When I first entered into the world of homeschooling, I was completely bombarded with information. I found myself Googling different homeschooling styles, reading all the books, researching curriculum, and trying to learn everything I could to better homeschool my children.
In the beginning, so much of what we were doing already felt natural to me. We took nature walks with watercolors, colored pencils, and nature journals. We read classic literature, poems, and found ourselves completely enthralled in the world of Winnie-the-Pooh. We explored new trails, studied mushrooms in our backyard, and recited poems by Walter de la Mare.
It all felt so right, but I still had this lingering feeling that we were “missing” something. I worried that maybe we weren’t doing enough real school, or that I needed more curriculum, more structure, or more proof that learning was happening.
Then, I fell into the world of Charlotte Mason, and it felt like someone had finally put words to so many of the things I already believed about children, learning, and motherhood.
What makes Charlotte Mason so special to me is how closely her principles align with the way I already wanted to parent my children. I would describe my parenting approach as gentle parenting, but before you click away and assume I mean a free-for-all, I simply mean parenting rooted in empathy, respect, and understanding.
Charlotte Mason viewed children with that same deep respect. She believed children were born persons, not empty buckets to fill or problems to manage. They were whole people, worthy of rich ideas, beautiful books, time outdoors, and an education that honored both their minds and souls.
That is what drew me in.
To me, Charlotte Mason homeschooling is not just another homeschool method. It is a way of life that respects the child, nourishes the home, and reminds us that education can be both meaningful and beautiful.
So if you are new to Charlotte Mason homeschooling and wondering where to begin, I would start here.
How to Get Started with Charlotte Mason Homeschooling
1. Understand Who Charlotte Mason Was
Before you dive into schedules, book lists, narration, nature study, and curriculum choices, it helps to understand who Charlotte Mason was and why her work mattered.
Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived from 1842 to 1923. She developed an educational philosophy meant to give children a rich, thoughtful education. During her time, wealthy children often received a beautiful education full of literature, poetry, music, art, and time outdoors, while poor and working-class children often received a more industrial education focused on the basics, drills, memorization, and exam performance.
Charlotte Mason believed this was wrong. She believed all children, not just wealthy children, should have access to living books, nature, art, music, history, poetry, Scripture, scientific observation, and noble ideas. She wrote for parents and teachers, founded the House of Education to train governesses and teachers, and created the Parents’ National Educational Union, also known as the PNEU, to support families.
One of her most well-known ideas is that “children are born persons,” and I think that belief changes everything. It changes the way we view discipline, choose books, teach lessons, and see our children.
Charlotte Mason also described education as “an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.” In other words, education is not only the lessons we complete. It is the atmosphere of our home, the habits we cultivate, and the ideas we offer our children. That is what makes her philosophy so beautiful to me.
2. Dive into Charlotte’s Own Words
To really understand Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, I think it is worth reading her own words. There are many wonderful books, podcasts, and websites that summarize her ideas, and those can be helpful, but nothing quite compares to reading what she actually wrote.
If you are new to Charlotte Mason, you do not need to read all six volumes before you begin. You can simply start with Home Education, which is Volume 1. I really like this version, as it’s written in modern language. It gives a beautiful foundation for understanding her thoughts on young children, habits, outdoor life, and the role of the mother.
What I love about Charlotte Mason’s writings is that they are both philosophical and practical. She gives you a beautiful vision for education, but she also explains real tools like narration, habit training, short lessons, nature study, and living books.
Read slowly, highlight what stands out, and take what you can implement right away. You do not have to understand it all at once.
3. Create a Vision for Your Homeschool
Something very important to remember is this: your homeschool is yours.
How you approach your days should serve your children, your family, and you. It’s important to know exactly what you want to create within your homeschool, or else you may end up with a variation of what someone else is doing.
Take a little time to think through what you actually want your homeschool to feel like.
How do you begin each day?
How do you carry yourself throughout the day?
How do your children interact with you?
How do they spend their time?
What memories are you creating together?
Of course, not every day will look like your ideal vision. There will be math tears, laundry piles, bad attitudes, interruptions, and days where everyone needs to go outside before somebody loses their mind.
But having a vision gives you something to return to. It helps you know what to say yes to, what to say no to, and what kind of education you are trying to build in your home.
4. Begin with Living Books
At the center of a Charlotte Mason education are living books, which is a book written by someone who cares deeply about the subject and writes in a way that awakens thought, imagination, and interest. Living books make a subject come alive. They are written beautifully, and purposefully, telling a story – not simply words or facts filling a page.
Instead of relying only on dry textbooks or fact-based summaries, Charlotte Mason encouraged parents and teachers to give children books that were rich, well-written, and full of living ideas.
She wrote:
“Why in the world should we not give children, while they are at school, the sort of books they can live upon; books alive with thought and feeling, and delight in knowledge, instead of the miserable cram-books on which they are starved?” – Formation of Character, p. 291
Begin there.
Read good books aloud. Choose stories, biographies, nature books, poetry, Scripture, and history books that are worthy of your child’s attention. You do not need to own every beautiful book ever recommended on the internet. Start with a few good ones and let your children live with them. There are many great books to choose from, but we really love lists from Ambleside Online, Read Aloud Revival and Simply Charlotte Mason.
5. Practice Narration
Narration is one of the foundations of a Charlotte Mason education. Put simply, narration is when a child tells back what they heard or read. After you read a passage from a living book, you ask your child to tell you what they remember.
It sounds simple, but it is incredibly valuable. Narration builds attention, comprehension, memory, vocabulary, oral language, and eventually writing. It teaches a child to listen carefully, hold ideas in their mind, organize those ideas, and communicate them in their own words.
