An integrated life.

Littles learning from bigger beans learning from bigger beans...

I've heard people in Charlotte Mason circles talk about the integrated life often, but never really took notice of what they were saying until recently. I have always had a lot of things on my plate, and managed to accomplish them quite well.
But my life, in the past year, has become almost unbearable.

My husband is a firefighter. There are many things I, as the wife, love about the job. But one thing is sure-- we have a non-traditional family schedule, in which we are constantly moving between I'm-on-my-own mode and daddy-is-home-all-day mode. The way it works is basically that just as we start getting comfortable all being home together, he leaves us alone, and just as we start getting comfortable being alone, he comes home. Those of you who are military wives might relate-- you have the hard period at the beginning of deployment, and then it just happens and you get into a groove, and then you have the hard period at the end where you need to re-adjust to the new family dynamic. Fire families have that on constant replay, month after month after month. It's a bit exhausting, especially if you're homeschooling.

When my husband is home, we can't really "school" the way we want to. It's not always him-- a different set of circumstances always seems to rise against us. Sometimes we all have to head down to this or that place to take care of some kind of official business. Other times we deal with fire-family specific issues. Other times he just needs to UNWIND, or the kids want to spend time with him. It is pretty much a guarantee that if he's home, we won't be following the schedule I meticulously worked out, and not doing it every day means that the days he ISN'T home I'm working hard to implement it instead of actually successfully walking  through it-- kind of like a perpetual Monday. Yikes.

We also had many other challenges this year. We caught a super crazy stomach flu bug that took us out for two weeks, and then another bug that took us out for almost a month! We had a new baby, and two new babies in my brother's family and my husband's brother's family. We had some family members who needed help, and watched a lot of kids during the week.

My father in law is dying. We have been living with him for four years now, helping him as he overcame the struggles of living with lung cancer, and at this point in his journey we have become his caretakers. I could write for days about everything that entails. It's hard.

It seems like every time I think about it, I get discouraged.
When I add all the issues that come with just trying to raise good kids in a counter cultural environment, the problems that come up in marriage on a regular basis, my mounting pile of laundry and dishes, and all the things that make up "life," I don't see how I can ever make it out on top, let alone accomplish the other things on my plate. (my midwifery studies, and work, and ministry in the community.)

It's just too much.

Enter Charlotte Mason, who daily reminds me that "education is a discipline, an atmosphere, and a life."
I really began to reflect on this when I was trying to integrate the Connecting with History program into my daily ordered little schedule boxes. It drove me nuts, because I couldn't just spread out everything into tidy little boxes. It required "a thinking love..." something which, again, Charlotte Mason really challenged me on.

I think for families with one or two children, a curriculum like Mater Amabilis or Ambleside Online would be really easy to implement and near perfect as written.
I think for larger families, even very large families, a curriculum like that would require a little bit of tweaking (combine religion, for example, and maybe literature), but would still be quite close to perfect as written.
But one thing is necessary-- that the families who attempt it live in the kind of environment conducive to more "traditional" schooling. By that I mean that the father and mother arrange some sort of set schedule or routine and both agree to it, that they set some hours for schooling to occur, and that they organize themselves accordingly. They need to be willing to say "no," more and "yes" less.

But we are a missionary family, we feel, and we just can't do that. We have to say "yes," sometimes, even outside of our own comfort zone.

No matter what we do (and we've tried it all!!!) none of these things seems to work with us.
We've had a schedule. But even my husband can't control some of the crazy interruptions that seem to come our way. We've had a general routine outline, but again.... sometimes it just gets away from us. The closest thing to success I have had involved checklists... but even those sometimes have been put off to other days and other weeks.

In a moment of pure frustration last week, I took a few hours to lay these questions before the Lord, and funnily enough, instead of showing me what we were doing WRONG, I felt strongly that He was showing me instead what we were doing right.... something that had escaped my notice. When I finally did notice, I realized that just focusing on those and letting all my panic melt away was truly the best possible answer for us.

So what were we doing that was working?

Our homeschool has a vision statement.

We call ourselves missional homeschoolers, and as such we say that we are "embracing a flexible, rigorous, living education, nourished by great ideas, that values people over things."
I'm discovering more deeply each day that we do that by heeding Charlotte's words about what education actually is.... a discipline, an atmosphere, and a life, and an INTEGRATED one at that.

So how does it look?

1. Education is a discipline.

It requires both personal discipline on the part of the parents and children, and family, or communal discipline. Ultimately, this IS discipleship in a family context. This is because children do what they "see." Want to raise readers? Be a reader. Want to raise kind children? Be kind to your children. Want modest girls? Dress modestly. Want kids who love math? You need to love math. Etc. More things in life are caught than taught. The Bible teaches us that. Charlotte Mason teaches us that. Any parenting book worth a darn teaches that. More on that in a minute.

