Last year I opened Plutarch for the first time. My oldest was in Year 5, which is Form II, and I had done everything I knew to do. I had used the guides and pre-read the lesson. I’d even narrated it on my own before we started.
And I still struggled to teach it.
Right after the lesson, I texted a good friend who had been doing Plutarch with her kids for years. She told me to keep going.
“Take little bites at a time,” she said, “and you’ll be amazed at what your children are able to grasp.”
She was right.
Maybe you’ve been there, too– you love the idea of Plutarch, and you know Charlotte Mason put it in the feast for a reason. But you open the book and think, “I can barely follow this myself. How am I supposed to teach it?” One mom on a CM forum said every time she tried Plutarch on her own, it just fizzled out. I hear that a lot.
If that’s you, this post is for you. I’ll walk you through why Mason included Plutarch, when to start, what our lesson looks like, and how to give it a place in your week so it stops getting dropped.
Is Plutarch one of the subjects that keeps falling off your week? Grab my free guide with your first week of Plutarch done for you, so you can start this term. Get the free Plutarch guide
What is Charlotte Mason Plutarch, and why did she include it?
Plutarch was a Greek writer who wrote the lives of famous Greek and Roman leaders. Charlotte Mason had her students read his Lives in Forms II and III, and she put them under citizenship, a subject we don’t talk about much anymore.
How to pronounce Plutarch
If you’ve ever wondered how to pronounce Plutarch, it’s PLOO-tark.
Plutarch’s Lives teach citizenship and character
Mason wrote that the Lives stand alone in literature “as teaching that a man is part of the State, that his business is to be of service to the State, but that the value of his service depends upon his personal character” (Vol. 3, p. 280).
That last part is what gets me. Plutarch cares about who a leader was while he did what he did.
I’ve been amazed at the conversations that have come out of our readings. Some of the stories we’ve read are still so relevant today when it comes to government and issues of morality. We had conversations last year about a man who had to choose whether to be loyal to his family member, who had made poor choices or to his state and the rules they had set in place– not an easy decision for anyone to make.
Plutarch lets your child do the judging
This is my favorite thing Mason said about Plutarch:
“Plutarch is like the Bible in this, that he does not label the actions of his people as good or bad but leaves the conscience and judgment of his readers to make that classification” (Vol. 6, p. 186).
Plutarch leaves the weighing to your child, and that’s a big part of why it’s worth the effort.
When to start Plutarch in your Charlotte Mason homeschool
In Mason’s schools, Plutarch was read in Forms II and III, when children were roughly 9 to 12 and up (Vol. 3, p. 280). The PNEU timetables had it once a week for 30 minutes. AmblesideOnline starts it in Year 4, and we started in Year 5 after reading Stories from the History of Rome as preparation in Year 4.
Mason also believed children could handle the real thing. She wrote that “a child of seven is fully able to comprehend Plutarch, in Plutarch’s own words (translated), without any diluting and with little explanation” (Vol. 2, p. 278). So you can keep the real Plutarch. Your child can do more than you think. There have been so many moments when mine narrated Plutarch and I was honestly shocked at what they understood.
Not every child needs to be in Plutarch
If you have several kids, know that Mason’s younger Form II students read Mrs. Beesley’s Stories from the History of Rome “instead of Plutarch” (Vol. 6, p. 186). Your younger ones can wait. In our house, two of my children are in Plutarch and we began with this version in 4th grade.
Why Charlotte Mason Plutarch lessons fizzle out
From my own first year and from talking with other moms, these are the usual reasons:
- It’s hard for us, too. Even after pre-reading and narrating it myself, that first lesson was a struggle. But– we can do hard things!
- We tried to cover too much. One Life every term was a lot for us.
- We explained too much. Mason said the Lives were read “almost without comment” (Vol. 3, p. 280), and she warned the teacher to “beware of explanation” (Vol. 1, p. 233).
- It doesn’t have a place in the week. If Plutarch is “whenever we get to it,” you won’t get to it.
How to teach Plutarch: what our lesson looks like
We do Plutarch once a week for about 30 minutes.
| When | What we do | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Before | I pre-read the reading | I know what’s coming and where the hard parts are |
| Before | I listen to The Plutarch Podcast’s overview of the Life | It gave me the big picture, which really helped my prep |
| Before | I put vocabulary from Anne White’s guide on the whiteboard | Hard words don’t stop the story |
| During | I print the reading and all three of us read it together | Everyone has the words in front of them |
| During | We keep track of characters and vocabulary on the whiteboard and reference our map | Names and places stay straight |
| During | We narrate together | Everyone gets to tell it back |
| Once a month | Co-op discussion with other kids (new this year) | They talk about the reading with friends |
Before the Plutarch lesson
A little prep goes a long way. Mason had proper names written on the blackboard (Vol. 3, p. 280), and one PNEU sample lesson in Volume 3 has children find the places on their maps (Vol. 3, p. 334). Our whiteboard and map do the same job. It’s also helpful to find a good map before you start.
For the big picture, I used The Plutarch Podcast. It gives an overview of each Life, and it helped me feel ready to teach.
During the lesson: read, then narrate
Mason suggested reading “two or three pages, enough to include an episode” before narrating (Vol. 1, p. 233), and letting children narrate in turns when there are several of them. We do the same, with a short reading and then everyone telling it back.
One note. Mason had the teacher read Plutarch aloud so she could leave out unsuitable parts (Vol. 1, p. 233). We read together from a printed copy, so pre-reading matters even more. I personally love the guides from Anne White, and I just print these off directly from Ambleside Online– although you can also purchase these on Amazon.
If narration is newer for your family, I walk through it in How to Actually Use Charlotte Mason Narration Today.
After the lesson: a little talk
Mason was firm that moral lessons are “worse than useless” (Vol. 6, p. 59). She still allowed “a little talk in which moral points are brought out” after narration (Vol. 1, p. 233). So a short talk after narration is fine, and you can let your children do the concluding. Some of our best conversations have come out of these few minutes.
Take Plutarch’s Lives in small bites
After that first lesson, I took my friend’s advice and scaled back. We did two lives over the whole year. We do three terms, and two lives felt so much more doable. We could take it in small doses, and that helped a lot.
Mason’s own pace was slow, too. She expected children to read “some fifteen” Lives over about five years in Forms II and III (Vol. 3, p. 280). So if a life takes you longer than a term, you are not behind. Keep going.
If you also do Shakespeare, the same small-bites idea works there. Here’s how we make Shakespeare simple.
Give Plutarch a place on your Charlotte Mason timetable
Plutarch won’t happen if it’s floating. It needs a day and a time. Ours is first thing on Friday morning. To give it a place:
- Decide who’s in it. Form II and up. Younger ones can wait.
- Pick a day and put a 30-minute slot on your timetable. Once a week is enough.
- Choose your Lives for the year. Two is plenty to start.
- Set up your prep. Pre-read, and have your vocabulary and map ready.
If you’ve never built a timetable before, start with What Is a Charlotte Mason Timetable? You can also see how I built our 2026–27 Charlotte Mason timetable.
Your first Plutarch lesson
If Plutarch has been sitting on your shelf, I’d love for this to be the term it gets a place. My Digital Timetable Builder gives every subject a slot for every child, Plutarch included, so you can get to it each week. Build your timetable with the Digital Timetable Builder
Ready to start? Grab my free guide with your first week of Plutarch done for you, so you can teach your first lesson this week. Get the free Plutarch guide
