My Ultimate Charlotte Mason Volume Resource Post

I am reflecting on the providence of God through the past 6+ years of homeschooling my children and feeling so thankful for the consistency of my friends that meet with me each month to discuss Charlotte Mason's writings. I know I've written in a few places about the full cycle of homeschooling in my life, but I thought I would make one post that has links to each volume that we studied and my own journey on this road.

In 1985, my mom was still a new Christian. She and my dad found the Lord not long after they settled down together in Flint, MI in 1980. They were discipled and loved on by an amazing church and had the zeal and love for God that sought His will for their lives. In 1985 my mom had me (age 5) my brother (age 2) and was expecting my youngest brother that would be born in January 1986. The schools around us were not the best and my parents didn't have the money for private schools. My mom told me that the moments leading up to my kindergarten year made her nervous. She prayed constantly for God to give her wisdom on knowing what to do for my education. My mom’s friend gave her a Christian magazine and inside the magazine was an advertisement for a mail order curriculum. She had never heard of homeschooling before. In 1985 it was not at all common, yet she pursued finding out about homeschooling and Home School Legal Defense and how she could successfully give me an education at home.

Michael Farris and Greg Harris and other early homeschool movements allowed my mom to find the resources needed for curriculum and homeschool conferences. We started out with a curriculum written with the McGuffey Readers as the spine. One of my earliest memories of homeschooling is sitting in our church library working on my schoolwork. Mom would bring me and my younger brothers to the church to volunteer in the office, clean the sanctuary, and water all the plants! She would sit down with me at the piano in the children's Sunday school room as she taught me the basics of what she knew on the piano, and then we would sit in the library to look at picture books and complete my school work for the day! Of course we also did school work at home, but these early memories of being in the church during my first year of homeschool are so precious!

Homeschool newsletters began coming to our home as my mom found more ways to provide a feast for our family. We took trips to the library, played at the park, and even created our own little co-op with several other homeschool families that joined the movement! (I think this picture is from 1987 - our co-op at the church with 3-4 other families - I'm in the teal!)

It was in a Mary Pride curriculum guide that my mom heard about and bought all of Charlotte Mason's volumes. How providential that more than 30 years later, my mom's investment would be giving her such an incredible return? It's such a beautiful picture of what God can do in our lives as we surrender to HIS will!

We had many ups and downs in our homeschool journey throughout the 1980s and 1990s (and even into the 2000s with my brothers) and my mom's motto was always "one year at a time."

Charlotte Mason was in the background throughout my education through nature study, music and art appreciation, and many beautiful living books in our literature. My mom didn't have the internet like we have now and she relied on textbook companies to guide us through each grade level, but I believe I had a feast. I was able to graduate highschool through homeschooling (and some community college credits) and attend Lee University with a foundation in the liberal arts. I remember my English professor and his surprise that I was familiar with a lot of the poetry presented in our class (only because that was probably the hardest LifePAC I had to do in high school! My mom and I both scratched our heads on poetry analysis but we got through it!)

I graduated from Lee University in 2002 and began my career teaching music. My parents moved from Michigan to Tennessee and brought sooooo much of our home education mementos with them. When my dad passed away in 2014, mom sold the house and we had to go through ALL OF IT! (Parents, don't save the worksheets. LOL!) The treasure that I am so glad my mom held on to through all the years was the set of "pinks" that the Andreola's published in the 1990s. I was just getting started in our homeschool journey when my dad died. I took the volumes home with me and began studying them with other local homeschool moms that wanted to provide a living education for their children.

I've been blogging about our readings each year and have put up reading schedules in case you would like to start a book study with your friends. I can't tell you how much this community has meant to me. Not only do we meet for book discussions, but we have started our own co-ops, we have dinner together as moms as we practice painting and nature journaling, and we plan fun field trips for our children to grow up exploring the natural history around us. I'm always willing to meet and talk about this way of education and pray that the Lord will show you His will for your life as you raise your children. My friend Rebecca from The Parent Teacher Bridge has the best saying: "You are your child's most influential teacher!"

Below are links to the pages I created after our group finished studying and discussing the volume. I hope it can serve as a benefit to you as you learn a little more about the philosophy behind the Charlotte Mason method! I also encourage you to write out your "Why" in homeschooling your children. Reflecting on your purpose can help you as you walk this path. I wrote out my why a few years ago and enjoy coming back to re-read the reasons I know God has called me to this mission field.

2015-2016 - Volume 1
2016-2017 - Volume 6, For the Children's Sake, and the Start Here guide by Brandy Vencel
2017-2018 - Finish Volume 6 and started a second Volume 1 group
2018-2019 - Volume 2
2019-2020 - Volume 3
2020-2021 - Volume 4 and In Vital Harmony
2021-2022 - Volume 5 and Atomic Habits