Category Literature

Posts and articles about Charlotte Mason’s approach to teaching literature, poetry, and Shakespeare.

Fiction Benefits Education Homeschool

How Fiction Helps Children Grow

My youngest has been traveling to conventions with us over the past few months. Amid the different locations and changing venues, she has held tightly to one constant: on every trip she brings a classic children’s literature book. These books…

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Subjects: Poetry

Teaching Poetry: Subject by Subject, Part 11

Most homeschool parents I talk to get a funny look on their faces when I mention poetry. That’s because their own schooling experience with poetry consisted of dissecting a poem to bits at the teacher’s insistence. Such over-analysis and examination…

Sowing seeds

Wisdom from Shakespeare

We’ve been talking the past couple of weeks about how much Charlotte Mason valued Shakespeare. She considered his works to be a great way to help instruct children’s consciences, reinforcing the differences between right and wrong, good and evil.

Reading together

Reading for the Pleasure of Others, Part 5

Reading aloud well is an art form and a skill that we would do well to practice, especially those of us who use the Charlotte Mason approach for homeschooling. Reading aloud holds a prominent place in Charlotte’s methods; it rests…

Homeschool language arts

Poetry: Language Arts, part 8

If you have been following our Language Arts series from the beginning, you will remember that Charlotte Mason approached language arts in a balanced two-pronged way: first, she integrated many language arts skills into regular school subjects; and second, she…