But discipline must be taught, formed, and worked on as a habitual way of life. Discipline involves the whole person (body, mind and soul) and no one aspect can be ignored without pulling down the rest of it.

Have you ever been around a really disciplined person? They exude holiness. It's inspiring!

As a part of my own quest for discipline, I have been re-reading some of the classics that remind of who I am and what I am called to do, like Elisabeth Elliot's "Discipline, the Glad Surrender." It has been tremendously helpful for me to maintain a personal devotional time where I examine these questions of discipline, and I plan to continue doing so. I have taken more seriously lately my responsiblity to faithfully steward my body, my time, and my actions.

Our family, also, needs discipline. By placing special attention on habit formation and character, as well as the structural "skeleton" that holds our values in place (things like getting dressed when the day begins so we are ready for anything, or prioritizing our health by eating well and exercising, or keeping a clean house so we are always ready for random company.)  Discipline means teaching the children to accomplish the things on their list with joy.

It helps in our house that my husband is extremely disciplined. He takes all of his responsibilities very seriously, which can be exasperating and the source of many of our struggles. At the same time, I admire this quality in him and am so grateful for it... with it he is helping the rest of us to take life seriously, because we only get one shot.

2. Education is an atmosphere.

Discipline naturally creates a certain atmosphere. When the house is messy, people are messy, relationships are messy. On the other hand, for example, when there is order in the home, there is order in our hearts, and we can think clearly and relate calmly. Surrendering to the idea that authority over our children isn't about having the right to tell them what to do but instead having the responsibility to gently model for them and guide them.... these are questions of atmosphere. If I tell my daughter to get dressed and brush her teeth from my computer desk where I am undressed and unwashed, it creates a friction. But when I do so with her, it creates complicity, and the interlocking segments of our relationship are cemented.
I used to despair over this portion of Miss Mason's philosophy, because I had so little control over the atmosphere in the home. I wanted peace, godliness, and education, and my family members and community seemed instead to bombard us with mess, chaos, and stupidity. I was stressed.
Over time I came to learn that it's not the kind of battle I win by arguing. I had no control over anything in the atmosphere... except myself. And things began to change.

Have you ever walked into a home where there were people living who actually practiced their religion? The house feels different.... the vibe is peaceful and surreal. It is like a slice of heaven, even if the people living in it are imperfect.

You see, education is absorbed. As naturally as my kids play crusades in the back yard, because we read about them together. When my husband and I model a certain type of way of living, an integrated life, so to speak, our children benefit regardless of our external situations... and that's when the magic happens. And even when it's been just me on my own, the value of personal discipline and not losing sight of my goal has been that much learning happens just by virtue of living well.

The secular world understands this, because books like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families have been bestsellers. Read it, and see why that is. Education is an atmosphere.

3. Education is a life.

Discipline produces an atmosphere. An atmosphere which, over time, produces a culture of life. When discipline is happening in the house (both individual and communal) the atmosphere changes. When the atmosphere changes, our lives change. And even if one or even more of us are "off" that day, things still seem to be life-giving instead of life-stealing.
This is what an integrated life presents--- the opportunity to work on our bodies, our minds, and our souls, by the Holy Spirit, for the good of the world.

In a Charlotte Mason education, subjects are integrated. There is a fine line between integration and what we call "unit studies." We want the child, and not the parent, to make the connections. But there IS a general sense of united-ness in the approach, in that we don't waste time blathering on and on and pushing and shoving aspects of knowledge, or facts, down children's throats. We seamlessly integrate learning and life, and most importantly, we allow children the privilege of learning from the very best available materials, and of exercising their own minds instead of the constant drudgery of pressing against the minds of others. We are a home AND a school. Not just a home. Not just a school.

The other day, after almost six or seven straight days of homeschool fails, my kids and I had what we all agreed was the PERFECT day.

We finished school before lunch, the work we did was fascinating, and we covered every subject and all of our goals..... seamlessly. It was also the only day that week I integrated our work. How?
During our morning time, which we call Consilium (Latin for "Council."), we had our family meeting. we studied the Bible and prayed and sang. We worked some math problems together. We did penmanship while listening to our composer, and I read aloud from a history biography. The children narrated, and drew in their journals. We did our memory work. Then we read from the Catechism, everybody practicing their reading with me. We did copywork from that lesson, and only because it went with the illustration they had drawn. We did grammar that way. Then we had nature study, played musical instruments together, and realized we were DONE with everything on the list, so we played to our hearts' content all afternoon. Yes, there were a couple of individual readings left. We knocked those out at naps and after dinner. That was it! It didn't "feel" like school. It felt like connecting. It felt like discipleship. It felt... amazing.

When I asked my kids about their day they all told me how much they loved it. "It was fun," they told me. And "I love it when you are WITH me."

Ever since that "perfect" day, I've been scouring Charlotte's works for notes about integrating subjects. I've been letting go of the idea of fitting my large-ish, missional family's work into little scheduling boxes. I've been planning with an end goal in mind: discipline, atmosphere, and life. And it's working! We're getting through it... and it. is. glorious.

