Lesson Plans and Charlotte Mason
A lot of parents wonder if Charlotte Mason used lesson plans
for her classes. Of all the documents we have available for
research, the answer seems to be quite muddled. There isn't
a lesson plan book, outside of her Original
Home Schooling series, that documents exactly how she taught
her students. It is implied, however, that her teachers
probably did have "teacher guides" or "notes"
to use. The Parent's
Review articles are probably the closest record we have of
actual teacher notes.
So do you need lesson plans to teach using the Charlotte Mason
method? Personally, I don't think you do until the upper
forms (high school). Even then, I would consider teacher
notes or a guide to be all that is really needed. In the
lower forms, the majority of "teaching" is caught
through reading books (either the child reads or the parent reads
aloud). There are plenty of moments to explore topics and to
engage in conversation. I think parents might want to read
ahead of their students, note vocabulary words, find maps, etc. to
assist but they do not need to worry about formal lesson
plans. Here is a wonderful PR
Article that talks about setting up the school room. I
think you will see that the idea is to already have plenty of
hands-on objects in the room so that students do not need
additional items to study.
Creating Teacher Lesson Plans
I have found that I like to have a few lesson plans to follow
or else I simply do not feel like I am in control of our
school. My lesson plans are basically our weekly schedule
with notes on them (not very exciting - I know.) I schedule
all our books out by terms or semesters so that I know exactly when we will finish
and when a new book needs to be substituted or when we are done
with our year. If you would like to see my basic lesson
plan, click on the link below.
Creating a "Book " Study Guide
Teacher Notes on the other hand are really useful, if you have
the time to create them. I tried my hand at creating them for some of the books
we read in Year 7. Theye were really time consuming and I
ended up not using them. You are welcome to
download and use them. You might also want to use my template
and create some of your own!
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 1
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 2
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 3
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 4
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 5
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 6
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 7
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 8
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 9
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 10
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 11
- Ivanhoe,
Chapter 12
- The
Birth of Britain (one lesson)
- Old
English Poetry (one lesson)
- The
Book of John (one lesson)
- Elements of Style (lessons 1-18)
**Next: Other goodies and files
Copyright 1998-2010. Carol Hepburn.
