WHAT WE ARE: We are a tutorial program for homeschooling families, and as such are a partnership between tutors and parents. The tutors will provide families with a weekly syllabus. On two days each week, the tutors and students will meet together to work through reading/literature, math, language arts, science as well as nature study, a study of two or three artists, composers, and poets, as well as one of Shakespeare’s plays. Each year students will read through a section of the Bible together as well. Parents commit to work through a year’s course of study at home with their children on the other three days of the week.

WHAT WE ARE NOT: We are not a school, but a true hybrid of classroom and home instruction. Though the CMET tutors provide a weekly syllabus, we consider the parents to be the primary teachers, not merely homework supervisors. This means that parents will enroll with the supervising agency of their choice: either a Church Related School (recommended) or their local public school system. They will then be responsible to that agency for any required testing. Parents will also be responsible for assigning final grades and reporting attendance and grades to the agency they have chosen.

WHAT WE ARE: A support for homeschooling families.

WHAT WE ARE NOT: A replacement for homeschooling. We are not a 2-day school — that is, it will take five days to complete each week’s work: two days at Charlotte Mason Elementary and three days at home with parents.

WHAT WE ARE: A comprehensive curriculum. Parents are committing to follow a set course of study for thirty weeks. While we all understand that occasionally ”life” will happen, parents are committing to making sure that their students arrive at their tutorial classes prepared for the day’s work.

WHAT WE ARE NOT: Enrichment. An enrichment program is designed to “enrich” the “basics.”

WHAT WE ARE: A tutorial. In a tutorial program, tutors will work in partnership with parents by providing a syllabus listing daily assignments, and periodic assessments of student’s progress. Tutors are paid by the parents for the time they spend teaching each week.

WHAT WE ARE NOT: A co-op. In a co-op, the parents will divide the teaching up among themselves and in a sense, “barter” their time. Parents in a co-op generally commit to take a turn teaching a certain subject, or completing a certain set of tasks for a period of time. At CMET, parents are not required or expected to attend classes with their students. CMET parents do make a commitment to teach their children 3 days a week, in cooperation with the CMET tutors.

WHAT WE ARE: A Charlotte Mason approach to education. Key to a Charlotte Mason education is a profound respect for the mind and imagination of children. Education is not recitation of dry facts, but a feast of living ideas; it is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life. Student assignments will include narration, copy work, studied dictation, nature study (nature journals), outdoor time, habit training, and living books. What it will avoid at all costs: twaddle (those things that talk down to children and insult their intelligence and personhood).

For more specific summary short summary, please see Sonya Shafer’s free eBook, Education Is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life (available for download at simplycharlottemason.com).

WHAT WE ARE NOT: Classical approach. Classical education has many variations, but most commonly a classical education is divided into three stages:

While both a Classical and a Charlotte Mason approach to education will tend to have very similar book lists, the way the material is presented in Charlotte Mason education will differ and not be rigidly tied to the categories of grammar, logic, & rhetoric.

WHAT WE ARE: Entirely convinced that the following things are what Francis Schaeffer described as “true truth”:

What We Are Not: Worldview neutral.