Complete Charlotte Mason Curricula - Free!

I would like to share with you some resources for those who would like to begin home-schooling but are nervous about choosing curricula, as well as for those who are interested in switching over to a Charlotte Mason approach. All three of these sites offer a free program of study for grades 1-12. The approach is slightly different at each site, and for this reason you may find that one calls to you much more than the other two.

First, a quick introduction to Charlotte Mason. Ms Mason was a British educator who lived from 1842-1923. While Ms Mason was teaching she came to feel that a liberal arts education should be accessible to all children, not just the privileged ones. She believed that parents would be more effective if they understood some basic principles of child rearing. The lectures she gave were later published as Home Education, the first volume in a collection now available as The Original Homeschooling Series ( Canada | US ) or read online here free of charge.

Ms Mason’s best known contribution to education, particularly home-schooling, is her belief that children learn best from what she called living books. She felt that dry, boring textbooks were no more the answer than books that were written in a way that condescended to children or watered down the content (”twaddle”.) Those of us who have found something in the Charlotte Mason (CM) approach are perhaps most interested in these living books - vibrant, well-written biographies and histories that draw children into the subject in a way that textbooks cannot. Other featured aspects of a CM education are studying a well-rounded list of subjects, learning a foreign language, and including such areas as nature study and appreciation of art & music. Miss Mason advocated spending time in the outdoors, and also doing something useful with one’s hands (handicraft.)

Please keep in mind that the above is a very brief introduction to CM. There are numerous sites that go into far more depth, and those who are interested can also read the CM Series or one of a number of books on the subject. The intent here is simply to give you a very general idea of what you might find in a CM program.

Ambleside Online offers a complete program of study for grades 1-11 (grade 12 is in development), plus some reading suggestions for pre-schoolers. The site is run by an advisory committee of experienced CM parents. The site offers an extensive collection of articles (historical and contemporary) plus book lists and 36-week schedules for each year. Programs are reviewed and updated as needed. In addition to the grade by grade studies, Ambleside Online (AO) offers a schedule for the study of Plutarch’s Lives, Shakespeare, and artists and composers grouped according to historical time frame.

Many of the materials used as AO texts are in the public domain, and can be downloaded from such places as Project Gutenberg or the Baldwin Project. Some have been recorded by Librivox, and are available as free sound files. Where the materials chosen are not public domain, the AO advisory generally attempts to choose low-cost texts or to suggest less expensive alternatives.

AO texts from years 1-6 cover poetry & literature, social studies, and science. Some suggestions are made for Bible study (which you can replace with an appropriate alternative if you are not Christian,) phonics & grammar, math, and foreign language. A list of suggested free readings accompanies each year. These are books that the advisory believes no child should miss, but which are not considered official texts. Students are not required, therefore, to “narrate” (tell back in their own words) what they read in these books. In years 7 & 8 more subject areas are added (e.g. government & economics, citizenship, current events.) Beginning in grade 9 the program includes a variety of options (referred to as the “salad bar” approach) for subjects like history or poetry.

There is a leaning towards texts that deal with American figures and legends, especially when it comes to history and biographies. Some AO users, however, are Canadian. Some of their suggestions for adapting the program are posted on the site.

The Ambleside Online site does ask that users abide by a user agreement. This may look a little daunting, but essentially it works the same as a Creative Commons “By-No-No” license. One of the reasons they cite for needing such an agreement is that they want to prevent people from altering the program and then re-distributing it. They want to protect the reputation of AO, which could be damaged if users were to do this.

One of the best things about AO is that, beyond just using the site, there are a ton of mailing lists that users can join, that provide a link to other users. It can be helpful to ask questions of a more experienced user, to share text excerpts used for copywork, or to find public domain texts formatted for inexpensive printing. Another plus is that the book list for each year is broken down into a 36-week reading list that suggests one way in which the readings could be spread over one school year. This is ideal for a family just beginning to home-school, and is a big time-saver for those who need to present a complete program of study to a school board or other officials.

Drawbacks to using the AO program of study will, of course, be individual. Some families are drawn to the highly structured fashion in which the readings are organized, while others will find just looking at one year’s book list is overwhelming. A common difficulty is trying to find time to incorporate all the many subject areas Miss Mason advocated children study. Often areas such as handicraft, folk songs, nature study, or picture & composer study are left by the wayside while families adapt. Some will also find that the schedules suggested on AO spread the reading out too much. Children will either be upset because the schedule asks them to put down a book when they were very much absorbed in its plot, or alternately they forget what is happening in the narrative because the readings are too spread out.

By comparison with AO, the Mater Amabilis program tends to have many more books that must be purchased, though the book lists are still available free of charge under their license agreement. Because this is a Catholic CM program, the religious education suggestions are more specific and extensive. Again, for those who are not Catholic it would seem possible to adapt this part of the program to suit your family’s needs.

