My Homeschool Charlotte Mason Curriculum

I have always wanted to try the Charlotte Mason method in our homeschool. I love the idea of teaching my kids using living books and spending lots of time outside. But, even as an experienced homeschooler I struggled to figure out how to implement Charlotte Mason’s method for my kids. That’s why I was so excited to discover My Homeschool! This complete Charlotte Mason curriculum makes it easy to get started with Charlotte Mason, even if you don’t know anything about her method. Read on to learn about how you can use My Homeschool to make Charlotte Mason homeschooling easy for your family.

I received compensation and a subscription to My Homeschool in exchange for my honest review, but all the opinions in this post are my own.

Who Was Charlotte Mason?

Charlotte Mason was a British educator, author, and reformer in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She opened a school for teachers in Ambleside, England. She also wrote a series of 6 books about home education that explain her method of teaching young children. Today, the Charlotte Mason approach is used by homeschool parents worldwide.

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Method

Charlotte Mason’s ideas about homeschooling include several key features that Charlotte Mason homeschoolers use in their lessons.

Living books

One of the most important features of a Charlotte Mason homeschool philosophy is that kids learn many different subjects by studying classic literature instead of textbooks. These works of great literature are referred to as living books because they make the subjects more alive and real to kids. Kids may explore their own interests using a living books curriculum or choose good books from book lists.

Nature studies

Kids who are following Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education spend a lot of time exploring the natural world during their homeschool days. Charlotte Mason believed that spending time outside was important to help kids develop observation skills and patience, and help them understand the world around them.

Narration

Instead of giving tests, homeschooling parents can assess what kids have learned through the process of narration. Younger students tell what they have learned out loud after the lesson. Older children, ages 10 and up, will write their narrations down.

Short lessons

When homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way, it is important to keep lessons short. Charlotte Mason thought that it was important to keep kids engaged and encourage them to pay attention and work hard through the whole lesson. This helps build their character as well.

Copywork and Dictation

Charlotte Mason believed that kids learn by copying great works of literature. Copywork is a way to practice handwriting and to expose children to high quality literature. Kids also practice dictation, where they write what they hear. This is a good way to teach language arts skills including spelling and grammar.

Good Habits

Building good habits in the early years was important to Charlotte Mason. She believed that it is important to teach the whole person and that habits are an important way to build character.

Art and Music

Charlotte Mason’s method also includes art and music appreciation, because Charlotte Mason believed that it is important for children to experience beautiful things. Kids might complete hymn studies or a composer study for music. They might study famous artists or paintings during their art time. This is a way for them to be exposed to great works of art and music.

My Homeschool Charlotte Mason Curriculum

My Homeschool is a complete online Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum. The program includes all the lesson plans and materials you will need for a full year of Charlotte Mason homeschooling. It also includes resources for learning about Charlotte Mason homeschooling and community support.

My Homeschool offers full-year curriculum packages for kids in kindergarten through 10th grade.

The program was originally created as an Australian curriculum and was designed to meet the requirements for homeschooling in Australia. However, the program also provides international alternatives that make it a great fit for homeschool families in the United States and around the world.

Learn more about My Homeschool’s homeschool programs for kindergarten through 10th grade here.

Components of My Homeschool Curriculum

Lessons from My Homeschool include both lessons for the whole family to complete together, called “Family Time,” and grade level specific lessons called “On Your Own Subjects.”

Family Time

Each day’s lessons start with Family Time. These lessons are designed for everyone in the family to complete together. Family time starts with an optional Bible study along with read-alouds from poetry and novels. All of these resources are provided. The curriculum also includes full courses in music and art appreciation which are a fantastic resource for families.

I love that My Homeschool starts with Family Time. My kids love learning together and their time reading together is often their favorite part of their day.

On Your Own Subjects

After Family Time, kids continue with independent work in English, math, handwriting, and geography. All of these lessons are provided as well.

I love that the math lessons focus on hands-on learning with math manipulatives. My kids always enjoy learning with manipulatives and these lessons helped make challenging math concepts simple for them.

Because the lessons are created to correspond to the Australian curriculum, we did make a few changes. For example, in a lesson about how to address a letter, we talked about how to address a letter in the United States. In math, we changed the lessons about measuring in centimeters and meters to focus on measuring in inches and feet. It was simple to make those changes when they were needed.

Map Work and Notebooking

Kids practice history and geography in My Homeschool by working with maps and timelines regularly. Kids make a timeline, also called a Book of Centuries in Charlotte Mason homeschooling, using timeline figures that are provided.

Enrichment Activities

Kids are encouraged to spend time each day participating in enrichment activities. These activities are not included in the curriculum but help kids continue learning on their own. These activities could include reading independently or out loud, nature study, sports, art, or music. The curriculum also includes bonus activities in foreign languages and handicrafts which make great enrichment activity options.

Things We Love about MyHomeschool

Starts at the Beginning

The Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling can have a steep learning curve. I love that My Homeschool provides so much information for families who are just getting started. Extensive teacher resources explain how to use the curriculum and how to adapt it to fit your family and the unique needs of each child. There’s even a community forum where parents can ask questions and get support from others who are using the curriculum.

Each curriculum package also comes with an extensive Homeschool Teaching 101 course. This course is practical and gives parents a foundation both in homeschooling and in the Charlotte Mason method. I love the way the course explains exactly what parents need to know to get started homeschooling, step by step. I wish I had been able to access to a resource like this when I was starting. It would have made homeschooling much less confusing.

You can try My Homeschool’s Homeschool Teaching 101 course for free here!

