Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Plan

Homeschool
Written By Haley Littlepage

Why Charlotte Mason?

We completed our first official year of homeschool last year with preschool for my oldest daughter. Not knowing any better, the first thing I began researching was curriculum. What I should have been researching while planning our school year was homeschooling styles.

We used The Good and the Beautiful’s Preschool Course Book as well as their Kindergarten Prep course. The Good and the Beautiful is a traditional, mildly Christian curriculum. It’s very worksheet based and a lot like doing public school at home.

It worked and did its job. However, I didn’t feel the magic of homeschooling like I thought I would. I started reading a lot of homeschooling books to help get my bearings and realized that there are so many methods of homeschooling a child. You don’t have to treat homeschool like public school at home.

There’s traditional, classical, Waldorf, Montessori, unschooling, Charlotte Mason and more. Every time I saw the Charlotte Mason method mentioned it was accompanied with excellent, classic literature, outdoor time and nature study. Oh, most importantly, it is very Christian.

How does the Charlotte Mason method work? (a brief summary)

The more I read, the more I knew that this method was for us. Charlotte Mason is a Victorian educator that developed a methodology that instills good habits for an excellent foundation to pursuing education. She has a very natural approach to learning to read, write and do mental math.

Miss Mason teaches almost all subjects from excellent books that engage a child’s imagination and empathy through stories. The books build character, foster virtue and cultivate morality. She uses the method of narration (telling the story back after hearing it) to help children remember what they learned. She also believes time spent out of doors is essential to a child’s well being.

Charlotte Mason really respects children. She sees them as “born persons.” Meaning they are unique, individual, image bearers of God who learn at different paces, have different natural abilities yet all deserve a feast of an education that is well rounded and rooted in truth, goodness and beauty. This is why we chose her method.

5 Books that Inspired Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool

Here are a few books that I read that really drove home this way of homeschooling for our family:

What is a Charlotte Mason Kindergarten?

Charlotte Mason speaks about the growing practice of kindergarten in the education system in her book Home Education. Her conclusion? The mother is the best kindergarten.

We know what our child needs and it isn’t an overly structured and organized craft time full of meaningless twaddle. Our kindergarteners are “born persons”, little image bearers who crave what we all do: to learn about the world that God made.

Charlotte Mason believed that formal lessons should not begin until the age of 6. Many of our kindergarteners will turn 6 during the school year and are eager to learn, especially if they have older siblings who are already doing the work.

Just because formal lessons do not begin until the age of 6 (first grade), does not mean there is no learning happening. She still believed that children were learning the very basics of the alphabet, writing and counting gently and as they showed interest.

Excellent books and and immense amount of time spent in nature is also highly encouraged at this age. She did not believe we should hold the children back spiritually either and should begin fostering their relationship with God immediately. She believed a young child should be immersed in a beautiful environment within the home and out of doors. Good habits should also be cultivated at a young age.

Again, she talks a lot about the younger years in Home Education which deals with students from ages 6 to 9 but also has quite a bit of commentary on infants and younger children.

Based on all I’ve read, here are the “subjects” I am including in our Charlotte Mason inspired kindergarten homeschool plan.

Our Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Curriculum:

  • Morning Time:

    • Bible Stories

    • Poetry & Nursery Rhymes

    • Hymns & Folk Songs

    • Artist & Composer Study

      ***Read my blog post, Morning Time for Beginners to learn more about what this is and how we do it.

  • Living Books:

    • Fairytales

    • Fables

    • Picture Books (Stories, Biographies, History and Science)

  • Reading

  • Writing

  • Math

  • Nature Study

  • Art & Handicrafts

  • Life Skills

Charlotte Mason Kindergarten Curriculum Resources

Morning Time Resources

Bible

We read one Bible Story each morning at the breakfast table and say a prayer.

Poetry & Nursery Rhymes

After our bible story, I will read one or two poems or nursery rhymes.

Ambleside Online

Ambleside Online (AO) is a FREE online Charlotte Mason curriculum for years 1-12. However, they also have a Year 0 (Kindergarten) section with a book list and suggested activities for this age.

We are using Ambleside Online’s schedule for the following subjects (mostly for Morning Time):

We read books together at least 2 to 3 times a day. Once at breakfast, again at either lunch or snack time and once before bed.

Artist study happens on Tuesdays and Composer Study on Thursdays. I will play our composer in the background during the day, focusing heavily on one particular piece each week.

We listen to our folk songs and hymns after breakfast to get out all of the jitters before our daily lessons.

