A commonplace book is a personal notebook where students copy favorite quotes, poems, and passages that resonate with them—creating a curated collection of wisdom and beautiful language that becomes a lifelong intellectual companion.
What is Commonplace Book?
A commonplace book—what Charlotte Mason called a "Book of Mottoes"—is a personal anthology created by the reader rather than purchased from a store. The student encounters something striking while reading and copies it down: a profound idea, a beautifully turned phrase, a piece of wisdom worth preserving. Over time, this collection becomes a unique intellectual portrait. The term "commonplace" comes from the Latin *locus communis*—themes of universal application, like proverbial wisdom. Everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Virginia Woolf kept commonplace books, and the tradition stretches back to antiquity.
Key Takeaways
- Students choose their own passages—the book should never contain selections assigned by someone else
- It bridges copywork (transcription practice) and independent thinking, developing both penmanship and taste
- Charlotte Mason recommended starting around age 13 when children are ready to select their own material
- The goal is relationship with ideas, not academic analysis or summaries
Why It Matters
Charlotte Mason wrote that a commonplace book "carefully kept through life, should be exceedingly interesting as containing the intellectual history of the writer." The practice transforms passive reading into active engagement. When you read with a commonplace book in hand, you're alert for good ideas rather than simply consuming pages. The act of handwriting borrowed words makes them feel personal, creating a meditative practice that fixes ideas in memory. Years later, you have a time capsule showing how your thinking evolved.
How It Differs from Journaling
Journals record internal thoughts and daily events in chronological order. Commonplace books collect external wisdom organized by topic. A journal is introspective; a commonplace book is a repository of worthy ideas from others that you want to revisit. You might journal about your difficult week, but you'd commonplace the Stoic quote that helped you through it. Both practices have value, but they serve different purposes—and some people keep both.
Getting Started
Begin with any sewn composition notebook—they're inexpensive, lay flat, and have decent paper quality. Your first entries might feel awkward. What counts as "worth copying"? Trust your instincts. If a sentence made you pause, if you want to remember an idea, if you found yourself rereading a phrase, that's commonplace-worthy. Write the date, title, author, and page number, then copy the passage carefully. Some families organize by topic (literature, faith, nature); others let entries flow chronologically and create an index later.
Age-Appropriate Approaches
Charlotte Mason introduced commonplacing around age 13, when children are mature enough to select their own material. Before that, children practice copywork—transcribing passages the parent selects—which builds the same penmanship skills without requiring independent literary judgment. The progression is natural: copywork becomes commonplacing as children develop taste and encounter ideas that genuinely move them. For younger children, the emphasis is on beautiful handwriting and exposure to good language; for older students, the emphasis shifts to personal curation.
The Bottom Line
A commonplace book becomes more valuable the longer you keep it. Starting feels awkward, but within months you'll have a personal anthology of wisdom, beauty, and ideas that shaped your thinking. For Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, it's the natural culmination of years of copywork—the point where children stop copying what you select and start curating their own intellectual life. Keep it simple: a notebook, a pen, and the habit of writing down what strikes you.
