Charlotte Mason's Students Motto

"I Am, I Can, I Ought, I Will."

I am . . . a child of God, a gift to my parents and my country. I'm a person of great value because God made me.

I can . . . do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God has made me able to do everything required of me.

I ought . . . to do my duty to obey God, to submit to my parents and everyone in authority over me, to be of service to others, and to keep myself healthy with proper food and rest so my body is ready to serve.

I will . . . resolve to keep a watch over my thoughts and choose what's right even if it's not what I want.

Charlotte Mason wrote a little more about the motto in volume 1, which I've re-worded here:
I am, I ought, I can, I will. These are like four steps of the ladder that St. Augustine wrote about when he said we could 'go up on the stepping stones of the old, sinful man we cast off and are dead to, and ascend to higher things.' I am means that we can know ourselves and understand what we're really like. I ought means that we have a moral judge inside us. We feel like we're subject to it. It lets us know what our duty is and compels us to do it. I can means that we know we have the ability to do what we know we're supposed to. I will means that we resolve to use the ability we know we have to do what our inner moral judge has urged us to do. Resolve is the first step in actually doing. These four make a perfect, beautiful chain . . . (You can read Charlotte Mason's exact wording on page 330 of volume 1.)

"I am, I can, I ought, I will." This was the motto she gave us. I am a human being, one of God's children; I can do right by my fellowmen and by myself; I ought so to do and God help me, I will so do. Is this not a great message she has given us?
(Michael A. E. Franklin, one of Charlotte Mason's students; from In Memoriam)

"I am, I can, I ought, I will." Miss Mason chose your inspiring motto. You can say,
"I am the greatest thing in God's creation: a human being with a spark of God's divine spirit in my body. Because I belong to the human family I can do the great things that other human beings have done. I have powers of doing, thinking and loving.
"I can use these powers. I can change my thoughts from things that harm me and that worry me to the beautiful things I have learnt in my School: I can know the ways of activity, I can think kindly thoughts of God's creatures in the past and in the present, in this and other countries, of people who do not think as I do in religion and politics.
I ought to do these things: I owe it to my God, my parents and my School.
I will forget myself, and live up to the ideals of my School.
God is on the side of those who will, and with His help we will all go on working as Miss Mason hoped we would.
(By the Hon. Mrs. Franklin, from In Memoriam)

Love, live, laugh & learn!

April B

Simply Charlotte Mason

I would urge anyone reading this to visit Simply Charlotte Mason.
That site is just amazing! I discovered it a few years ago, and have been enamored with it ever since. I actually got to participate in a book club with Sonya (the owner of the site). She is such a wealth of knowledge about how to put the Charlotte Mason into practice. There are schedules, book lists, a book finder, narration ideas, etc. on the site. I have also been to one of her workshops. It was on habits, one of the foundational ideas of the Charlotte Mason method and it was phenomenal! I am not an expert, by any means, on the CM method. I absolutely LOVE the simplicity of it all. It isn't simple as it is not a strenuous educational method. It is, even more so than a lot of methodologies or curriculums. I have implemented a lot of CM methods into our homeschool this year. We are going to do nature study AT LEAST once a week. You think that would be easy to implement and it is, if you don't THINK too much about it. There is God-given curiosity in our children to know and spend time in God's creation. They absolutely love it, they THRIVE on it. But you HAVE to take the time. We are also going to do a gentle language arts/phonics program. Sandi Queen, at Queen Homeschool, has a phenomenal program called Language Lessons series. We are also going to do a lot of exercises orally, I am not going to require a lot of written work and we are going to keep lessons short. We are aiming for success in lessons done, not dawdling on 10 problems for 45min-1hr. We are using a spelling program this year but that is because I haven't gotten around to selling anything. I have quite a few Bob Jones curricula. I may sell these but not sure yet. We have done this for a long time but I cannot stress the importance of reading living books. A living book is a book generally written by one person whose passion is the subject written about. There are great book lists out there. Five in a Row is a great curriculum, if you can call it that...it shows you how to learn about a book. We may do it for our 4.5 yr old next year. Check out their book list and Ambleside Online. If you want to know pretty much anything about Charlotte Mason, look at that site. Oh and the best books on the CM method I have found are her own writings which can be found for free online, just go to Ambleside's website, Pocketful of Pinecones and The Charlotte Mason Companion, both by Karen Andreola. Those are just my personal favorites. We are really looking forward to starting on Monday!

Charlotte Mason

I have been reading more and more about this extraordinary woman! I bought her 6 vol set on home education for about $22 on ebay and I can't wait to get it! Along with other things with our home school, we are going to be studying hymns, composers & artists. We were thinking about going to a guild once a week that would teach those and many other wonderful things but we thought it would be too much right now. Monday afternoons are going to be ATL Multisport and Wednesday's is Awana...those classes would have been on Tuesday's and I thought it may have been too much. I am co-director of Cubbies now and I have a lot more responsibility. I am also lead teacher, so that is something else. So the beginning of the week is already super busy.

Anyway, I am just so intrigued with www.amblesideonline.org , Penny Gardner's website, & this blog I recently discovered www.higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com -it has such a wealth of information! I can't wait to get this year started!