I used to be a legalistic Charlotte Mason box-checker, and the end of every term proved it. We’re in Week 10 of our first term right now, and this is the week I start looking at my plans and counting the books we didn’t finish. When it comes to Charlotte Mason planning at the end of a term, you don’t have to finish every book. Mason herself assigned a set number of pages each term, and in our home, Week 11 is a buffer week for catching up before exams begin.
Maybe you’re right there with me, sitting with your planner open and wondering how the term went by so fast and what you’re supposed to do with everything that didn’t get done.
So I want to walk you through what I do with everything we didn’t finish at the end of a term in our Charlotte Mason homeschool and how I’m adjusting our timetable before Term 2, so you can head into the new term with a plan and leave this term’s stress behind.
Free download: If you want help seeing where your week keeps getting stuck, grab my free Timetable Checklist. It walks you through what to look at before you change anything on your timetable.
The short answer: At the end of a Charlotte Mason term, you don’t have to finish every book, because Mason herself measured a term’s reading in pages. Use a buffer week to catch up on the areas where you’re behind and begin exams in the subjects you’ve finished. Let longer subjects like Shakespeare and Plutarch carry into the next term. Then adjust your timetable to fit your real week before Term 2 begins.
What Happens at the End of a Charlotte Mason Term?
Week 11 Is Our Buffer Week
In our homeschool, Week 11 is my buffer week, and I plan for it from the very beginning of the term. That week we catch up on any areas where we are behind, so the lessons that got pushed during a sick day or a full co-op week still have a place to land.
I love having this week built in, because I already know some weeks won’t go the way I planned them, and a buffer week means one hard week doesn’t throw off the whole term.
If We’re Not Behind, Exams Begin
If we’re not behind, I have the kids begin exams on the subjects they’ve finished content on. Exams are a whole topic of their own, so I’m going to walk you through how we do them in next week’s post.
Mason’s own end-of-term exams covered the reading the child had done, and she wrote that “the pupils know their work, and find it easy to answer questions set to find out what they know, rather than what they do not know” (Vol. 3, p. 301). So the exam asks about the pages your child read, wherever you stopped.
Charlotte Mason Planning When You Didn’t Finish Everything
Some Subjects Are Meant to Stretch Across Terms
A subject can start in one term and finish in the next. We cover Shakespeare and Plutarch over two terms, so those lessons aren’t done yet, and that’s on purpose, because we’ll finish them in the middle of Term 2.
For discussion-heavy subjects, I stick to the lesson length, shorten the reading so there’s room for narration and discussion, and spread the book over a longer period of time. If you want to see what that looks like with Plutarch, I share the whole thing in Charlotte Mason Plutarch: How to Start (Without It Fizzling Out), and you can see how we keep Shakespeare simple in How We Make Shakespeare Simple in Our Charlotte Mason Homeschool.
What Charlotte Mason Said About Finishing Books in a Term
If you’re worried that an unfinished book means you did Charlotte Mason wrong, look at how Mason herself planned a term. She measured a term’s work in pages:
“Certain pages, say 40 or 50, from each of the children’s books are appointed for a term’s reading” (Vol. 3, p. 272).
So an unfinished book at the end of a term is normal. Mason was writing about narration when she described children who “go on with their book, week by week, whatever comes at a given time” from “the point where they left off” (Vol. 6, pp. 190–191), and I think that same steady continuity fits the end of a term too, so you pick up where you stopped and don’t skip ahead just to stay on schedule.
How I Sort What’s Left at the End of a Term
| Where the subject is | What I do with it |
|---|---|
| We’re behind on lessons | Catch up during Week 11, our buffer week |
| The content is finished | Begin exams on that subject |
| It’s planned across two terms (Shakespeare, Plutarch) | Keep going and finish in the middle of Term 2 |
One exception comes straight from the PNEU programmes:
“In grammar (English and foreign) and in mathematics there must be no gaps. Children must go on from where they left off” (PNEU programme, Form III).
So skill subjects like math and grammar always roll over without skipping anything, while content reading moves forward by pages.
