Sample Course of Study
Below is the planned course of study for the six sessions of our Charlotte Mason Cottage School.
- Hymn Study - Students will hear and narrate the biography of Fanny Crosby and study six of her hymns. Guest musicians have been invited to sing with and play for students. A CD with the hymns and composer studies is available for purchase, but not required.
- Poetry/Recitation - Classes will study a poem suitable for the age and choose one poem for recitation at the end of the summer. The selected poet for this summer's session is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and we will be reading from Poetry for Young People: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
- Shakespeare - Classes will study one play, "As You Like It" over six sessions. Younger students will hear the play read aloud from Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, as it is an age appropriate introduction to the works of Shakespeare. Older students will listen to Acts I and II from "As You Like It". All students will narrate the play orally and/or through drawing.
- Short Story - Younger students will hear and narrate a story from James Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories. These are mostly stories from history or legend, and they are wonderful. Older students will hear short stories such as "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry.
- Nature Study - We will observe, learn about and paint one insect, one tree, one flower, one weed, one animal and one other item (such as a bird nest) over the six sessions.
- Artist/Composer Study - we will alternate sessions and by the end of the summer will have studied 3 pieces of art from the artist Benjamin West and 3 compositions by Stephen Foster. Again, we will have guest musicians performing some of these works.
As mentioned, by the end of the school, each child would have in their books the six hymns with CD (available for purchase), six poems, one poem for recitation, the selected play by Shakespeare, a list of short stories narrated/drawn, six nature studies in watercolor, three artist studies and three composer studies.