Yes, I've had to let go of some ideas, like following any ready-made curriculum just so and individually. Yes, I've had to be flexible-- sometimes holding Consilium first thing in the morning, and other times holding it just after naps.  Yes, I've had to stop trying to plan out a perfect week a year in advance. But... it's working. And it feels Spirit-breathed, and efficient, and discipleship-oriented and glorious. It feels integrated.

I can't yet put my finger on what that means. It isn't a unit study... But I do notice themes in my booklists each day. It isn't just shortening subjects and working faster through each of  them, because I do notice that when I 'm doing it right the pile of books on my table to cover that day goes from enormous to quite small. It isn't about children leading, because if they do I feel a failure at the end of the day coming on. It isn't about relaxing more, because if I did we'd never get ANYTHING done.

On the other hand, it IS about variety. It IS about being willing to work hard in quick spurts. It IS about coming into relationship, both with the texts and with each other. It IS about discipline, because we must all be willing to give it our best effort. It IS about atmosphere, because we absorb most of it through the gentle process of taking part in the Great Conversation. It IS about living, because what we study rightfully directly relates to what we are living each day.

This is a living education. And we are feeling more alive each day.

Making sense out of history

I've been asked to elaborate on how I make Connecting With History work in our homeschool, since I combined it in the past with my Catholic Ambleside curriculum, and will continue next year to combine Ambleside Online, Mater Amabilis, and Connecting with History. (CWH)

First, I will say that each of these have their "history" strengths and weaknesses.

Ambleside is full of wonderful history selections, and I deeply admire the advisory's commitment to using original source and free material as much as possible. That being said, I firmly believe that their history is biased and whig-centered, anti-Catholic, and therefore (perhaps not purposely, but nonetheless substantially) dishonest. At the very least, it's incomplete. For those who are wondering what I'm talking about, I can give a simple example. In many of Ambleside's selected readings, when a Catholic person is doing something noble and heroic, he is called "a Christian" and his interest in the Bible, evangelism, etc. is played up, whereas his commitment to the Church, the Saints, etc is completely ignored, despite the historical facts of his faith and personality. However when a famous Catholic does something bad or questionable, he is called "a Catholic," and his commitment to the Church is played up... which is, quite frankly, diabolical. Another example is that there have been substantial Catholic contributions to Ambleside's body of work (curriculum, information, articles, personal information about Charlotte gathered in research, etc.) which have gone completely unacknowledged or unattributed, and every attempt by these contributors to provide an environment which is inclusive for both Protestants AND Catholics has been met with resistance. The reason, I'm beginning to discover, is that the majority of the movers and shakers who have worked hard to provide such a wonderful curriculum follow reformed theology, which essentially rejects Catholicism as a form of Christianity and also rejects philosophy and the use of logic/reason, which are a critical part of a liberal arts curriculum such as CM advocated.  This information has greatly saddened me as I have been discovering it, but I think we all already knew that Ambleside's selections provide a very Calvinsist-centric view of the Christianity and thus, the world just by looking at some of their selections for Church History. I'm by no means arguing against using Ambleside, so PLEASE don't misunderstand me. It is absolutely phenomenal as a curriculum and deserves many praises! But for us Catholics, who know better, we need to be very aware of Ambleside's limitations in the scope of teaching history.

Mater Amabilis' history selections are excellent. I like them so much I am using them! I like them so much I am using them despite the fact that I am also using something else! But I am modifying their use because I have several students of several different ages and I need things to be very simple in my homeschool. If I had only one or two students, I would leave Mater Amabilis exactly as it is and use it as recommended. And as a side note to Catholic readers, don't ever feel like you are settling for a second-rate, "Catholic version of Ambleside Online" when using it. Mater Amabilis is an original creation based entirely on the research of its creators, who have themselves spent time at Ambleside, England studying Charlotte Mason themselves from her own sources, and who have made great contributions to the Ambleside Online curriculum. So don't feel that you are settling. With Mater Amabilis, know that you are getting the very best of Charlotte Mason's original ideas and work, and often, in my opinion, a more honest example of what Charlotte would have said/done considering that her faith background, as a lifelong member of the Church of England with many close Catholic connections (like GK Chesterton's wife!! Squee!!), is much closer to Catholic than to the reformed tradition. Ultimately, Charlotte's theology isn't the "bigger picture" point, and I'm not arguing for one curriculum OVER the other in that I think both perspectives have value for people of either religious persuasion, but I do think that it bears mentioning so that people who use MA with a sigh of resignation can be encouraged.... Mater Amabilis is authentically Charlotte Mason, and is inspired directly from her own choices and sources, not by those of Ambleside Online, therefore remaining faithful to her method.

