How does one accomplish a full feast of a Charlotte Mason education?
I have 4 children ranging in age from 6 to 12, and they are excellent students!
We have learned to do short lessons, but I still feel like we are not operating on full
cylinders.
I have also learned to split some subjects.
For example, my 12 year old does grammar for about half the year, and then she will do
Latin for the remaining half.
During the summer, the kids attend the John C. Campbell Folk School for handicrafts.
We incorporate all of the following subjects into our weeks: math, reading/literature,
science, history, book of centuries, copy work, written narration, spelling, bible,
poetry, physical education, drawing/painting instruction, picture study, composer study,
and instrument lessons.
I find it difficult to also implement nature study every week, which I do love!
I am not even intentionally studying geography, foreign language, shakespeare (other than
when he is on our poetry study), singing/hymn study, or citizenship.
My question is, “How does one truly implement all the subjects that compose a Charlotte
Mason education?”
Okay, first let me say how jealous I am that you get to go to the John C. Campbell Folk
School.
It's a dream of mine to go there; it looks so delightful!
But . . . setting that aside, let's answer your question.
It sounds like you are already doing a lot of things right.
One thing that I have found helpful is to combine the children for as many subjects
as possible.
Everything except math, language arts, and upper level sciences can be done all together
as a family.
That saves a lot of time and makes it easier to include everything you want to.
You're right that you don't have to do all the same subjects every term.
You can switch things up that way.
Remember, also, that you don't have to do every subject every day.
I think that's a key to including them all in an enjoyable schedule.
To get really practical, I've grabbed a couple of lesson plan books off my shelves to show
you one example.
I think the schedules in these books include everything you mentioned.
So this will hopefully give you some ideas of how it might be accomplished.
Here is an example of doing history, geography, and Bible all together as a family.
You'll notice it's not all of those every day.
They are spread out throughout the week.
Each day's lesson should take about 30 minutes or less.
Now here is an example of doing all the enrichment studies, like music, art, handicrafts, nature
study, Shakespeare, poetry, hymn study, etc.
This schedule has some key components repeated every day, like Scripture memory and the family
read-aloud, but it rotates all the other subjects throughout the week; some once a week, some
more frequently, yet always in a combination that adds up to only 1 hour or so each day.
These are all done with all the children together.
And, as you mentioned, you can swap some things out during different terms.
For example, I add a Shakespeare play during Term 2 and switch handicrafts to art instruction
that term too.
But it's still only about an hour a day.
So between the history/geography/and Bible lesson and the Enrichment studies, you've
used about an hour and a half of the day and you've done everything except math, language
arts, and science.
You could combine your younger children for a living science book two times a week.
That would add about 20 minutes on those days, but that still leaves you plenty of time to
supervise the individual subjects like math and language arts.
Here's an example of what the individual subjects might look like for a 2nd grader.
They take only 30 minutes or so.
Of course, your 12-year-old will have more independent studies that will take longer,
but I hope this at least gives you some ideas of how it could be done.
The sample schedules I showed here didn't include physical education or music instrument
lessons and practice, but everything was scheduled to be done by lunch so afternoons would be
free for those activities.
The books I've been using with these sample schedules are the lesson plan books for History
for Enrichment Studies, and for Individual Studies.
We're still adding to that line-up, but you can download the free samples of those books
on our website to get a closer look.
I hope this gives you some practical and helpful ideas!