Organized

The Charlotte Mason method includes a lot of lessons every day, and I have struggled to figure out all the pieces on my own. I love that My Homeschool has everything organized and planned for me. All I need to do is follow the plan, and I can know that my kids are getting a full Charlotte Mason experience.

As a busy homeschool mom, I love that My Homeschool saves me so much time with lesson planning. I don’t need to spend time choosing resources, planning lessons, or scouring the Internet looking for activity ideas for my kids. All I need to do is follow the lesson plan for the week.

This assurance that you are covering all the subjects correctly can be especially helpful to new first-time homeschoolers who are just starting their homeschool journey.

Learn more about how My Homeschool can help with homeschool record keeping here.

Flexible

One of my favorite parts of My Homeschool is how flexible the lessons are. This program was designed by a team of experienced homeschoolers, and this is so clear from the way the lesson plans are organized.

The lesson plans in My Homeschool are organized by week instead of by day. So, each week you will receive a list of all the topics that need to be covered and lessons that need to be completed for the week.

This is so much better than a daily lesson plan because it allows for flexibility. It is easy to skip a day of formal homeschooling (in fact, the curriculum encourages families to take a day for enrichment activities weekly) or to reorganize lessons to fit the family’s schedule.

A sample weekly homeschool schedule is provided but families can also create their own schedule to accommodate appointments and activities.

My family has lots of appointments and activities that occur during the week, so the flexibility of the schedule is so helpful. I never feel like we are behind with this curriculum!

I also love that it’s easy to start using My Homeschool at any time of the year. The curriculum is self-paced, so we can start our school year at any time and plan breaks and vacations as they fit our family’s schedule.

Learn more about My Homeschool at the team who created it here.

Easy To Plan

With a flexible homeschool method like Charlotte Mason’s, it can be easy to skip important topics that kids need to understand. But, I love that with My Homeschool, it is easy to make sure that I am covering all the topics my kids need to know.

The curriculum is designed sequentially to make sure that all the important topics and subjects are covered. And, because the curriculum was created to follow not only the Charlotte Mason method but also the homeschool requirements for Australia, it comes with an extensive scope and sequence to show that kids are learning everything that needs to be covered in a homeschool curriculum.

Comprehensive

I love that the lessons in My Homeschool go beyond the basic academic subjects to include so many more options for homeschoolers. Our yearly subscription includes access to all the subjects in a complete curriculum, including art, music, physical education, crafts, foreign languages, and more.

As a homeschool parent, I love that everything is included in this one resource. It is so helpful to know that I won’t need to look elsewhere for any other curriculum resources for our homeschool year.

Great for Large Families

One of my favorite parts of My Homeschool is that each day begins with Family Time. This is a time when the entire family gathers to work on many of the subjects together. Some families may also refer to this as a morning basket.

We do Family Time every day as a part of our homeschool. This makes it so much easier to teach more than one child. I love it because I can go into more depth on a subject when I’m only teaching it once, and this saves time during the day as well.

I love the way that My Homeschool combines as many subjects as possible. The curriculum guides for family time include several subjects that kids of all ages can learn together. During family time, families read aloud and study history, music, art, and foreign languages together as a group. Family time can also include Bible study.

My kids love Family Time because they love working together. This is often their favorite part of their homeschool day.

Focus on Reading

I love that students who are learning with My Homeschool spend so much time reading. The main focus of the curriculum is reading books together, and my kids love this. They are always happy to be read to, and this makes homeschooling so much fun for them.

I also love that many of the reading lists include direct links to books that are in the public domain. This makes it so easy to use the curriculum because we don’t even need to find the book. I can just pull it up and read to my kids from inside My Homeschool.

Read what other homeschool families had to say about My Homeschool here.

Easy to Access

One of my favorite parts of My Homeschool is the app. I downloaded the Moodle app and was able to log in to our My Homeschool curriculum. Now I can access all the lesson plans and resources right from my phone. This makes it so easy to check the lesson plans at a glance. Because the plans link directly to the books, I am able to read to my kids from my phone too.

The app makes it so easy to use My Homeschool. I highly recommend that families who are using My Homeschool take advantage of this feature.

I also love that because I was able to access the resources on my phone, I was able to use the curriculum without printing some of the resources. This translates to savings in printing costs and is more environmentally friendly as well.

Meets Australian Requirements

The My Homeschool program was originally designed for families in Australia and includes a lot of helpful resources for Australian families. All of the curriculum packages come with the documentation that families need in order to meet homeschool requirements in Australia.

Although My Homeschool does not file documents on behalf of families, the program does walk homeschool parents through the process and explain everything they need to do to meet homeschool requirements. If you’re in Australia, this is a huge benefit of using the program.

Adaptable for International Learners

Although My Homeschool is designed as an Australian program, I love that it is easily adaptable and can be used by students worldwide. The curriculum includes a huge Global Goodies section that provides alternatives for international learners.

One of the changes that we made to the curriculum was in handwriting. The curriculum uses a resource called Down Under Copywork, which includes a variety of literature from Australia for kids to copy. Instead, we chose to use the copywork from Aesop’s Fables that is provided in the Global Goodies section. We also found a different font that is more similar to how I want my kids to learn to write letters.

I love that the curriculum provides so many options that make it easy to adapt to homeschooling in the United States.

Learn more about homeschooling in the United States and how to adapt My Homeschool for US Learners!

Try My Homeschool for Yourself!

If you are interested in Charlotte Mason homeschooling for your family but aren’t sure where to begin, I highly recommend My Homeschool. The organized lesson plans and support in My Homeschool make getting started with Charlotte Mason so easy for homeschool families.

My Homeschool has a one week free trial so you can check it out for yourself. You can try My Homeschool for free here!