Connecting with History uses living books, is solidly Catholic in nature, and is very complete. It is chronological (yay) and can quite honestly be a spine for all the rest of your work... if you like unit studies (I don't, and CM didn't.) The only downside to this program, in my view, is that instead of savoring one book all the way through we stuff ourselves with like, twenty different history titles as quickly as possible (the program sometimes recommends reading 2-3 chapters PER DAY. Aint nobody got time fo dat!! Other down sides people often mention is the cost of books (not a problem over here, and I'll tell you why in a minute) and not having lesson plans (also, not a problem. Here we go!)

Most CM-folk agree that we need to be teaching history in two tracks: a national history and a world history simultaneously. Most CM-folk also agree that it's best if the child can keep his own history reading going at his own level.... and yet most large-family mamas will tell you they are terrified of keeping track of each individual child's reading or of the amount of time it will take to sit down with each kid individually until they are able to get their own thing going on.

That's why I've chosen to combine all  those solutions into an easy method: I use CWH for world history, working all together with personal assignments here and there and I use the AO/MA combined ideas to develop a national history track that is tailor made for each student.

Meanwhile, If you've ever heard an experienced CM parent say anything to other, new homeschooling moms I am sure it was this:

"Less is More."

And they swear it's true. ;)

Sooooo..... what to do? There really is just so much good stuff out there!

First, I think, the key is to keep  things simple, especially at the beginning, and to select QUALITY over QUANTITY. When in doubt, do less.

Because Connecting with History does such a great job of covering so much ground (poems and scripture to memorize, picture study, history, geography, copywork, dictation, saints, Bible) it forms the groundwork for much of the day...And we do something from it every day.

Connecting with history operates on a plan: The first part is an introduction, the second is an in-depth study portion, the third is a project/activity/telling/wrap up portion. They are slowly releasing lesson plans, but you don't need lesson plans to make it work.

I tend to do one time period (unit) per month, which gives me four weeks per unit. The first week is the introductory week. I do my background reading (if there is anything I'm not familiar with) and the first night around the dinner table, I introduce the discussion questions. Second night we might watch a movie from that time period and casually introduce the new poem and scripture to be memorized. In that first week, we will do all of the initial readings from the spine (I do Founders of Freedom for the really little kids and Old World's Gifts for the oldest. I do that because they requested it, and NOT because I have to... either one of those would work great for all of them.) I break down the reading from those into two days worth of readings because I have history scheduled for a short period on Monday and again on Thursday. If you have history scheduled every day you could read a smaller portion each day, but I find it is possible to get it all done on two days and focus on literature the other days.

Connecting with History has wonderful literature selections, but Charlotte Mason wasn't a fan of unit studies. If a literature selection is absolutely marvelous, I might opt to use it, but the majority of our literature comes from the AO/MA booklists and is not usually based on the history unit being read. There are enough living non-fiction history books to keep your kids learning and loving history, and my personal opinion is that many of  the historical lit selections available for young people are not well written, only "alive" in the sense that they are purposely descriptive. I want my kids to have THE BEST, so I avoid many of the historical literature selections that I find to be... living twaddle. (A perfect example is the highly acclaimed living math book from CWH Volume I called "What's your angle, Pythagoras?" Completely historically inaccurate, and poorly written, it was a huge waste of our time and money.)

I have a religion slot first thing in the morning, after breakfast. We tend to do Catechism and Saints in the morning and Bible at night, but sometimes I switch it up. In that slot we will do the CWH religious readings--- whichever bible and saints stories are scheduled for that unit. Because we are a CM homeschool, in addition to reading the selected story I have my children narrate it. Before I do it, I drill them on their catechism lessons, for about five minutes, so all together the religion period takes about twenty minutes. After we read and narrate, we might discuss one aspect of what we read, or just say a little prayer.

I have a history period scheduled on Mondays and again on Thursday, and it is for a family read aloud. So for twenty minutes I will do the read aloud. The first week, as I said, I will read from the spine. The second and third week I will read from the selected book. (I use their beginning level read alouds-- and one or two of the important grammar level ones.) When they get older and can read independently, we will use that time to do their independent reading. After I read I will ask for narration, and allow them to ask questions. During the fourth week, there is not any reading to do (or perhaps just a small amount) and so we use that time for activities and events and working on their presentation. Part of their history lesson is always to record (or right now, watch me record) the events and people they are reading about in their book of centuries. Because we are a CM family, we don't do endless notebooking pages, but we do for example, write down a narration and illustrate it, or make what I call a "narration map" as I read (the child draws the events as we read and then uses it to narrate to me) and include those in our notebooks. We also include pictures of our project/activity and presentation. I'm not into crafts, so we don't do anything crazy.

Wednesday is my geography day. On Wednesdays I have a geography period scheduled with twenty minutes of reading and ten minutes of map drills, so if there is appropriate geography reading that goes along with CWH I will use that and ask for narration, then do a map drill. If not, I will continue to read selections from that unit's book list-- an additional saint story, for example, although I do try to make it one that has helpful reading about geography. I might also use that time to watch a netflix documentary or something relating to the geography of the place we are studying if I'm out of reading.