Are You Really “Behind”? A Charlotte Mason Answer
I Used to Be a Legalistic Box-Checker
Like I said, when I first began following Charlotte Mason, I was a legalistic CM box-checker, and if we didn’t get through what I had forecasted, I would stress and think we were “behind.”
Over the years, as I’ve begun to embrace the method and as my understanding of valuing each child’s personhood has deepened, my perspective on this has shifted. Even so, I still sometimes have a hard time when we don’t “finish” certain subjects. I’m very achievement oriented, and as a former teacher I always had to set specific, measurable goals, so that part of me doesn’t just disappear because I know better now.
Give Your Child a Single Valuable Idea
What helps me most is remembering what Charlotte Mason said in Home Education:
“Give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information” (Vol. 1, p. 174).
If a child comes away with even one idea, it is worth it. So before you count the pages you didn’t get to, think about the ideas your children did take in this term, because that’s what matters most.
Adjusting Your Charlotte Mason Schedule Before Term 2
Look at Your Real Week
This year we have an extra co-op day that we didn’t have last year, and I’m realizing that the day after co-op, the kids are really tired, and so am I. So I’m modifying our timetable to fit the week we have in this season.
Before you start Term 2, take a look at which subjects are getting skipped and see if that lines up with your other commitments. If a subject keeps falling off on a certain day, does it need to move to a day when you have more energy? My free Feast Audit walks you through this, so you can see exactly what’s slipping and how often each subject is happening in your week.
Plan Lighter, Refreshing Subjects After a Big Day
On the day after co-op, it makes sense for us to do lighter or more refreshing subjects, so that day now holds picture study, composer study, a nature study reading, paper sloyd, and French. Math, history, Plutarch, and Shakespeare moved to Monday and Tuesday, which makes those slightly heavier days, simply because of the nature of our schedule right now. Even my kids have said the day after co-op feels much smoother and more refreshing.
Adjust When You See a Pattern
One hard day or one hard week is fine. But if the same struggle shows up week after week, that’s a pattern, and it’s time to adjust the timetable and then stick to it. Constant tweaking is just as hard as having no schedule at all. If you’ve had one of those days lately, I wrote about what I do in A Daily Homeschool Schedule for the Hard Days, and if your whole plan feels like it’s coming apart, start with Why Your Charlotte Mason Homeschool Curriculum Plan Keeps Falling Apart.
If you’re new to timetables altogether, What Is a Charlotte Mason Timetable? explains the basics.
Charlotte Mason Planning Questions for the End of a Term
Do you have to finish every book in a Charlotte Mason term?
No. Some subjects, like Shakespeare and Plutarch in our home, are planned across two terms on purpose (which is not standard in CM’s philosophy. The PNEU programmes set one play and one life per term, but this is what works for our family).
Mason assigned a set number of pages for each term and sometimes expected the best books to take two or three years to read through (Vol. 6, p. 244).
What is a buffer week in a Charlotte Mason schedule?
A buffer week is a week at the end of the term set aside for catching up on lessons that got pushed. In our home it’s Week 11, and if we’re not behind, the kids begin exams in the subjects they’ve finished.
When should you adjust your Charlotte Mason timetable?
Adjust when you see the same struggle show up week after week. I almost always adjust our timetable about two weeks into a term, and then I stick with it.
How do you plan Term 2 if Term 1 felt behind?
Start with your real week, including co-op days and the days your kids are tired. Then give every subject a place in your homeschool planning, with heavier subjects on your strongest days and lighter, refreshing ones on your tired days.
Start Term 2 with a Plan
Friend, you’re never going to get to it if it doesn’t have a place. The end of a term is the perfect time to look at what didn’t get done and give it a place in your week, so you can start Term 2 knowing who’s doing what, when, and who needs you when.
That’s why I built the Digital Timetable Builder. The Charlotte Mason subjects are already loaded by Form, and you can drag and drop them into a timetable that fits your real week, all for $27.
And if you’d like more hand-holding, I’d love to sit down with you in one of my timetable sessions. One of my planning clients, Kelsey, told me she “never was able to create a plan that included core subjects for each of my children AND effectively spread the feast I had aspired to spread.” If that sounds like you, we can work through it together, whether you need a quick 30-Minute Fix or a full timetable build.