The nomenclature for the various grade levels is given in British & American equivalents, and the history readings similarly offer options for users in both countries. For some years there is also an Australian option. What I specifically like about this program is that it splits world history off from national history and also includes geography readings about specific world regions in the early grades, so that students are exposed to a greater variety of cultures and time frames, sooner than with AO.

The science program includes much more experimentation than AO (whose hands-on work seems to be limited to a series of books that are very difficulty to locate & quite expensive,) however the Mater Amabilis (MA) program relies heavily on purchased kits for this. Even for the nature notebooks, MA supplies a commercial link whereas AO is more likely to link to articles explaining the rationale behind a certain element, or assisting families in putting CM’s ideals into practice today. To be fair, though, the site states that profits made from referrals (e.g. Amazon) are invested in the site.

MA does recommend specific books for foreign languages (French and Spanish initially, then German and Italian are added as options in later years) and Latin (in later years) as well as for grammar. There are reading schedules, as AO offers, however MA also gives lesson plans for subjects such as geography & earth science. These offer descriptions of practical activities, and not just a list of pages the student should read for the week.

The main caveat for the MA site is that it is incomplete. Lesson plans stop at the end of level two (5th grade) and there is no book list beyond level four (9th grade.) Additionally, there are a few broken links and at least one graphic that is missing. In some places the material is present on the site, but the links don’t point to it. For example, all the notes on Shakespeare’s plays are present but incorrectly linked. On the other hand, some very interesting notes are offered about the historical accuracy of Our Island Story - a popular book which is on the AO program of study too ….

An Old-Fashioned Education was created by Miss Maggie, former owner and creator of the Hillbilly Housewife. Its first premise is that home education should be affordable, thus like AO Miss Maggie relies more on public domain materials than copyrighted ones. You can use this site as simply a book referral list, or as a home education program with a CM flavour. The navigation menu lists a whole range of subject areas, from arithmetic to creationism, and from penmanship to world history. Miss Maggie has added in categories such as fiction for boys or girls, science fiction and ghost stories, and women’s studies. She also has resources for emergency preparedness, medicine & nursing.

The full curriculum occupies a page of its own, from which the book lists can be located for each grade. There are also a number of extras, including blank forms and resources for pre-schoolers. The user’s group operates on the principle of “pay it forward,” thus those who would like to pass on a printed copy of one of the texts may do so but must not ask for money to cover shipping.

For those of us who live in Canada, Miss Maggie offers some suggestions for Canadian readings to replace or supplement those in her reading lists. An Old-Fashioned Education (OFE) is also the only one of the three sites to offer specific mathematics resources, including a full program from the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching (to unlock password-protected pages join the OFE users’ group - they are authorized to give you the password.)

The reading schedules at OFE are spread out over 40 weeks, which might work better for some than the 36-week schedules elsewhere. The book list for grade 12 is posted, but the 40-week schedule is still in the works. OFE includes a proper plan for a year of kindergarten - not just a list of suggested books. Additionally, Miss Maggie offers a fairly wide age range for each year of study. Following her suggested ages a student could begin kindergarten as early as age 4, and complete grade 12 as late as age 19. (This is similar to the age ranges listed at MA.)

OFE uses some very interesting texts, and because her site indexes a huge collection of available resources by subject it is possible to exchange one text for another with fairly little fuss. Because she began this endeavour when she started home-schooling three boys she often chooses texts that appeal more to them. Feminine alternatives are offered wherever possible.

Miss Maggie tends to focus on literature and historical readings (including biography) in her program. She does, however, add in suggestions for library skills (anything from using dictionaries to learning how to consult a card catalogue.) In addition to a complete Bible study and Devotional curriculum, there are also readings on Character. Subjects like home economics or emergency preparedness are not incorporated into the program, but resources for these are available. And OFE pretty much has a free resource for every subject it recommends - including Latin, math, music appreciation and more.

The three programs of study deal with various CM concepts in different ways. For example, how and when to use narration, copywork and dictation varies in each program. They also deal with teaching history sequentially in three unique ways. Some texts are listed on all three sites, though they may be read at different times or may not be specifically recommended as core text books. It will help to compare readings for a given year side by side, and consider your family’s specific needs.

Good luck with your explorations of these three sites. Next time perhaps I’ll discuss some other resources, including those for secular CM and the use of living books to teach math and science.

Update 20 January 2008:
A printable pamphlet is now available from Ambleside Online. If you are curious about AO & CM’s methods, or if you would like to use the pamphlet for school records or to help out other homeschoolers, it’s free for you to download. Read more here.