Composition the Charlotte Mason Way

A Course for Forms 3-6

Premise

Charlotte Mason believed that composition should not be “taught,” but that students should be exposed to many styles and forms of writing through wide reading, then find their way forward by imitating those styles and forms while also exhibiting their own personality and style. The goal of this course, then, is for students to both read and write, and to spending time practicing transferring their thoughts into writing.

Course Description

Miss Mason recommended that until Forms 5 and 6, there should be no correction of a student’s writing, and in the upper forms correction should be kept to a minimum. Therefore, the premise of this course is exploration—of forms and styles of writing. Students in Forms 5 and 6 will receive a small amount of targeted feedback on assignments (and not in red pen!).

The one type of instruction Miss Mason did advocate for was in scansion, the rhyme and meter of poetry. Therefore, students will receive direct instruction in scansion (which is fun—students generally love it!), then write their own poetry with the object being to create verse that scans.

Grammar will incorporated wherever a specific need arises, in short lessons and in keeping with Charlotte Mason’s principles for grammar instruction.

The weekly in-person class time (90 minutes) will be spent in part reading together, with some verbal narration and discussion, as well as the opportunity to ask questions about what has been read. The rest of the class time (Charlotte Mason recommended 40 minutes) will be spent writing, with each student working on an assignment appropriate to his or her form and writing experience. Assignments will be individualized to ensure students are being met where they are.

A longer work of nonfiction or literature may be assigned for at-home reading to allow time for discussion and writing in class, but reading assignment length will be reasonable. Some writing based on the student’s own at-home lesson books may also be assigned on occasion for the upper forms (aligning with the practice of delayed narration to strengthen that mental muscle). All assignments will reflect the type of work done in the PNEU schools.

Tuition, Prerequisites, Enrollment, and More

The course is 35 weeks, from 1:30-3 p.m. on Mondays, beginning September 14, 2026 and ending May 24, 2027. There will be no class on December 21 and 28, 2026. The class will be capped at 6 students. Tuition for the year is $400/student. A payment plan is available. A $50 deposit is required to hold a student’s spot. To request enrollment, please fill out the Google Form HERE.

It is expected that students are engaging in verbal and written narration at home, as well as copywork (if appropriate to their form) and dictation.

For high school students counting credit, the in-class time will count as 52.5 hours toward a 120-hour Carnegie Unit in language arts. Any additional time spent at home can be added to this total but should be logged by a parent.

Possible Writing Topics/Assignments

Form 3 and up:

  • Current events
  • Nature observations
  • Literary character profiles
  • Personal letters
  • Poetry
  • Short stories
  • Book summary or review
  • Account of a trip
  • Description of a place from an account read (such as a geography text)
  • Ballad
  • Narrative poem
  • Scene of dialogue
  • Essay (various forms)

Form 4 and up:

  • Precis
  • Diary entry
  • Oration/speech
  • Literary retelling

Form 5 and up:

  • Multiple scenes for a play
  • Abstract
  • Memoir
  • Opinion (newspaper editorial) or letter to the editor
  • Debate position
  • Research paper (Form 6 only)

About the Instructor

Harmony Harkema has a BA in English and Journalism from Oakland University and a slew of graduate credits in Creative Writing from Wayne State and Northwestern Universities. She taught middle and high school language arts for a decade in Michigan and Illinois, then went into book publishing. She has been editing books for 18 years. In 2012, she began “unlearning” how to teach the public school way and learning Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, which she has been applying in her own homeschool for a decade. Exploring literature and writing with young people are two of her favorite things.