As I said, the last week is the activity week, and we do one or two of the suggested activities (games, charts, etc.) and finally rounding it out with a play or a dinner party. In our homeschool daddy is very involved in all things schooling, so we don't take the time to tell him all about what we have learned, but in other families, that would be a great wrap-up activity.

Doing it this way DRASTICALLY reduces the book cost because I'm not reading every single book on the list. In fact, for most of the year (in fact, all the years!) all we really need is one of the saints stories compilations, a bible, our spine (founders of freedom, or the old world's gifts), and one family read aloud per unit (so about ten "new" books per unit. I also found a used copy of MB Synge's World History series and I use that to fill in when I don't have the budget for a new book that month or when I feel like my money could be better used elsewhere. It takes a little bit of legwork to find the spot in the Synge series where we need to be reading from, but I absolutely LOVE the series, my kids do too, and we are never bummed that we don't have a "new" book on the days we don't.
Also, it goes without saying that if you buy one book a month vs buying them all at once it's easier on the budget. I have found many of them used via ebay, amazon, etc. But yes, you can successfully teach the CWH program using just the saints, the bible, and whichever age-appropriate "core" book you will use.

On Thursdays, I also do a family read aloud from their national history track.  Last year, we did Our Island Story, this year we will continue to do Our Island Story but also add Guerber's 13 Colonies (or perhaps This Country of Ours, the jury is still still out on that one.) OIS will be for my first grader and 13 Colonies for my second grader, but naturally they will often overlap/ hear each other's readings, and that's just fine with me. :)

One other thing I have done to combine is to incorporate some of the AO/MA readings that I loved in the appropriate Connecting with History unit. So, for example, we will be reading The Little Duke, an AO selection from Y2,  all in one month and over the regular time period it covers (in Volume II of CWH), instead of over one year.

As they get older, they will continue to do many of the history readings that are original source material and just really good books from Ambleside and Mater Amabilis. I will be particularly cautious when it comes to Ambleside's selections because of the skewed view of history. For example, I do have and can't wait to use Churchill's History of the English Speaking People. However, I find him to be a bit of a pompous imperialist with very little regard for indigenous people, and I will make sure to counter balance their studies at that time with something that helps them see that.

Most of Mater Amabilis' religion suggestions (outside of the advent and lent selections) are found in CWH, so we aren't skipping those, just using them differently.

Ultimately, using Connecting With History this way has helped me to unite my entire family and make good use of our time while the children are so very young. I may discover that as they get older they can be freed from "family history" and switched over to JUST the AO/MA selections, but again, most of them are the same as those found in CWH, so... why not continue this way? I'll see how I feel about it when we get there.

Does that answer questions about how to combine a family history curriculum with AO or MA? If not, please feel free to comment and I'll do my best to answer!

Charlotte Mason 101

If you're just now hearing about Charlotte Mason, there is a lot of information to sift through.
I'm by no means an expert, but Charlotte has had a profound impact on my family and on our homeschool, and I've been asked to give some information about her, so I'm happy to share what I do know.

In the past, I've been drawn to Charlotte Mason but have chosen many times to go with a different philosophy or outlook in the education of my own children, found that it wasn't working for my family, and then tried Charlotte's way, and found it to be superior. I've even gone through phases where I was VERY distrustful of her ideas, but as time went on they proved to be effective in areas I was really struggling with. So by trial and error, I find myself saying often "I wish I had trusted Charlotte more from the beginning."

There are a lot of people out there providing a "Charlotte Mason" style curriculum these days. There is need to make definitions and help people understand what a CM education is and what it isn't, because the ideas that people have about Charlotte's methods aren't always accurate.

From the very beginning, it's critical to say that in your own homeschool, implementing the methods I'm about to describe will give you a good foundation, but they will not provide your child with "a Charlotte Mason education" unless you read her works for yourself and incorporate her world view, ideas, and vision into your parenting and schooling choices. They are a good backdrop, but they aren't the heart of a CM education. They are necessary methods, but they aren't the only thing you have to do to consider your children "educated" by Charlotte's standards. If you have seen kids raised on Charlotte Mason's ideas and want that for your own family, it won't happen just by incorporating just one or two of these ideas-- it's actually the combination of methods working together towards an ideal or vision shared with Charlotte that creates the whole picture.

For that reason, it is critical that ANY parent who plans on implementing a Charlotte Mason education read her works themselves. I have been reading Charlotte Mason's works for seven years. In the beginning, I didn't have that much interest, but as I grew and experimented with parenting and schooling ideas, I became very attached to her and to her ideas. In our homeschool, Charlotte is like a trusted, old friend. But that only came about because we read her works. We still are, and we are still learning from her daily.

