© Beverley Paine

One of the main features of the Charlotte Mason home education approach we inadvertently adopted was the application of the principle of the 'short lesson'.

In many ways the short lesson epitomises the way in which children learn naturally. As they go about their day their interest or curiosity is piqued and they spend a few moments engaged in intensive bouts of learning.

For a four-year-old this may be a short session concentrating on learning to tie their shoes, cut a sandwich safely, or memorise a nursery rhyme or lyrics to a song. A fourteen-year-old may discuss a news item, learn how to change a tyre, or perfect a new dance movement. These activities take minutes to learn and are reinforced by repetition and practice over the coming months.

The principle of the short lesson helps children learn to persevere by starting small and building on success gradually. This increases self-confidence over time and keeps motivation high as a sense of failure is kept to a manageable level.

By using the short lesson, we help our children develop self-discipline and the ability to see a task through to completion. As children grow, they will naturally increase their attention span as they learn to control their ability to concentrate.

This isn't to say that all lessons must be short. At four, Roger would sit and draw for well over an hour. At eight, he could build models with LEGO for hours on end, often without a break. And at age fourteen he would work through the problems set in his maths book for more than an hour, without prompting.

Charlotte Mason believed short lessons capitalise on the nature of children and the nature of learning to help children learn to make the most of their time. Short compact lessons, engaged when a child's interest is high, help the child value learning in the moment, making the most of each minute.

Advocates of the short lesson within a structured educational timetable have found that when a child's interest is high in a particular subject, but the lesson is stopped after five, ten or fifteen minutes, while the child is still engaged, the interest remains and becomes a motivating factor to learn more.

This generates questions and ideas - creative thinking at work - to be brought to the next learning session. For natural learners or unschooling families each learning moment flows into the next in a way which is often described as 'delight-driven learning'. Both methods result in children who spend more time in reflection, more time role-playing, and personalising what they have learned.

A welcome benefit of the short lesson is the way it frees up time for children to play, to explore and investigate the environment, to complete chores and to give service to others.