[BMG580]

We are moving to an area that has a brick and mortar Charlotte Mason school. I am wondering if anyone has utilized Charlotte Mason in a traditional school setting rather than as a homeschooling curriculum?

I should add that we lean Waldorf in home style but I am not a hardcore Waldorf parent for many, many reasons. Charlotte Mason seems to be a decent compromise between having a teacher led environment, an emphasis on living books and nature as being hugely integral to the educational experience while also incorporating more traditional educational practices which make my husband more comfortable.

This is the school we are considering:

http://www.ambleside.org/

 

[Kristenmd1]

Our son went to a Waldorf School for kindergarten and we too moved to a place that had an actual Ambleside School and he now goes there. There are many things I like about Waldorf and like you we aren't hardcore Waldorf people...but luckily I found that the things I liked about Waldorf overlapped with what Ambleside had to offer so for us it wasn't a hard decision. I had the opportunity to volunteer in our son's classroom on a weekly basis and I have to say that after witnessing the philosophy put into practice there is no way I could have homeschooled him to the same standard as his classroom teacher.

Like Waldorf, Charlotte Mason's philosophy is a way of life, so for us school was just an extension of our home life. We like that the curriculum isn't dumbed down and that it exposes the students to subjects that will not only educate them academically but make them well rounded adults as well. My six year old can identify N.C. Wyeth and Manet paintings. He listens to Handel and Sousa with a happy heart and runs around the house singing marches! In fact when asked what his favorite subject was he answered "math" which surprised us!

While we do not go the the school in VA, we absolutely love our Ambleside School and couldn't imagine anything different for our son.