Perhaps one of the most daunting thing about taking the leap into the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education is the many terms that are new and unfamiliar. And while we don’t expect you to understand them from a basic definition, we hope that this page will help you get over that first hump. 

Most Common CM Terms and Definitions

Here are some of these terms and their quick definitions, as well as links to where you can read up on them in more detail.

• book of centuries – a tool used for history studies, usually in book form, with each page representing a century and divided into grids to represent years, where the student lists down a character he reads about in their corresponding century 
• copywork – the process of copying a passage from a living book with excellent execution and attention to detail 
• composer study – the process of playing a piece of music by a given composer with the goal of familiarizing with and appreciating it
• dictation – the method of studying a passage and writing it down phrase by phrase with the spelling and punctuation ingrained in memory 
• dry facts – refers to information that is given to children with the expectation of memorizing them without contextual ideas
• living books – refer to excellently-written books written by an author who is passionate about the subject 
• narration – the act of telling back what has been heard or read 
• nature study – the process of observing things in nature and recording these findings in a nature journal 
• nature journal – a notebook where the student records his observations in nature, starting with a drawing and progressing to making notes of the object in question 
• picture study – the act of observing a painting and then telling back from memory what has been seen 
• recitation – the process of regularly reading aloud, with beautiful pronunciation and intonation, a selected passage 
• timeline – a long sheet of board, whether pasted onto the wall or folded accordion-style, with each page divided into several centuries, and where the student writes or draws the people he reads about in their corresponding century 
• twaddle – refers to dumbed-down books or material, written with the view that children are not able to understand more than a few easy words or sentences on a page.