You can purchase her works in printed form or read them free online at Ambleside, and if you plan on pursuing a CM education that should be your first stop after reading this blog.

What is a Charlotte Mason education?

A Charlotte Mason education is an education that follows the philosophy of victorian-era educator Charlotte Mason. In her time, children were receiving what's known as a Classical eduction, and she chose to make some positive changes in the way that education was provided, such as considering with great care that a child is a person, not a programmable machine.

In a nutshell, her philosophy can be described as "self-education." Her goal was to teach children to learn to love learning, and therefore to be able to learn anything and always seek what is right and true and good.
Charlotte believed that education did not end with "school" but was a whole life experience. She is famous for saying that "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." Meditating on that gives one a sense of what she was trying to accomplish.
Her motto for students was "I can. I am. I ought. and I will!"

Her philosophy is best encompassed in the following quote:

“The question is not, -- how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”

Charlotte was also a Christian. For the curious, she was Episcopalian by denomination  (therefore accepted in many ways by both Catholic/Orthodox AND protestants) and her faith informed everything she said and did. The end-all, be-all of education, in her mind, was knowledge of God.
There are secular Charlotte Mason curriculum providers out there, but they will not be, by nature, completely in line with her way of thinking. Her goal was to pass on faith.

“This idea of all education springing from and resting upon our relation to Almighty God-we do not merely give a religious education because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example. But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may at the same time be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.”

She did not focus on religious education, therefore, but did include daily catechism instruction and Bible study in her schedules. She also tried to help children understand from the beginning that all things they study in creation come from God and ultimately can lead us to Him.

How does CM compare to other educational styles?

CM is not child-led. Therefore CM is not unschooling, nor is it related to Waldorf or Montessori, although they may share some qualities and ideas. CM is NOT a unit-studies approach. CM is not "traditional" in the sense of the modern educational methodology in which subjects are taught one after the other using textbooks in a teacher-directed classroom setting where an hour or so is afforded each subject and tests or examinations constitute affirmation of knowledge. CM IS classical, but it retains an element of human dignity and gentle-ness that is not present in most Classical mindsets. It does teach the liberal arts, and focus on philsophy and reason, but only insofar as philosophy and reason help us to understand God and creation, not so much for the sake of itself. CM can be described as "well-rounded," incorporating many elements but also standing on it's own and completely unique.

What are CM's methods?

There are several methods Charlotte advocated using. If you are new to CM but not to homeschooling, I suggest going through these in order, and beginning to implement them one by one, rather than making a big change all at once. The important thing to realize is that Charlotte viewed education as "an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." In that regard, choosing a Charlotte Mason education means that the entire family is embarking upon an educational journey and way of life. It is not confined to "school hours."

The first of these is a foundation built on good habits. Charlotte advocated teaching good habits from birth and focused in the early years on habits of obedience, truthfulness, and attention above all.
Giving a child plenty of good habits, from personal care to religious habits and everything in between "lays the rails" so to speak and allows a family to develop order and ordered thoughts. This is critical. If you realize that your child has many "bad" habits, instead of despairing, select a good habit and begin to work on it. When that one is established, select a new habit and work on that one, keeping an eye on the old habit.
The best book available on Charlotte Mason's ideas about habits is found here.
 It takes all of Charlotte's quotes about habits and arranges them in a clear format. I consider this book the Charlotte Mason parenting Basic Training Manual, and recommend it to everyone.

The second of these is the idea of a living education using living books. Most people are attracted to CM without knowing much about it based solely on this concept-- that we should select excellent literature over garbage and that we should teach from "real" books (biographies, historical novels, etc) over textbooks. These books place the student in context and help them to really feel their way into a subject by bringing it to life. As a caveat, I should say that many, many people think they are doing this by using "living books" in their curriculum, but then cramming tons of them into their year. CM advocated developing a relationship with a book, reading it slowly over months and years, as opposed to all at once. Even for her youngest students, she also took an "only the best" approach, avoiding what she called "twaddle" (books that weren't literary in quality-- junk food books) and books which overstimulated due to graphics or anything else. Think older books--- books using complex language in creative ways and with few, beautiful illustrations, for example. Charlotte also read poetry to her children every day and they were expected to frequently memorize poems and hymns and passages of scripture or catechism.

