Teaching Methods
Home School Marketplace - Homeschool Teaching Approaches
The Living Books & Life Experiences Approach
The Living Books and Life Experiences Approach of Charlotte Mason treats children as persons, not as containers to be filled with information.
The Living Books Approach
is based on the writings of Charlotte Mason, a
turn-of-the-century British educator. Miss Mason was
appalled by several tendencies she noticed in modern
education: (1) the tendency to treat children as containers
to be filled with predigested information instead of as
human beings; (2) the tendency to break down knowledge into
thousands of isolated bits of information to be fed into
“container” children; and (3) the tendency to engineer
artificial learning experiences.
Mason believed in respecting children as persons, in
involving them in real-life situations, and in allowing them
to read really good books instead of what she called
“twaddle”—worthless, inferior teaching material. She
considered education a failure when it produced children
able to “do harder sums and read harder books” who lacked
“moral and intellectual power.” Children were to be taught
good habits, to be involved in a broad spectrum of real-life
situations, and given ample time to play, reflect, and
create.
Mason's approach to academics was to teach basic reading,
writing, and math skills, then expose children to the best
sources of knowledge for all other subjects. This meant
giving children experiences like nature walks, observing and
collecting wildlife; visiting art museums; and reading real
books with “living ideas.” She called such books “living
books” because they made the subject "come alive" unlike
textbooks that tend to be dry and dull and assume the reader
cannot think for him/herself.
Here are some questions to ask yourself before trying the
Charlotte Mason method:
1. Does our family love to read, both
alone and together through reading aloud?
2. Do we love to go to the library?
3. Am I comfortable with more of a “free-form” approach to
learning?
4. Will I follow through with teaching my children good
habits and character qualities?
5. Do I trust my children to learn on their own?
6. Will I follow through with exposing my children firsthand
to nature and to great art?
Strengths of the Living Books
Approach:
Treats children as active participants in the learning
process
Exposes children to real objects and books instead of
interactions with distilled information
Encourages curiosity, creative thinking, and a love of
learning
Eliminates meaningless tasks, busywork
Developmentally appropriate
Stresses formation of good character and habits
Weaknesses of the Living Books
Approach:
Tends to be very child centered
Very little prepared curriculum
May neglect higher level studies because of its emphasis
on art, literature, and nature study
May become too eclectic
See Resources for each of the Home School teaching approaches
Other Resources:
Homeschooling Your Special Needs Child by Isabel ShawHomeschooling and Its Many Faces
Approaches to Homeschooling from HomeTaught
The
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