Charlotte Mason Methods and Non-traditional Learning

How Do Your Children Learn Best?

Traditional learning, as most of us would agree, looks a lot like public school learning. Charlotte Mason Methods, on the other hand, are much less teacher-directed. They’re more focused on student interaction with what is to be learned.  Therefore, Charlotte Mason’s methods are experiential. In other hands, more hands-on and interactive. So Charlotte Mason’s methods are considered non-traditional learning.

When I think about “traditional” learning, it looks like this:

Last time, we discussed Nature study as perhaps one of the most obvious of Charlotte Mason’s suggested learning methods.  Of course, we are talking about being outside and actually observing nature firsthand rather than studying nature only from books.  Thankfully, Charlotte Mason’s educational methods dovetail with non-traditional learning in many other ways as well!

Train up a Child in the Way HE Should Go…

Many public school classrooms only allowed the traditional (auditory-sequential) learners to use their gifts. Hear a lecture, read a book, and then answer questions or write a report on it.  Ho hum.

But if you have homeschooled for a while, you’ve probably noticed that all of your students do not learn in the same ways. So, they aren’t motivated by all the same type of assignments.

As we have mentioned before, as they age, children begin showing preferences for how they like to learn.  

Pay attention to these details and study your children in order to allow them to let them do their best work.

Give them that opportunity by letting them use as many of their senses as possible. Especially until you have identified which ones they use the most.  Then, maximize learning by regularly incorporating these senses into their assignments. 

Then, they will be more engaged and cooperative when assigned work they enjoy and feel good about their ability to do!

 

Students Benefit by Hands-on Learning

Of course, all children need to learn to read well and extensively. But don’t forget that hands-on activities generally benefit ALL types of learners, especially those who are more ‘right-brained,’ which includes many non-traditional learners. So by allowing your students to do more hands-on activities, you are maximizing all of your kids’ abilities to learn, but you are especially giving your non-traditional learners the chance to shine.

So continue to use those ‘living books’ in your children’s home education, and have your students orally narrate. (Here’s how to teach narration.)

In addition, make sure students are not just reading and hearing; they also need to be seeing and doing:

Other Narration Ideas

As you know, one of those foundational beliefs of Ms. Mason’s was that information was not genuinely absorbed until it was reproduced in some way, usually through verbal narration.  But there are many ways to reproduce information.  I would not slight that method, however, especially if your children are younger and just starting out to ‘tell back’ that which they have read or have had read to them.

But as children become older, it is especially helpful for the non-traditional learner to be able to narrate in her own way, using her own natural bents.

• Let your very visual child actually take ‘notes’ in pictures while you are reading or teaching.
• Allow more ‘hands-on’ narration, in addition to the above suggestion, such as producing a dramatization, painting a picture, or creating a poem to ‘narrate’ what has been read.An older student might illustrate a key scene in a book or even build a 3D model of it.

Charlotte Mason Picture and Music Study Suit Non-traditional Learners

By their very nature, Picture and Music Study appeal to the senses, so make sure to include them in your children’s home education. Art and/or music reach some children in a way that can’t be touched by reading.  Read about Picture study and Hymn Study.

By the way, book suggestions and period music CDs are included in every unit of our Daily Lesson Plans and Unit Program Tools.

I’m so thankful that our kids can be taught the way that best suits them rather than the way that best suits the school system! Aren’t you?

If you have non-traditional learners at home, I would love to hear how YOU have incorporated Charlotte Mason’s methodology into your homeschool!   Please consider leaving a comment below.

 

Gratefully His,