Next, there is the method of narration. Narration is the art of "telling back" and is the foundation of a Charlotte Mason language arts program. Through it the child learns composition and demonstrates reading comprehension. Vocabulary is built. Narration is the key that unlocks the CM education because it creates a relationship between the child and the text. In order to use narration in your homeschool, first select a passage that contains one episode--- usually a chapter, but it can be as short as a paragraph, especially for younger children. BEFORE you read, identify any complicated ideas or words you think the child may have problems with. For younger children, it may help to draw a narration map containing all the main characters and events in picture, or for an older child you can simply write on a white board the names of the places and people involved. Then read the story all the way through. Do not repeat yourself. If the child misses what happened.... tell them to pay closer attention next time and don't go back.  Read animatedly and with expression in your voice. Do not stop to explain terms you think are difficult, but if the child asks what something means feel free to go ahead and answer and move on. Once you are done reading, close the book and ask the child for a narration. In the beginning, they may give you only a sentence, but within weeks of daily practice they will be able to re-tell the story, often surprising you with the vivid details and language they can use. After they have narrated, you can join in the "Great conversation." This is the dialogue of the ages and puts you in partnership with other thinkers of ideas gone past. Have the child ask you his or her questions. Don't ask your own until they have done so, but feel free then to point out something they might have missed. The idea is to allow them to make their own connections. Do not begin to use this method until the child is ready-- ideally around 6. Never force a narration out of a child younger than six. In the beginning, the child will be narrating books which you have read to her/him. By the end, the child will be narrating his/ her own books to you--- usually starting around 3rd or 4th grade.

The Book of Centuries is next. Like many homeschoolers, Charlotte Mason's students used a timeline, but instead of a flat timeline they created their own timeline notebook. This enabled them to interact with the topics they studied and see them in chronological order as a whole leading through time. When you study a historical person, place, or event, you can include it in your Book of Centuries. Usually, families with students younger than 4th grade will have a communal Book of Centuries and then each student will keep their own. For younger students I will often put the narration map we drew into the book as the entry for that event or person-- it later helps to jog their memory when they go over the book. In geography, Charlotte used map drills, usually asking children to fill in blank map outlines. She also used poetry and art and nature study to help children develop a relationship with the lands they studied.

Copywork and dictation is the CM answer to spelling, grammar, and handwriting. Charlotte wanted her students to have legible handwriting that wasn't complicated and she used a technique that many people today equate with the italic font. Many CM homeschoolers, including my family, use the Getty Dubay handwriting program because it shares many facets with CM's ideas about handwriting and helps to build the habit of attention. However, no handwriting program is necessary-- Charlotte simply showed the child how to form the letters and focused on perfect execution. Once a child is comfortable enough forming the letters, he or she can begin copywork. Pull a sentence or paragraph (start with a small sentence!) from their schoolbooks and ask them to copy it exactly. Demand perfection and encourage the child to do his or her best work. Do not let them turn in sloppy work!
Once copywork has begun it continues throughout the years. Charlotte's students kept a copybook called a "Book of Mottoes" where they transcribed passages that they intended to use for character formation. My students keep a copybook where they transcribe poems, scripture passages, and hymn lyrics they find meaningful. Once copywork is established you can begin dictation. This again is a foundational method-- select a passage from the child's reading. Allow the child to read it over and internalize it, and then read it aloud to the child who then writes it without looking. Correct the mistakes made during the dictation and have him/her copy it over.
Charlotte didn't teach Grammar to children below 4th grade. Her students, however, were incredible writers and oral narrators, and had a much higher reading level than other children in comparison.

Short lessons is a fundamental CM way of ensuring things get done without overstimulating the young child. Subjects are rotated out one at a time, with a varied schedule (ie. we do something different each day) and with short lesson times. Younger children (up through 3rd or 4th grade) will use increments of just 10-15 minutes, and older children 20-30 minutes. This ensures that we get a lot done in one day without making things dreary and difficult for the child. Further, it builds good habits-- it teaches the child that there is no time for foolishness and that dawdling does not pay. Charlotte emphasized the need to train dawdling right out of a child. She said: "When a child grows stupid over a lesson, it is time to put it away."
She advocated putting it away and doing something COMPLETELY different with the child and then coming back to it afterwards. This is a very effective way of both training them to work and yet still doing so gently so that there are few "blow ups." CM parents, I've noticed, who follow this advice have the least schooltime resistance from their children. In fact, it becomes delightful.

Nature Study is another method of Charlotte's that formed all her students and created in them many wonderful habits. For her, nature study was a critical part of our overall mental health, our religious education, our physical health, our habit/character formation, and many other important facets of our personality. Charlotte Advocated going outside for great lengths of time, every day, rain or shine, cold or heat.  If you intend to run or are thinking about running a CM homeschool, know that you AND your students will spend a great deal of time outdoors. Her students had nature journals which they painted or drew in, and learned to identify and befriend every aspect of the natural world around them. Although we do FORMAL nature study once a week in my house (sometimes twice) we spend time outdoors every single day, and many times we spend MOST of the day out there. Of all the CM methods, this is the one that has produced, in conjunction with intentional habit forming, the most beautiful visible results in my home. Nature study IS science for the first six years or so of a CM child's education, and learning to identify and connect with and order the natural world, scientists will tell you, is the perfect building block and foundation for later scientific study in other areas (chemistry, biology, physics-- all take on a purpose when we have awe and respect for the natural world and the created order.)

