About Us

We’re two Christian homeschooling families with eight children and about four decades of Charlotte Mason experience between us. Over the years, whenever we’ve (Karen and Sonya) gotten together we’ve talked Charlotte Mason and books. At the same time, our husbands (Doug and John) have talked computers and the Web.

As we got some experience under our belts and moved along on our homeschool journey, moms around us would often ask for help. They would share their struggles of putting together a CM education that would fit their families, and we would give suggestions and encouragement.

Many of those one-on-one conversations were similar, so we created a website where we could share that common information. We reasoned that if we posted our suggestions on the Web where anyone could access them anytime, then we wouldn’t have to try to remember all that information on the fly. We began posting tips in a weekly e-mail and blog post, we created an online record keeper and planner just for CMers, and we outlined what books we recommend in a free Curriculum Guide.

We looked over a lot of books in the process. Sometimes we found good ones; sometimes we couldn’t find anything that we could recommend. So we tried our hand at writing a few books to fill those empty spots. And do you know what? People actually liked them; so we wrote more. We’ve also produced several videos and regularly speak at workshops and conventions these days.

It seems our passion for making CM homeschooling simple and practical is overflowing a bit.

It is a blessing to be able to help so many busy moms like you experience how wonderfully enjoyable and effective Charlotte Mason methods are. We hope you’ll feel at home here at Simply Charlotte Mason. Take a look around, chat with kindred spirits on the forum, and be refreshed.

John and Sonya Shafer
Doug and Karen Smith

If you would like to know what we believe, please read our statement of faith.