Charlotte Mason In New Zealand by Christine Smith

Meet Christine

Born in New Zealand, Christine is a veteran homeschooling parent with a combined 74 years of experience guiding 5 children through their primary and secondary school years and preparing them all for successful studies at university-level education. Now in a new stage, she enjoys talking curious parents through the basics of homeschooling and Charlotte Mason on her podcast.

As the Mason movement continues to expand around the world, we enjoy publishing educators' experiences with Mason from a wide variety of places. In this post, Christine shares her experience homeschooling in New Zealand over the past several decades.

Our Family’s Story

In 1997 we started homeschooling with a boxed curriculum and by 1998 we had moved over to a Charlotte Mason approach to education, staying with it until we had finished in 2017. It’s fair to say it morphed over the years we adhered to it but that is one of the privileges of homeschooling.

It took a while to learn to trust it but I had met families which had successfully used the principles for a few years, which was reassuring. This was before computers became commonplace and it was certainly before the days of easy internet. There was no Charlotte Mason curriculum to buy but there was her Original Series to study together in our group and put into place her ideas.

Karen Andreola’s A Charlotte Mason Companion soon became my how-to book. Although it was Karen’s interpretation of the principles it was easier to follow than the Series. I wasn’t a purist; I needed something to show me what to do and let me adapt to suit our culture and family needs.

"Our foundation was built on good books."

It was so easy it felt like cheating. On self-doubt days I needed reassurance (and there were plenty of those), but if you have worked out your ‘why’, on your darkest day, your Mission or Purpose Statement will overrule those pesky feelings.

Our foundation was built on good books, or Living Books as they were affectionally known amongst other CMers. Each child had a literature book and a biography of a hero (scientist, musician, missionary etc) usually a Christian, but not always. Written work, narration and spelling were based on the books being read or an activity we were involved in. The children regularly did artwork and all had formal lessons at some stage. They all learned music at some point and we went to concerts, dramas and galleries. They played outside a lot and we regularly went to service opportunities, sports and social events. Poetry featured regularly and there was the sacred read-aloud time at 11.30 am every day. I read so many books to them, and I loved it!

They all had a Book Log and most still use one as adults. All enjoy looking back over the years and it often becomes a reference to check on. I had one, too, and still use mine.

We used science textbooks, until for our fifth child, we trusted Living Books for her science needs until her last couple of high school years at home. I simply rounded up every book, story and text we had in the house to do with any animal, bird, insect, plant, star and anything else to do with science. By this time we had accumulated a lot of books, as anyone committed to Charlotte Mason’s teachings well knows. There was an impressive tower of books for her to read. This took a bigger amount of trust in the Approach than we had done in earlier years but a fellow homeschool parent (who was trained in science) reassured me of her experience. Our youngest went on to a Zoology degree which came very naturally to her, immersed in all things ‘natural’ as she was!

Our mathematics was always from a text but with the freedom to move on once a subject was known. We also had a tutor for the children once they were at high school level.

There are plenty of other details I haven’t included but this is an over-view for today.

Since there was no curriculum to be bought, it was never an issue. Imagine my surprise to recently discover Charlotte Mason curricula can be bought! At first, I was suspicious: how could these curricula not direct as any other boxed curricula would?

To be clear, I need to spend time carefully going over what is available but from what I see online there seems to be plenty of scope for choice by parents. It seems to me, the foundation of a Charlotte Mason approach to education is based on learning from Living Books. Whether that is done by choosing every book, buying what has been suggested or a mix of both; how that is done is up to the parents.

The essential structure built on the foundation includes understanding and using the world as your classroom, knowing a little about a lot and a lot about a little, and most importantly, teaching how to think and not what to think.

One more thing. We used the Charlotte Mason principles throughout finishing high school at home. All applied for and attained university entrance with a Discretionary Entrance Application. One son needed two papers via our National Curriculum (his last year only) but that was because Engineering School was non-negotiable. The remaining and majority portion of his application was still Discretionary.

Not all universities in New Zealand allow this but most do. Where a uni does not, the student attends the first year at the uni which does and then applies for a transfer. One of our daughters had to do this as she wanted to study Italian. Since it wasn’t offered at the Discretionary Entrance uni, that was her pathway.  

I realise some countries do not make allowances for alternative pathways to university entrance but it’s worth pursuing that option. It’s another subject but we would seriously be reconsidering tertiary education options if we had children of that age now. Your child will benefit from remaining in a Charlotte Mason education for as long as possible.

As to what other homeschoolers in New Zealand are doing with a Charlotte Mason education at the moment, I am not sure. It is something I intend to find out and support in ways that I can. At the moment, my encouragement and equipping of homeschooling families (especially those using the CM principles) are through my podcast. I’m sure the CMI will be helpful for parents wanting to grow and become proficient in educating their children.

Until next time, enjoy your family!