Fine Arts Studies and Handicrafts are other integrated aspects of Charlotte's methods. A child receiving a CM education will, in one week, do a hymn study, a folk music study, a classical composer study, a poem study, and a picture study. These more or less resemble each other in method: the child is shown a picture or listens to a piece of music, discusses various aspects of it, and it is then learned and put away. These lessons are short and very enjoyable. Children of all ages can be put together on the same piece of art or music, which makes family time interesting and lively. Handicrafts are crafts that produce works--- such as needlepoint, wood working, etc. These are usually worked on in the afternoons, after "school" is finished.

There are many other aspects of a CM education, but these are the core methods.

What about the early years?

In the early years, Charlotte focused very much on good personal habits, and advocated leaving formal "school" of any kind out of the picture COMPLETELY until about age six. Younger children should get plenty of see and touch experiences and interactions with the REAL world (not plastic food, but making real food with mom in the kitchen. Not pretending to study nature, but being given a real magnifying glass and a real journal to draw in. Etc.) They should get plenty of outdoor time and exercise, healthy food, and lots of love and affection. They should also be learning discipline and forming habits of cleanliness, obedience, truthfulness, attention, moral habits, religious habits, etc.
Charlotte believed in giving children room to grow and lots of free space to do so. She didn't believe in directing their play, but in leaving them to their imaginations. However, she advocated strongly for the development of good habits-- so the children were not "wild" as some might imagine,  but instead  free, disciplined, and delightful.
Children with older siblings doing formal school should certainly be free to participate in family schoolwork such as picture study, hymn study, read alouds if they desire, etc.

Regarding the early years, Charlotte Mason said:

"Away with books, and 'reading to'--for the first five or six years of life. The endless succession of story-books, scenes, shifting like a panorama before the child's vision, is a mental and moral dissipation; he gets nothing to grow upon, or is allowed no leisure to digest what he gets."

She also said:

"In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mothers first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air."

A wonderful resource for the Early Years is this book.

Is there a pre-made curriculum you recommend that can be called "Charlotte Mason" style?

There are a few CM curriculum providers out there, but the beauty of a CM education is that the parent can carefully select, using her standards, whatever books feel right for the family. The closest curriculum to that which Charlotte used herself is called Ambleside Online. This is the curriculum I use myself, but because there are a few un-Catholic concepts presented in the history books selected, namely about the reformation and about the way we Catholics look at the religious historical aspects of England or America, for example.
Concerned Catholics then created an attempt at a Catholic Charlotte Mason Curriculum, called Mater Amabilis. (at the time of writing this blog, their website appears to be down for the moment.)

Personally, I prefer Ambleside to Mater Amabilis for many reasons, and use Ambleside with no problem, simply substituting any concerning material on my own. I read the children's schoolbooks ahead of time so I'm well aware of what to look out for, and I find the selections on Ambleside to be far superior to anything else put out there. In fact, as an adult I enjoy my first grader's selections as much as she does. You can read about my own substitutions and booklists here on my homeschooling blog.
Ambleside also uses almost all books available online for free, and does not charge for the use of their curriculum. The project is a labor of love made by a community of women who, like myself, have fallen in love with Charlotte's ideas and methods. I love to support them and promote them and am happy to help any Catholics who desire to use Ambleside with a little tweaking because it is thanks to Ambleside that I can say we have a truly delightful homeschooling experience.

What about scheduling?

Daily, a CM student will practice:

Phonics/ Reading and free reading
Arithmetic
Copywork/Dictation
Grammar if s/he is in 4th grade or above
Oral or written narration
Poetry
Foreign language
Bible study
Outdoor time
Habit formation
Handicrafts

Weekly, a CM student will practice:

Nature Study
Map Drills
Book of Centuries
Picture Study
Hymn Study
Classical study
Poet study
Folk music study
Music Theory/Instrument
Art
Citizenship

In addition, each term a CM student will study both selections from Shakespeare and from Plutarch.

In our homeschool, we devote one day a week to each subject. We discuss the bible at breakfast. After breakfast, we pray together. Then the day "begins."
In the early parts of the day we do the hard stuff: exercise, chores and the "dreary" 3Rs, and then we break for outdoor time and nature study. The later part of the morning is devoted to reading living books on the day's subject, narration, and conversation. We then eat lunch, take naps, do some crafts or projects, have dinner, pray together again, and then read all together before bed.

Our basic schedule is:

Mondays: Science & Nature study
Tuesdays: Literature & Poetry
Wednesdays: Geography & Biography
Thursdays: History & Church History
Fridays: Music & Arts

A CM student is able to do all this AND to finish formal school before noon each day because there is an order and structure to the day. It is truly amazing to see and participate in. If you have any questions please feel free to post them below, and let me know how I can help you get started. The best advice I can give you is to begin to read Charlotte's works yourself. Ask other homeschooling mothers around you if they are using Charlotte's Methods. Spend some time getting to know the wonderful CM resources available on the internet, especially at Ambleside Online.

Have fun!