Charlotte Mason Handicrafts Ideas

I’ve told the story many times here on the blog about how the Charlotte Mason Method was the catalyst to my homeschool. I had not even considered homeschooling my kids until I stumbled upon a blog about Charlotte Mason and fell in love with many of the concepts.

I’ll never claim to be a CM purist. There are so many wonderful ways to educate our children these days and we enjoy trying different things, but her principles are definitely a guiding light in how I home educate.

One of the many aspects of a Charlotte Mason education that we have added to our homeschool is handicrafts. The idea of Charlotte Mason handicrafts is beautiful, as Charlotte expected even very young children to use their hands to create useful objects and beautiful things.

I believe this gives children a sense of purpose, and awe of their own ability to create. Charlotte Mason handicrafts make a wonderful addition to any homeschool. Today I’d like to share a bit about the philosophy behind handicrafts, as well as some handicrafts we have done in our homeschool and our plans for this coming school year.

Charlotte Mason Handicraft Philosophy

I want to make clear that learning handicrafts is not the same as arts and crafts. I think little, cute crafts are fine for young children. They definitely help with fine motor skills, but handicrafts are about learning life skills and creating things that are useful and beautiful.

“The Handicrafts best fitted for children under nine seem to me to be chair-caning, carton-work, basket-work, Smyrna rugs, Japanese curtains, carving in cork, samplers on coarse canvas showing a variety of stitches, easy needlework, knitting (big needles and wool), etc. The points to be borne in mind in children’s handicrafts are: (a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children’s work should be kept well within their compass.” Charlotte Mason (Home Education)

It can obviously be difficult teaching young children these skills, but I believe the only way to begin is to begin!

You’ll want to start slowly with learning a new handicraft. Mason said that the children work should not be “slip-shod,” so we don’t want to allow sloppy work. We want our kids to give their best at executing whatever handicraft we choose for them.

“…we know that the human hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success. We begin to understand this and make some efforts to train the young in the deft handling of tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day, perhaps, we shall see apprenticeship to trades revived, and good and beautiful work enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure that each shall “live his life”; and that, not at his neighbour’s expense; because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that when a man really lives his life he benefits his neighbour as well as himself; we all thrive in the well-being of each.” Charlotte Mason (Philosophy of Education)

My kids are involved in Boy Scouts of America and are taught several handicrafts there, as well. They began with soap carving before moving on to wood carving and whittling. My oldest son constructed a make-shift table out of sticks at summer camp this past summer.

One of the first handicrafts I taught my kids was embroidery. We started out very slowly and created several things. I’d really love to come back to it and get better at the skill now that all of my kids are older.

Charlotte Mason Handicraft Ideas

I’m going to list below some wonderful handicrafts you can use in your homeschool, as well as list some links to products that make the learning a bit easier.

• Paper Origami (great for little ones just starting out)
• Paper Sloyd (We haven’t tried this yet, but I’m definitely intrigued)
• Hand Embroidery
• Knitting
• Crochet
• Cross-Stitch
• Soap Carving
• Wood Carving
• Whittling
• Woodworking
• Calligraphy
• Flower Arranging
• Leather Work
• Iron Work
• Photography/Videography
• Watercoloring
• Sewing
• Pottery
• Gardening
• Cooking
• Baking
• Candle Making
• Basket Work
• House Chores
• and much more!

Check out my Amazon store to find more handicrafts ideas!

Resources for Charlotte Mason Handicrafts

There are so many wonderful articles and resources available to help you figure out how to include handicrafts in your homeschool.

First, check out my page on Handicrafts and Life Skills. I have shared all of the blog posts and tutorials for some of the handicrafts we have tried in our homeschool including beeswax candle making, lip balm making, DIY orange garland, and a God’s Eye ornament craft. If you find them useful, be sure to pin those posts on Pinterest or bookmark them so you can find them later!

I really enjoyed the post on A Charlotte Mason Handicrafts Lesson from Nourished Children.

Charlotte Mason Poetry has a detailed blog post on Teaching Paper Sloyd.

There are several great ideas for teaching handicrafts at Ambleside Online.

Here you’ll find handicrafts ideas broken down by age at Charlotte Mason International.

We are excited to learn water color this year with Lily and Thistle. I plan to do a full review once we have used the program for a while.

As always, Simply Charlotte Mason has several amazing resources to make this easy. Check out Handicrafts Made Simple.

Want more Charlotte Mason ideas? Check out Charlotte Mason preschool, our living books list, how we do nature study, and learn about poetry teatime!