Suggestions for What to Teach
Language Arts includes everything you do to help your student hear, speak, read, and write. Many educators break down those four areas into lots of individual skills; however, Charlotte Mason combined and integrated many of the skills in her wonderful, language-rich methods. For example, she did not teach vocabulary as a separate subject, but the children’s vocabulary was enlarged as they heard and read quality living books. Click on a subject to see more details and our resource suggestions.
| Subject | Grades 1–3 | Grades 4–12 |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning Reading | A combination of basic phonics, learning words by sight, playing with words, word building, and practice reading aloud | |
| Handwriting | Copywork & Transcription | (optional) Book of Mottoes |
| Composition | Oral narration | Oral and written narration |
| Spelling |
(Informal through reading and handwriting lessons) |
Prepared dictation |
| English & Grammar | (Informal through hearing good literature, handwriting lessons, and oral narration) | Formal instruction and reinforcement on parts of speech and sentence analysis |
| Literature, Poetry, & Shakespeare | (These subjects are listed under Grade-Combined Family Subjects on the curriculum guide because Literature and Poetry and Shakespeare can easily be done as a family) | |
How to Teach
Click on a subject on the chart to see the details for each one.
For more help with language arts, take a look at Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing: A Charlotte Mason Language Arts Handbook and the Language Arts the Charlotte Mason Way workshop.
A Growing Time Calendar Journal
Laying Down the Rails for Children
Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors