Some people have a misconception that Charlotte Mason does not apply to older students. This method was and is used in high school and college levels. Copy work and dictation continue but with harder material and at a faster pace.
Charlotte stated, “He must generalize, classify, infer, judge, visualize, discriminate, labor in one way or another, with that capable mind of his, until the substance of his book is assimilated or rejected, according as he shall determine.”
“But this [narration] is only one way to use books: others are to enumerate the statements in a given paragraph or chapter, to analyse a chapter, to divide it into paragraphs under proper headings, to tabulate and classify series; to trace cause to consequence and consequence to cause; to discern character and perceive how character and circumstance interact; to get lessons of life and conduct, or the living knowledge which makes for science, out of books; all this is possible for school boys and girls, and until they have begun to use books for themselves in such ways, they can hardly be said to have begun their education.”
Read aloud to the family from a book that everyone can follow but have your older students read a more challenging book on the same subject and bring his/her deeper understanding into the discussions.
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