The ABC's of a Charlotte Mason Education

J is for Journaling

Feb 08, 2024

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My introduction to Charlotte Mason coincided with the emergence of Lap-booking & Note-booking as formal occupations! Both spoke to my heart – but their messages became muddled in my mind. Once, as part of our school, I spent a full year happily snipping and cutting and folding and putting much thought into layouts for information and representative pictures and diagrams and catchy phrases, and, quite frankly, I learned a lot!

My kids, on the other hand, sat rather passively as I orchestrated and carefully explained to them what to do and when and where. At the end of the year, there was a fat 3-inch binder with “our” efforts. It is still on my shelf, and if I were to pull it down and show it to you – you would likely be inspired to do exactly what I did! What I would tell you with hindsight is that, yes, the results look impressive – but they are external. Candor compels me to admit that my kids gained little understanding or connection due to all my efforts. Ms. Mason hints that the more the teacher does, the less the students do. I proved it.

As I went back to the volumes, I realized that Ms. Mason’s goals for notebooks, journals, and what are now sometimes called collectively “Keeping Books” were quite different than some of the ones I had meshed together. Here are some thoughts that now guide my efforts:

One of my misunderstandings was trying to use Journaling to convey the understanding.

As with all things in a Charlotte Mason education, the starting point is always an intact living thought, and she said that words and narratives were the best conveyors of these ideas. In Ms. Mason’s model, Journaling comes after the ingestion of some idea. The journal is a gathering place for what has been apprehended. Of course, in the powerful process of putting pencil to paper, reflection is gained, and often clarity and organization of thought come; but my mistake was in trying to use the journal as the instructor of disconnected bits.

Another important part I missed early on was that the goal for Journaling and Keeping, though an external process, is still internal.

I kind of liked the idea of all that “proof” we had at the end of the year. From Charlotte Mason’s perspective, we don’t need outward proof for inward goals. She says that education isn’t a veneer that we apply from the outside, which can carry the meaning that - maybe it isn’t even something you can see at the time. True education is the inward working of ideas. The beauty, or the amount of content on a page, is not what counts, it is not what we are after. You don’t need bits of paper for validation. Our efforts are for inward growth and goals, and yes, some may show up on a page – but they may not as well. Resist the urge to incorporate Journaling with undercover motives – you will stifle the purpose and joy of it. One of the most liberating things for you and your student is to look at (let’s just admit that it happens!) an entry that could have been more! And peacefully say – “Nice, let’s see what is happening in our next reading.” And move on.

Clarification number three – Journaling and “Keeping Books” are not Narration.

Did you catch the bits in that previous paragraph that sound like some of the advice we get about Narration? Those echoes form a nice example of the cohesiveness of Charlotte Mason’s method but also make this clarification needful. This is a bit tricky because many of us do collect our students’ written narrations in a notebook, but properly speaking, Journaling is not the same thing as narration and should never take the place of Narration. This is a distinction you can remember and one you may want to clarify for your kids. They are two separate exercises or disciplines with two separate goals.

Narration is required after every reading, and it may be oral, written, drawn, etc. Narration is telling back what you have taken in. Narration is non-negotiable; in the Charlotte Mason paradigm it carries more weight than Journaling and so cannot be swapped out as an equal. Hence my mistake: At times, after a reading, I would skip narration (It. Can. Get. So. Tedious.) in favor of journaling (more fun!). I saw firsthand the evidence that assimilation hadn’t taken place; there was nothing to gather together, and the pieces that appeared were lacking coherence. Ideas had been sown but not digested via narration. Journaling is a practice that gathers the apprehended together. To mix the two or to reverse the proper order of the two is to frustrate the student and the process. Narration is first.

And reminder number four – Keeping Books are private property.

Don’t grade them, don’t spell check them, don’t critique them. The student’s duty to their reading is Narration; Journals are sacred. They must be kept so as to be genuine expressions. To foster care, students must feel the ownership of this space. If your student asks for tips, pointers, or spellings, then by all means, offer them. But “keeping books” are not “schoolwork.” Our goal for this is that they don’t view this as, something-they-are-doing-for-us, but rather as something that is uniquely theirs, with the supreme hope that they will continue to “keep” and gather as adults.

Which brings me to my final tip: Do you keep Journals and Notebooks? If not, why should they?

One of the most valuable things we can do for children is model what we want. I often think that from a child’s perspective, much of what we spend time teaching them must seem strangely unsuited to real life. They spend so much time mastering reading, but do they see adults in their lives reading? Math is mastered daily, but to what end? Do they see the adults around them needing it? Applying it? Discussing it? The same with science, writing, and, yes, journaling. We must model the goal. We can’t lead them to a place we won’t go. Maybe the week gets hectic, and the space for Journaling gets skipped out of necessity – at least let them catch a glimpse of me jotting down a few lines in my Commonplace Book before bed or enjoying a quick read from it! Or, in a conversation, pulling out my Book of Centuries to clarify a date. Let them see that this is a part of real life.

So, what kind of Keeping Books did Charlotte Mason use specifically? More than most people first think - so don’t feel overwhelmed! Begin with one or two: a Commonplace Book may be the easiest and best start or a simple Nature Journal. Maybe the most natural first step at your house is a Book of Centuries, a List of Firsts, or a Map Journal. In this method that often leans on the oral (reading and narration), there is a paper connection if you look, and this time spent lingering over blank pages conjuring up the ideas of a week may just be the lull in the schedule that makes your week feel coherent.

Journaling buys time and space for reflection and connection; diligence in its practice creates a personal reference point for future enjoyment and use. Your leading thought for this practice should be: this is the student’s personal space. No preprinted guides or predetermined formulas are necessary, just a kid and a blank notebook and the ideas they have taken as their own. (And some good bleed-proof pens and markers!)

Sara Timothy 2024

Authors Note: This is one of the topics where I must clarify that there is no “right” way to homeschool. If you Lap-book or use any other of the wonderful things that the homeschooling world has on offer these days, and it is life for you and your family – hang on to it! My experience has been that I often made things harder and more complicated than they had to be, which affected my energy and consistency. The thing I have loved about Charlotte Mason is that she gave me permission to simplify and do less – and the result has been a greater impact and connection for my students. This article is not intended as shame – but rather as a clarification between some popular applications of pens and paper and Charlotte Mason’s.

For Further Reading in the Volumes:

**Notebooking is sprinkled throughout Mason’s volumes in too many areas to list here. For a comprehensive look at keeping notebooks and what Charlotte Mason has to say about each one, we highly recommend The Living Page by Laurie Bestvater. (linked below).