For younger children, narration can be oral. They can tell you what they remember, draw a picture, or even act it out with toys. As children get older, narration can gradually become written, but it does not need to be rushed. In fact, we still use oral narration as a primary way to narrate what’s been read – with written narrations 2 times per week.
This is where I want to be honest: narration may not feel magical at first. Some children enjoy it, and some children look at you like you have asked them to do something impossible.
Start small by reading a short passage and asking, “Tell me what you remember.” Try not to interrupt, correct every detail, or turn it into a quiz. Let them practice the habit of listening and telling back. Nod, look them in the eyes and let them know you’re listening.
Over time, narration becomes one of the most useful tools in your homeschool, and dare I say motherhood. Once your children learn the habit of telling back what they’ve heard or read, they will become much better at telling you what they’ve experienced, what happened at co-op, the fish they caught at the pond that day, and how they’re feeling. Narration is truly an invaluable skill.
6. Add Nature Study
Charlotte Mason placed a high value on time outdoors. One of her most well-known quotes is, “Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.”
Nature study was one of the first parts of Charlotte Mason homeschooling that felt natural and life-giving for our family. It gave us a reason to slow down, pay attention, and see the world differently. We began to study the garden spider instead of run from it, watching him weave his web ever so diligently. I can tell you every color on his body, and the way the dew glistened on his web glistened in the morning light. This is because Mr. Garden Spider was the very first entry in my children’s nature journal. We noticed him while walking out the front door, and what was originally supposed to be an outdoor math lesson turned into nature study.
Nature study does not have to be complicated. You do not need to know the name of every bird, tree, mushroom, or flower before you begin. You can just notice the nature in your very own yard, and become more curious about it. Nature study can happen on your family walks, when you’re playing in the back yard, or even as you sit at your dinner table, watching the birds. Take time to notice how their songs differ, or how the male cardinal differs from the female. Look closely at the mushrooms growing in your back yard, and what times of year you notice them most. Take a spore print if you’re feeling daring, or dissect them (safely, of course) so that you can notice the gills. Pull your journal out on St. Patrick’s Day and draw a clover in your back yard — you never know, but your reluctant drawer may even tell you it’s his favorite activity.
Let your children wander and wonder. And please, wander and wonder alongside them as often as you can. You can bring along nature journals, colored pencils, watercolors, or a field guide. Or you can simply go outside and notice what is around you.
The point is not to create a perfect nature journal, or something that you can put on display in an art museum. The point is to help your child build a relationship with the natural world.
7. Rethink Language Arts
One of the hardest things for a new Charlotte Mason homeschool mom to release is the idea that she needs an exhaustive language arts curriculum. I know, because I have bought them. More than once.
Charlotte Mason’s methods for language arts are simple, but they are not weak. Narration, copywork, dictation, grammar, good literature, and eventually written narration can create a strong foundation in language arts.
Copywork helps children pay attention to beautiful sentences, punctuation, spelling, and handwriting. Dictation strengthens spelling, memory, attention, and grammar. Narration builds comprehension, organization, oral language, and eventually writing. Good books give children a rich vocabulary and an ear for language.
But here is where I want to be very clear: choose your child over the curriculum, and choose your child over the method.
If your child needs more explicit grammar, spelling, or writing instruction, it is okay to use something else. You can still love Charlotte Mason and use a packaged language arts curriculum. You do not lose your Charlotte Mason card.
I think there is value in staying the course with narration, copywork, and dictation because they are powerful tools. But our job is to teach the child in front of us, not to prove our loyalty to a method.
8. Use Notebooking Simply
Notebooking has become one of my favorite ways to help my children document what they are learning.
For us, notebooking is simple. We use it for history, geography, and science. My children orally narrate what they remember , and I write their narration on one side of the page. Sometimes, they write it themselves. Then, they illustrate or select a picture to print and paste on the other side.
That’s it.
Notebooking gives children a place to collect their thoughts, observations, drawings, maps, diagrams, and written work. It becomes a record of what they have learned without needing a stack of worksheets for every subject.
For a child who does not enjoy drawing every day, we adapt. Which is why I often print an image that correlates with the lesson. Sometimes they label a diagram instead of drawing one from scratch. Sometimes we paste in a map, picture or portrait of the historical figure we’re learning about.
Again, the point is not to create a Pinterest-worthy notebook. The point is to help your child process and remember what they are learning.
9. Start Small and Build Slowly
When you first discover Charlotte Mason homeschooling, it is tempting to do everything at once.
Morning time, nature study, poetry, composer study, artist study, handicrafts, narration, copywork, dictation, living books, folk songs, foreign language — the whole beautiful feast. And while all of those things can be wonderful, trying to add them all at once is a fast way to overwhelm yourself.
Start small.
Choose one good read-aloud. Begin oral narration. Go outside and draw something interesting you find. Read poems around the table while everyone has snack time. Add fancy teacups and you can call it “Poetry Tea Time”. Once things feel natural and more comfortable for you, add more.
A Charlotte Mason education is rich, but it does not have to be rushed. You are not behind because you are not doing every single piece right away. You are building a rhythm, and rhythms take time.
Final Thoughts
Charlotte Mason homeschooling has given our family so much more than a method. It has helped me see education differently. Learning does not have to be rushed, dry, or disconnected from real life. It can happen around the kitchen table, on a trail, in a nature journal, through a beautiful book, during a conversation, or while watching a child notice something for the first time.
It has reminded me that children are not projects to complete. They are whole persons to know, love, guide, and nourish.
You do not have to become a Charlotte Mason expert before you begin, or do things perfectly. Just begin, and enjoy this journey with your children.
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