Afternoon Occupations: Our Charlotte Mason Education

In a Charlotte Mason education, the morning lessons are a broad feast of living ideas that we mothers often bring to the table with much diligence, thoughtfulness, planning, and enthusiasm. Mothers spend hours and hours planning and scheduling the morning lessons that sometimes we can forget that they are only a sliver of the living education we are bestowing to our children. And if we truly believe education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life, then simply put, our children’s education doesn’t end with morning lessons.

Our children need time outside of lessons to fully feast on their living education, but how do we accomplish this when we pack our afternoons with errands and activities? While certainly there is a time and place for those things (and it looks differently for every homeschool family), it’s also important that we aim to balance work and rest, lessons, and leisure. Charlotte Mason was aware of this and she was highly in favor of and recommended hours of out of door time and free play, and also actually scheduled time for “afternoon occupations” in her programmes which entailed leisurely activities like music, drawing, painting, handicrafts, reading, and etc. However, these intentionally scheduled occupations weren’t established to “stay productive”, or to entertain or exhaust children until bedtime.

Miss Mason’s first principle that “children are born persons” widens our perspective and gives us the ability to set our children’s feet in a large room, wider than the delightful feast prepared at the homeschool table, and reaches to all corners of our children’s lives. With this perspective in mind, it becomes essential to balance lessons with leisure and make room and time for our children to form connections with the living world around them.

“The claims of the schoolroom should not be allowed to encroach on the child’s right to long hours daily, for exercise and investigation.”

Charlotte Mason (Volume 1, Page 177)

What is the purpose of afternoon occupations?

Afternoon occupations can be understood as intentional ways to encourage our children to be good stewards of their time, to be thinkers, creators, explorers, observers, and simply enjoyers of the life they’ve been given. And so, if morning lessons are the feast, then afternoon occupations become the crucial time when children “digest” the living ideas they’ve been “consuming” all morning, making connections to the world around them. With ample time for this “digestion”, our children have the room to grow and to form real connections that not only will give them valuable life skills, but it becomes the science of relations when children connect how their math lesson guides them in baking or building or how the time spent reading their natural history books begin to help them identify the creation around them. Just like our bodies need a well-balanced and nutritious diet to grow strong and mature, so do our minds need a well-balanced, and nutritious diet of both lessons and leisure.

“Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.”

Charlotte Mason

Principle To Practice

Afternoon occupations are not about following a formula, a rigid schedule, or even only including activities from a specific list considered “Charlotte Mason approved”. The occupations will vary depending on the child’s age and independence, so this is where it becomes the vital work of each mother to determine what this looks like for their child.

Also keep in mind, as our children mature and get older, their afternoons at home might actually be less and less as they outsource college classes, get a job, or join local sports or classes, which, though are good uses of their time, may entail that the evenings are held freely and open for the time to enjoy leisurely.

“Thus, the morning, after breakfast (the digestion of which lighter meal is not a severe task), is much the best time for lessons and every sort of mental work; if the whole afternoon cannot be spared for out-of-door recreation, that is the time for mechanical tasks such as needlework, drawing, practising; the children’s wits are bright enough in the evening, but the drawback to evening work is, that the brain, once excited, is inclined to carry on its labours beyond bed-time, and dreams, wakefulness, and uneasy sleep attend the poor child who has been at work until the last minute. If the elder children must work in the evening, they should have at least one or two pleasant social hours before they go to bed; but, indeed, we owe it to the children to abolish evening ‘preparation.’”

Charlotte mason

One Mom’s Example

For context, my two children are still young, in 3rd grade and kindergarten this year, and most afternoons in our week are spent at home since our extracurricular activities and events are primarily on the weekends. Of course, life happens, we have visitors, someone gets sick, or we simply want to spend the afternoon at the zoo or local park with friends (which I consider equally beneficial to their living education). We are not oblivious to these things, just that when possible, the afternoons are left intentionally unscheduled.

Our lessons are finished before lunch so once everyone has eaten, and has had some time to play freely, my children will begin their afternoon occupations during my work block which lasts a couple of hours. I specifically chose occupations that can be done mostly independently, and I take into consideration each of their interests to include things they take delight in.

Independent Baskets

My children each have their own “independent basket” which I have curated full of their afternoon activities. I encourage them to work on at least two-three of the activities, but because I rotate these activities out of their baskets frequently, I know they’ll eventually work their way through a variety of activities by the end of the week.

I keep these activities tucked away during other hours of our day so that they look forward to them during the afternoons. During afternoon occupations, I include our composer and/or folk songs playing in the background, with a light snack and full water bottles. They often enjoy their afternoon occupations either at the table that I am working at, or they’ll find a spot on the floor with pillows, blankets, and table trays.

On some days, they will skip their independent baskets altogether and head outside with their nature journals, binoculars, or toys and spend their time exploring and playing imaginatively.

For my kindergartner, his basket includes:

• Paint by Sticker books
• Pattern tiles to create
• Wikki Stix
• Map puzzles
• Dover Coloring Books
• Misc. Kindergarten Workbooks
• Critical Thinking Games
• Picture Books
• Artist/picture study books
• Legos
• Magna Tiles
• Craft Supplies
• Letter tiles for word building
• Yoto Player with audiobooks

For my 3rd grader, her basket includes:

• Paint by Sticker books
• Wikki Stix
• Dover Coloring Books
• Logic Links (game)
• Logic puzzles
• Word searches
• Puzzles
• Sign language cards (visual aids for practice)
• Legos
• Drawing Books
• Writing Journal
• Handicrafts
• Craft Supplies
• Explode The Code Book
• Artist/picture study books
• Geography/map books
• Free Reads
• Yoto Player with audiobooks

These lists are just some of the things we have available for their afternoon occupations. These activities are not all accessible to my children in their free time so to them, their baskets are a treat to delight in. I like rotating their baskets with different things (maybe 2-3x a week) so that it stays fresh, and something of a treasure to discover for them. I am always available to them, but mostly, we all enjoy the independent quiet time afternoons bring since we spend all morning together every day and again all evening. After our independent time, we will conclude our afternoon occupations reading and then head outside for the remainder of the time (yes, even Mom too!).

Closing Thoughts And Encouragement

The afternoons are going to look so different from family to family. You might not even have the option to spend hours leisurely in this timeframe (psst, that’s ok!). That’s where I think we have to remember the principle over the practice of Charlotte Mason’s Schedules and Methods. You won’t find a CM police here, but I hope if anything, this blog article is resourceful but is just a springboard in crafting your own Charlotte Mason Education for your children. I hope you are encouraged to pursue a living education beyond the homeschool table and morning lessons, and that your efforts and pursuits lead you and your children to a full and rich life steeped in Truth, beauty, and goodness.