Charlotte Mason CMEC Curriculum For Our 2021-2022 School Year

It’s hard to believe that we are already at the point of needing to dive into our next school year, but August is here and I’m doing all the planning and purchasing! This year I’m very excited to start fresh with new books, as we go back to my homeschool roots with a solid Charlotte Mason curriculum.

I was homeschooled all of my life, and my high school years were spent being taught using the Charlotte Mason method. I have many amazing memories of my homeschool experience. I loved doing copywork (even in high school!), reading the Lamb’s book of Shakespeare, reading classic novels slowly so I could actually retain them, and doing lots of written narrations.

We have done lots of different things over the years, some years looking more like a Charlotte Mason homeschool experience than others. Last year was a disaster in terms of schoolwork. We got things done, but not how I wanted and it was a super stressful year. Between selling our house, moving into an RV, being pregnant, and finally finding a house to buy and moving again before we had Jackson, it made for a less than idea school year. We learned a lot of about life, we enjoyed the traveling we were able to do, but I’m ready to settle down and start our new school year. We have two more homeschool conventions to attend with our Well Ordered Homeschool Business, so we plan on officially starting right after Labor Day weekend.

This year I’m leaning away from online type school (except for my oldest) and going back to good old fashioned books. 🙂 For many different reasons I’m really worn out with how much my older children were online doing school last year, and I want them back in books.

I stumbled across a Charlotte Mason curriculum this year that I had never heard of before, and after much research I decided to join CMEC, which stands for Charlotte Mason Education Center.

What is CMEC?

Here is what they have on their website:

“Our curriculum is based on years of research into Mason’s philosophy as well as the working out of that philosophy with a diverse group of families, both in the classroom and in homeschools across the country.

Some key features of our course of study:

Crafted to achieve the breadth and balance of Mason’s programs.

Matched to Mason’s original timetables to ensure an appropriate amount of work for each Form as well as ample time for leisure.

Designed around “streams” of history, science, and geography, Mason’s vision for building definite knowledge consistently through the years.

Assigning not only “living books” of literary quality across the curriculum, but also “living things,” like handicrafts, nature journals, the fine arts, and more.

Reflecting a thoughtful progression from year to year and Form to Form.

Accompanied by age-appropriate term exams for all work assigned, using Mason’s original exams as a model.

Easy combine for families with multiple students.

Offering simply and clearly organized materials.

All students in our program study the same historical era, allowing for greater camaraderie and collaboration among students and parents. (The 2021-2022 School Year will study roughly 1650-1800 and Ancient Greece. Like the PNEU, we follow a 4-year history rotation.)”

You can request an information packet here, which gives you a look at the website and samples of the program.

Why Did I Pick CMEC?

I previously had used A Gentle Feast, and while it’s an excellent curriculum I wanted something a little more robust. My children are good readers and I felt like they could handle more than what A Gentle Feast offers.

Who Should Use CMEC?

If you are brand new to Charlotte Mason and feel overwhelmed, or you don’t want to spend time diving into reading the form guides and watching the videos included, CMEC might not be the best fit for you.

However, if you are truly interested in giving your children a traditional Charlotte Mason type education, one full of living books, narrations, art appreciation, music, handicrafts, and studying nature, you might want to take a look at the CMEC! I’m not affiliate with it in any way, I don’t earn any sort of income from recommending it, I just am delighted to have discovered it and want to share with others!

When you join, you get Form Guides for all 4 Forms (which is grades 1-12). You then have access to all the book lists, how to use them, what to purchase, etc. Each Form Guide has a team leader, someone you can email and ask for help.

I plan on following the program as closely as I can, but I know I’ll tweak a few things. For example, Carrianna has been using Dr. Jay Wile’s science curriculum and she really wants to use the new book he has coming out, so I’ve told her we will get that for her science. I’ll still have her do some nature study type work as well.

Sophia is in 1st grade, and I’m planning on having her do a little bit of the CMEC, and a little bit of a different curriculum that I’m doing with Emily. I’ll share more about that in a different post.

I’ll be using The Well Ordered Homeschool Planner to keep track of our daily schedule. When we sell out of our printed copies of this planner we won’t make new ones until next year, so get yours while you still can! We don’t have very many left, and will be attending two more homeschool conventions and always sell a lot there.