Essex Cholmondeley, Charlotte Mason’s biographer and friend, once wrote, “Teaching is not a technique exercised by the skilled on behalf of the unskilled. It is a sharing of the effort to know, using all that is best in the world of books, of music, of pictures, all that can be observed and cherished out of doors, all that hand and eye can make; all that religion, history, art, mathematics and science can reveal to the active mind.”

“Co-learning” is a term I use to describe this process of learning alongside our children. It’s an idea hinted at in many of the writings of Charlotte Mason and the PNEU. For example, in Mason’s fifth volume, she notes that Goethe’s home-educating father “held that nothing was so stimulating to young pupils as for their elders to learn with them.” It’s advice I’ve taken to heart and try to apply on a daily basis.

Charlotte Mason envisions lessons as “the delightful commerce of equal minds where [the teacher plays] the part of guide, philosopher and friend.” In this workshop we’ll talk about the why co-learning is so important and how it can be implemented practically in the day-to-day homeschool experience.