Tip 4 – Decide Subjects On (and Off) Your Charlotte Mason Schedule
One of the hallmarks of a Charlotte Mason education is the rich feast of ideas it can provide. However, there are so many subjects that it can seem overwhelming when you hear someone talk about the: map work, copywork, dictations, narrations, picture study, nature walks, dry brush nature journaling, composer study, Book of Centuries, Shakespeare, Plutarch and the other 55 living books they seem to be reading. However, don’t let that put you off. Many of these activities only happen once a week, some may only be done once a year and a few of the books may take three years to read.
However most homeschooling schedules plan in broad subjects like: language arts, math, science, history, geography, art, sport. But with a Charlotte Mason schedule you need to be more creative.
Our My Homeschool schedules make sure they incorporate all the key subjects needed for a rich Charlotte Mason education.
Tip 5 – Don’t Do A Strict Timetable For Your Charlotte Mason Schedule
There was a time when I had colour coded charts that I spent the holidays preparing and goal setting. Everything was slotted into a neat space and time. And it all worked beautifully on paper. The problem was within the first week it wasn’t working and I felt behind. So my response was to give up on the timetable altogether.
I got wiser as the years went on and I began to schedule not timetable. The difference was we had goals for the day of week.
In the elementary years I write up a general term schedule.
It needs to allow for:
- flexibility with reading. Some days the readings will vary in length.
- interruptions and special appointments.
- homeschooling when sick,
- personal stamina – the perfect day hardly ever happens.
First we plan our Charlotte Mason weekly schedule. I make a general plan for the term which I use as a guide. Then I make a weekly checklist of what needs to be accomplished over the week. This gives me the flexibility to go with the flow of the day.
Here’s an example of our high school Monday schedule – warning it’s a true record which includes the good and bad.
At My Homeschool we do this all for you and provide the homeschool resources.
Tip 6 – Use Bookmarks To Keep Your Charlotte Mason Schedule On Track
When you have a lot of books on the go it is good to have some sort of plan for how they will fit into your Charlotte Mason schedule. The way I did this was to get the book I was intending to read and set a realistic goal of what needed to be read. For this I used a book mark and I would write on the bookmark what needed to be read. For example I might write read 2 pages per day for a child. Or read a chapter per week. This way they knew what I expected. As they got older I might make the goal more general like finish this book by the end of the term.
Tip 7 – Organize Your Resources In One Easy Place
In the early years I didn’t really have much of a system for storing the resources that I was using. My husband was tidy and he was always putting things away by shoving them in the bookcase. However they were in a different place everytime. We had a lot of books so I wasted a lot of time locating resources.
Finally I got a system that worked for me and my neat husband was happy.
I put all of my children’s independent work together in their own individual baskets or workboxes.
You can also learn more about my Charlotte Mason workboxes here.
Here is a video from a while back that shows how we did our work baskets.
Teaching your children to work independently takes time and requires your input but this will help them develop good habits and help you when you cannot be there on the spot for the day due to illness or other commitments. They need to learn to work alone.
At My Homeschool you also have access to our Moodle learning platform which gives you all the resources in your online virtual cupboard. It also has a mobile app so you can access lessons on your mobile phone. How easy is that!
My Homeschool Charlotte Mason Schedules
After nearly 20 years of homeschooling, making homeschool schedules for my own children became easier and easier. I finally had it (mostly) worked out and then they all graduated. Now I’ve used those principles of planning in our Inspire My Homeschool Curriculum.
