Over the years, I have learned a lot about the methods Charlotte Mason employed for teaching science. I hope to help you by elucidating those ideas and by providing a living science curriculum that you can use. Through these means, you will be able to implement a Charlotte Mason style science education with confidence and ease.
I began homeschooling when my oldest child started kindergarten. I also had a toddler at the time, and a baby on the way, but for those simple years, it was just my little boy and me at the kitchen table. Things got more complicated three years later, when a string of my adopted siblings began homeschooling with us, all of them older than my kids, all of them damaged learners and several with learning disabilities. Homeschooling all of these children (up to 7 at one time) was like a trial by fire. And because of their various issues, I quickly realized that the only way to homeschool them successfully was by thoroughly embracing Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and methods.
Still, I couldn’t let go of the textbook for science, even though my high schoolers failed every test. It was a blessing that they did though because if they had been successful, I would never have been forced to look at what Miss Mason had to say about science. And she had a LOT to say.
In the end, the kids’ science education was everything it should be. Their eyes were opened, and what a joy it was to witness! They learned to enjoy science and see connections that they hadn’t noticed before, they started to appreciate the beauty of the world around them, and they began to think. They thrived on the feast Miss Mason advised us to lay before them.
“We prefer that they should never say they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (Mason, School Education, 1904, vol 3, p. 170-171)
All of the “big kids” (as I refer to my siblings) and my son have graduated now, and I am only homeschooling my two girls these days, but I have learned so much that I must share it with you. I do that by way of this blog. You can subscribe to it and periodically receive information, inspiration, and encouragement about nature study and science.
You can also listen as I and my co-hosts share our research about a Charlotte Mason education in general on the podcast A Delectable Education. And now and then you will find me speaking at a conference.
Check out the science curriculum I have prepared based on Charlotte Mason’s ideas, which will allow you to implement her science method with ease.
Finally, if you are unsure where to start, begin with my series Charlotte Mason’s Method for Teaching Nature Study & Science.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions at nicole@sabbathmoodhomeschool.com
May a Sabbath mood rest on your day,
~Nicole Williams
Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.
-Wendell Berry, 1979, no. X