resources

Curated resources for Southern California homeschool families.

Community

BOOK CLUBS FOR MOMS

  • Saturday Morning Charlotte Mason Book Club
    Meets the 4th Saturday of each month at 7:30 AM
    Jones Coffee in South Pasadena

    • Contact Beth | (213) 618-1379

  • Live Oak Educators
    Meets Tuesdays from 2:45-4:00 PM September-May
    Monrovia Library Park

COMMUNITIES

  • San Gabriel area Charlotte Mason Community

    • Meets at Vincent Lugo Park

    • Contact Elizabeth | (818) 478-0360

  • SoCalCM is a local community of families and educators in Southern California who seek to implement Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy in their homes and schools.

HOMESCHOOL CO-OPS

  • San Gabriel Valley Charlotte Mason Co-op

    • Contact Jen Taing

Nature Spots

  • Peck Road Water Conservation Park in Arcadia

  • JPL in Altadena - creek play

  • Chantry Flats

  • Dalton Wilderness Park

  • White Point Tidepools

  • Wildlands Conservancy

  • Madrona Marsh

  • Monrovia Canyon Park

  • Whittier Narrows

Local Homeschool Resources

Books for Mother-Teachers

  • For the Children's Sake by ⁠Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

  • When Children Love to Learn

  • Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

  • Awaking Wonder by Sally Clarkson

  • Mother Culture by Karen Andreola

Books for Southern California Families

  • Pagoo by Holling C. Holling

  • Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin

  • Wild L.A. by Natural History Museum

  • Grunion: Fish Out of Water by Ann Stepp

Field Trips

  • Excellence in Education

    • Monthly field trips

  • Getty Villa

  • LA Hive

  • Point Vicente Interpretive Center

  • Cabrillo Aquarium

  • Bolsa Chica wetland (Amigos de Bolsa Chica guides)

  • Vasquez Rocks (interpretive center is there)

  • Huntington Beach Central Park West

  • Wildlands Conservancy in Oak Glen (apple orchard)

  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena (advance reservation required)

  • Poverty Encounter | An immersive experience that brings stories of people living in poverty to life.

  • West Fork Trail | 7-mile bike/hiking trail that winds alongside a creek that also has beautiful water holes for water play.

Charlotte Mason Curriculum Options

Please note that each of these curriculums are tools, not prescriptions. Each of these curricula offer valuable insight to assist you in pursuing a CM education – but view these as suggestions which you can best implement in your own family, not a formula which leads to a definite result.

  • Ambleside Online
    AO is the site that kickstarted the modern Charlotte Mason revival! It has excellent literature recommendations, lots of info on how to get started CM homeschooling, and resources and wisdom throughout their gargantuan, free website. It can be a little bit like drinking from a firehose!

  • Alveary
    Alveary offers more modern and diverse literature, history, geography, and riches options. They lay out exactly how to plan your day, how to combine multiple students, and their curriculum has many extra resources for each day. Alveary follows a four-year history rotation, and requires a yearly subscription price per family.

  • CMEC
    This group uses many of the original books that Charlotte Mason herself preferred, and has wonderful training and resources for home educators. Their speciality is offering more than just a curriculum, but in really teaching you how to apply this in your own home. The CMEC follows a four-year history rotation, and requires a yearly subscription price per family.

  • Simply Charlotte Mason
    Simple and easy-to-use lessons and curriculum to apply CM in your home. SCM offers beautiful composer and picture study portfolios, and uses a six-year history rotation that folds in biblical history. You can purchase many of their lesson plans a la carte. Sonya Shaffer’s podcast also offers a great and straightforward introduction to the CM educational philosophy!

  • A Gentle Feast
    This curriculum lays out lesson plans and guides to direct your child’s education. Similar to how Charlotte herself operated, AGF divides kids into forms (grades 1-3; 4-6; 7-9; and 10-12). AGF follows a four-year history rotation. You can buy a yearly membership for your family, or purchase guides a la carte.

  • The Children's Tradition
    A curriculum of good books that prepares children to love Great Books later. This curriculum emphasizes the poetic mode of learning, where students are immersed in sensory-emotional experiences through nature and books.