The Charlotte Mason Timetable: A Litmus Test for Your Homeschool Planning System

January 20, 20254 min readGorilla Tasks Team

Most people think Charlotte Mason homeschooling means narration, nature journals, and living books. Gentle. Bookish. A little old-fashioned.

I thought so too.

Then I saw the timetable.

Charlotte Mason's actual method runs 20 subjects per week, fit into 2.5 hours a day, for 6 days a week.

Yes, those numbers are correct.

Look at this:

Charlotte Mason Form 1 Timetable showing 20 subjects across 6 days

Every cell is a study period lasting just 10, 15, or 20 minutes. Every column is a different day. The study sessions run back to back with no breaks between lessons.

Let that sink in.

The Subjects Nobody Warns You About

Some of these subjects you'll recognize. Math. Geography. History. Reading.

But then there's:

Solfa — Sight-singing using do-re-mi syllables
Drill — Physical exercises or outdoor games
Brush Drawing — Watercolor painting, often from nature
Picture Study — Studying a single artist's work for an entire term
Handicrafts — Practical skills like sewing, woodworking, or basketry

These aren't things you can wing. You need to know what you're doing before the timer starts.

The Real Problem

Look at Monday on that timetable. Count the subjects. There's 10 of them in just 2.5 hours.

Now imagine sitting down at 9am ready to execute.

Do you know what you're doing for Tales today? Do you have an oral story ready to tell? Do you know which living book you're using for Geography? Did you prep the Solfa exercise, or are you Googling "what is Solfa" while your kids wait?

The timetable tells you WHEN.

It says nothing about WHAT.

That gap is where most homeschool planning falls apart.

Why Generic Planning Fails This

Paper planners give you boxes. You write "Brush Drawing - 10 min."

Great. Now what?

What are you painting? Where are the brushes? Are you learning a new brush drawing technique or just winging it?

A timetable this detailed demands a planning system just as detailed. Subject names aren't enough. You need:

The specific lesson for today
The books required
The supplies required

Most planning systems can't do this. Not even close.

The Litmus Test

Here's a test I ran with Gorilla Tasks, my online planning system for homeschoolers:

Can it handle the Charlotte Mason timetable?

Can it actually hold 20 different subject sequences—each with its own materials, its own progression, its own context—and let me pull today's specific tasks in the right order every morning?

If it can do that, it can handle anything.

If it can't?

You'll find out by 10am on day one.

What Passing the Test Looks Like

It took a little extra coding, but Gorilla Tasks now supports a workflow that can follow a Charlotte Mason timetable. A typical homeschool day is easy:

Check the timetable for today's subjects
Promote each subject's next task into your To Do Today list (in timetable order)
Start, refer to, and finish each entry in the To Do Today list as you study the day's subjects

Each promoted task on the To Do Today page will show you the lesson title, the books and supplies you need, and can even launch an external link to an online resource. When you finish one lesson, the next one is already queued up.

No Googling. No digging. No guessing.

The Shift

At first look, the Charlotte Mason timetable intimidated me.

Now it's just a sequence.

The hard part was never the schedule. The hard part was having the right information at the right moment.

Once you solve that, the timetable works exactly like Charlotte Mason intended.

Why This Matters

The Charlotte Mason timetable is a stress test on any planning system.

Paper planners fail it. Generic apps fail it. Spreadsheets fail it.

Gorilla Tasks passed the test. If it can handle Charlotte Mason, it can handle whatever curriculum mix you throw at it.

If You've Ever Looked at a Charlotte Mason Timetable...

...and thought "there's no way I could pull that off," you were probably right.

Because you had the wrong planning tools.

Gorilla Tasks was built for exactly this kind of challenge. 20 subjects. Back-to-back lessons. Zero guesswork.

Try Gorilla Tasks with the sample Charlotte Mason curriculum files linked here:

You've got this. Start with a few subjects, get the rhythm, and add more as you go.