Charlotte Mason Afternoon Occupations
When we think about a Charlotte Mason education, we tend to think of all the literature books that the students read, and feel like they’ll be stuck indoors all day reading. It’s a gentle, yes, but rigorous education, structured according to important principles of learning and how children are created to be. This includes a wide curriculum, too, which means that not only are they reading lots of living books, they also have music, art, nature study, and plenty more.
So how in the world can they get all that done in a week—much less a day?
The interesting thing is that, in the CM philosophy, school lessons are expected to be done by lunch time! Now, if that doesn’t make us moms feel all the more pressured, I don’t know what will!
Take a look at what Miss Mason says in Vol 6 Toward a Philosophy of Education:
All intellectual work is done in the hours of morning school, and the afternoons are given to field nature studies, drawing, handicrafts, etc. (From Vol 6 page 9)
Sure, it sounds nice and idyllic, but is it actually possible? Let’s take a look at some of the principles that can help us achieve this.
Principles Behind Free Afternoons in a CM Homeschool
If you need help scheduling your CM homeschool, we have a post on plotting your CM daily schedule, where also offer a FREE CM Schedule Template. But we encourage you to look at the principles why she recommends keeping afternoons free:
1. A CM homeschool secures habit of attention from an early age.
The habit of attention is one of the most crucial foundations in all the work that students do in a CM homeschool. This means that, when Mama is reading aloud, or when Billy or Bess are reading their lessons, they give their full attention. This also means that, because they pay full attention, their minds don’t wander and they don’t need to read the passage again. This is one magic behind why lessons can go by quickly even though there may be a ton of material to go through!
2. CM emphasizes short lessons and changing gears to keep the mind fresh.
Another important thing to remember is that Miss Mason recommends two things: short lessons, and changing “gears” regularly (term mine). This means that the student gets a fixed amount of time for a lesson, for example, ten to fifteen minutes for younger kids, up to thirty minutes for older kids. This alone keeps them on their toes, and also helps motivate them because they know there’s a specified “end” to the lesson. (Of course, it doesn’t guarantee perpetual motivation, because there are times when the kids may just not be into the lesson, but that’s OK.)
Then, we call for a change in the kind of work that they do: for example, if they just spent thirty minutes reading from a literature book, the next lesson might be math, or singing a hymn, or reciting poetry. This helps ensure that they use different parts of their brains, keeping them from getting fried!
3. CM uses narration and does away with busywork.
The CM method requires narration for all school lessons, except for math, poetry, and the riches. This means that all the school readings may be narrated orally, with some written narration for older students. But we don’t do busywork-type activities, which means that learning is focused and we don’t spend a lot of time doing extra projects that eat up a lot of time and don’t really add much value to the learning!
4. CM places value in a wide curriculum of learning.
Because we value our students’ learning across a wide variety of things, we don’t expect book reading to have precedence over all other subjects. In fact, in one of the Parents’ Review articles, it recommends us to reduce the readings if needed in order to give one or two hours a week to handicraft! This in itself gives us permission to leave the afternoons free for our children’s other “pursuits,” which includes riches like music, art, extended nature study, and handicraft.
5. CM values self-education.
Miss Mason places strong emphasis on our children learning to educate themselves. Many parents want to be so involved in their children’s education that we want to add this thing and that thing, thinking they need all these extra stuff. But take a look at this excerpt from a Parents’ Review article:
Miss Mason devises time-tables which cover such reasonable hours as to leave time over for this solitude, but parents are often very culpable in thinking that Tango or some other new thing must be learned as well, and the much needed time for solitude is used for plans which necessitate hurried journeys, always in the company of a responsible person, who feels it her duty to talk in an instructive way, and the thinking time, the growing time, the time in which the mind is to find food is diminished, and the child becomes restless, tiresome, irritable, disobedient—everything that a child who is reputed to be difficult can be.
The parents marvel and say, “But we are giving him the best education that can be procured, we are neglecting no opportunities.” Kind, generous parents! You are giving your child every opportunity but one, and that is self-development; by your generous care, you are safeguarding him from ever using his own mind, ever relying upon himself in any way. The child who at first found interference irksome, later depends on it so much that he is unable to work without constant prodding from his mentor. I believe that this is the prime reason of the oft repeated lament of teachers and professors, “Little ones are so eager, older children are less keen, adults are dull and lethargic.”
(From Imagination as a Powerful Factor in a Well-balanced Mind, by E.A. Parish, Volume 25, no. 5, 1914, pgs. 379-390)
Charlotte Mason Afternoon Occupation Ideas
So what do children educated in the Charlotte Mason method do with their afternoons? Here are some examples:
- handicraft
- musical instrument practice
- nature study, farming, climbing, and other outdoor activities
- exploring their different interests
- free reading time
- quiet time
- imaginative play time
- free role playing time
- outdoor exploration
Free Afternoons Give Solitude and Independence
Again, we want to emphasize the spirit of why this principle of free afternoons is in place. We understand that not all families will be able to do that; in fact, even in our family, we struggle to do this, especially with my older son who does most of his work himself. Some reasons include different sleep and wake cycles; we know some families where the dad works a late shift and the kids are accustomed to stay awake until he comes home, so they start their day later than most other kids do.
Take a look at this passage from a Parents’ Review article:
For the right use of the programmes two things are necessary—solitude and independence. Children must have these. Nursery children come off fairly well in these respects; they get time when they can wander and dream alone in the garden. But this happy state often ends where school-room life begins. Lessons, walk, and lessons again, always in company, and always something that must be done now.
(From Imagination as a Powerful Factor in a Well-balanced Mind, by E.A. Parish, Volume 25, no. 5, 1914, pgs. 379-390)
Let’s focus on what the free afternoons are intended to do, which includes giving our children space to grow and learn apart from our intervention!