Daily Lessons Resources

Reading

Charlotte Mason has a detailed method of teaching your child how to read in her book, Home Education. We are using a few of these methods for extra reading practice and to reinforce that reading is fun. However, I wanted something more detailed for day to day reading lessons, so we are using:

I’m going to be honest, we struggled through the first ten or so lessons in this resource. However, by Lesson 13 she really picked up on the method and we’re flying through it now. It’s not my favorite because it feels too mechanical and honestly, boring. Which is why we’re using some of Charlotte Mason’s methods on the side because they feel more like a game and are a lot more fun for my daughter. Using both methods is working well for us.

Writing

A handwriting course isn’t really necessary at this age. But I bought one last year during our preschool year because I was overly excited about homeschooling, so we’re using it!

This is a pretty basic handwriting course. A lot of tracing, fine motor skill activities and coloring pictures.

Charlotte Mason recommends using a sand tray to learn handwriting and a chalkboard before ever using a pencil. She details her method in Home Education. I will likely switch to her method for my other children in the future, but I wanted to use what we already had.

Math

Math concepts should be kept very basic at this age. I found a free story-based math program that we’ll be using for Kindergarten.

These are free online vintage books that teach early math concepts through a picture book style of learning. We’ll likely move on to Simply Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Arithmetic: Book 1 after we finish these.

I’m following my child’s lead and her pace for math. We do a little every day based on her attention level.

Bonus Subjects

Nature Study (Science)

Kindergarten Nature Study is simply learning to name the world around you. The birds, trees, insects, and animals you can find in your yard or at your local park or hiking trail.

  • Local Field Guides

  • Nature Notebook

I will keep a field guide out on the porch when we are playing outside. If we see something we don’t know, we’ll look it up. This isn’t forced - we let God lead the way with His seasons. and Creation.

My daughter also has a nature notebook and colored pencils I keep with the field guides in case she has a desire to draw something she sees. I will write the name of the object and the date for her at the top of the page. But this is only at her discretion at this age.

Art and Handicrafts

I’m the kind of mom who doesn’t really do overly organized and planned arts and crafts. I simply provide my children with a lot of art supplies and give them the time to be creative at least once a day.

My daughter never fails to thoroughly surprise me at her own creativity in using the materials. Art is definitely her thing so I’m constantly bringing out the art box during her free time.

I keep basic art supplies on hand:

  • Crayons

  • Colored Pencils

  • Acrylic Paint

  • Chalk

  • Watercolor

  • Scissors

  • Construction Paper

  • Old Magazines

  • Glue

  • Playdough

  • Kinetic Sand

  • Basic Sewing and Embroidery Supplies

Life Skills

This isn’t formal at all. This is simply an invitation for my kindergartener to join me in the daily housekeeping tasks she’ll someday need for her own home.

She helps me cook, bake, clean, do laundry and take care of the garden. I don’t force it on her or yell at her to do it. I let her know what I’m working on and ask if she would like to join me. 75% of the time she says yes and I’ll teach her how to do something alongside of me.

She can:

  • Dust

  • Wash dishes

  • Cook eggs

  • Make pasta

  • Run the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer

  • Fold towels

  • Hang up her clothes on hangers

  • Tidy up toys

  • Vacuum and mop

  • Pick and weed the garden

She learns more all of the time and is an excellent helper. Inviting her instead of forcing her seems to encourage her to help willingly. She knows way more at five years old than I knew how to do when I first got married.

. . .

Dear Homeschool Mama,

I hope this blog has been helpful in planning your Charlotte Mason kindergarten homeschool year.

My biggest piece of advice for the school year is to focus on what matters to your family. Find the homeschooling style that realistically (not idealistically) fits your time and family culture.

Also, limit the amount of homeschooling voices you listen to so that you don’t feel pulled into a million different directions from too many ideas.

Otherwise, you’ll start to feel like you’re not doing enough or you’ll try to add too many things into your homeschool that overlap or conflict with one another.

Happy homeschooling!

Humbly,

Haley

. . .

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for more homeschool, poetry and bookish content.

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Other homeschool posts you might enjoy:

Morning Time for Beginners

FREE Charlotte Mason Homeschool Daily Rhythm Cards

FREE Printable Charlotte Mason Homeschool Planner Pages

The Good and The Beautiful Preschool Course Review

My Homemaker Poetry Series:

Mundane Meetings

What’s your hurry, Mother?

The Heart of the Home

Again

Haley Littlepage
Next

Morning Time for Beginners (and free printable binder covers)