It’s not a writing curriculum.
Your students are going to be writing, of course, but this is what I mean:
You use reading curriculum to teach your children how to read.
You use math curriculum to teach them math.
You use grammar curriculum to teach grammar.
A writing curriculum proposes to teach your children how to write, and there are plenty of those out there.
But this is The Art of Composition, not The Art of Writing. See the difference?
The reason this isn’t a writing curriculum is that I don’t propose to teach your students how to write. If they been doing written narrations for years now, they know how to write. Therefore, I’m hoping to teach your student writers how to present the writing that they already know how to do in good form.
If you’ve been following Charlotte Mason’s practice of written narration for several years, your student is probably quite competent at getting thoughts into writing. He or she can compose meaningful sentences and get an idea on paper.
But maybe the writing is just one big block of text, not broken up into paragraphs. Maybe your student isn’t sure how a paragraph is structured. Perhaps your student, writing for mom (who knows exactly what every narration is about) can’t be bothered to write a proper introduction. You may hear your teen’s personality and attitude coming through their writing, and wonder if that’s okay. Maybe you’re so worried about your student’s spelling and punctuation errors that you can’t really tell how well they are writing at all.
The Art of Composition addresses all of that, and more. Your fluent narrators will learn to edit their writing both to correct errors and improve their sentences. They’ll learn the niceties of introductions and conclusions, and how to organize the content of a paper. They’ll learn about writing styles and get to experiment with them. They’ll learn how to draft a composition and present their content in good form while retaining their own writer’s voice. They’ll write essays, refine their sentences, and develop respect for their readers, but never be forced to write according to a prescribed formula.
As your students work through the lessons in The Art of Composition, you’ll be able to link some of the writing assignments to whatever books they are reading for school. The lessons include suggestions for creative narrations and commonplace-keeping. Your students will be reminded and encouraged to continue with written narrations alongside the assignments given, because those written narrations are where real writing skills are developed. Composition skills are just the final polish.
In Know and Tell, I explained the process of developing written narration into compositions. I even included a few sections labelled “to the student.” In the Art of Composition, I’ve expanded the idea of writing to the student to a compete and flexible program that can be used with student writers. The Art of Composition, because it isn’t a writing curriculum, isn’t for everyone. It can only be used effectively with students who are well-versed in written narration.
Speaking of older students, Charlotte Mason wrote, “some definite teaching in the art of composition is advisable, but not too much, lest the young scholars be saddled with a stilted style.” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 193)
That’s the line I’ve tried to walk in this composition curriculum. You don’t have to use it to teach your narrator composition—using the plan described in Know and Tell will work, and there are other ways that can also be effective. Your Charlotte-Mason-educated student can write and also knows how to learn, so the art of composition is well within their grasp.
I had a discussion about this process with Amy Sloan of Humility and Doxology, and you can listen to that conversation here.
As I wrote the lessons in this curriculum, I imagined myself mentoring young writers, which is a tremendous privilege. I’d be honored if you and your student writer would give The Art of Composition (published by Simply Charlotte Mason and available here) a try.
Books 1-3 are already available and Book 4 (appropriate for all high school seniors, even those who haven’t worked through the first three books) will be available in 2026.
Over the next several days, I’ll share a bit about each level. The whole program is very flexible and you can adjust your choice of books to the needs of your student and the amount of time you have left to work on composition.