools or even Montessori classrooms, I plan to share those resources that I wish I had earlier in our Montessori primary and elementary journeys.  I hope they can be some help to you if you can get past the fact that the books and companies may have the words "Charlotte Mason" in the title.  There are probably some of you who have been following Charlotte Mason's methods all along and taking some inspiration here regardless.  I love hearing anyone's Montessori story or Mason story or any story in-between so I hope that some of you will share those with me in the comments.






This post first appeared on What DID We Do All Day?, please read the originial post: here

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Went to Bed Montessori, Woke Up Charlotte Mason

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