Simply Charlotte Mason vs A Gentle Feast
A Gentle Feast is Forms, not grades, and it covers everything except math, with lifetime access to the online course material. Simply Charlotte Mason is a six-year-style rotation sold now as four Pageant of History volumes, plus Enrichment Studies, plus Individual Studies by grade. The structural contrast is the page.
How they slice the years
A Gentle Feast uses Form I (grades 1–3), Form II (4–6), Form III (7–9), and Form IV (10–12). Siblings in the same Form share the stream. SCM puts the whole family on one history period and one enrichment volume, then splits math, science, and language arts by grade through Individual Studies.
If your children straddle Forms, AGF means two Forms. If they straddle grades but can share a time period, SCM means one history guide.
What you still buy
AGF does not include math. You add a math program. SCM's Individual Studies point to math but you still purchase the math book. Neither is a true all-in-one box.
SCM's enrichment cart is explicit: Picture Study Portfolios, Laying Down the Rails, music study, Shakespeare, nature journals. AGF's online access is the schedule and many of the notes; living books still come from your library or bookstore.
Faith and access
Both are Christian. AGF sells lifetime access to the course material once purchased. SCM sells physical and ebook guides you keep; there is no lifetime login for the whole feast. Confirm current AGF package prices on A Gentle Feast's site; they change with sales and Form bundles.
Method basics: what is a charlotte mason school. A wider grid: charlotte mason curriculum comparison.
Who each one is for
Choose AGF if Forms match your household and you want one login that covers the feast minus math. Choose SCM if you want print-in-hand daily pages, family-style history regardless of Form, and a published co-op line when the group grows.
AGF's lifetime access is the structural difference people miss. You pay once for the Form material. SCM's guides are a repurchase only if you want a new volume, not a new login.
Neither includes a full math program. Budget that separately before you compare cover prices.
A Gentle Feast's Form IV is high school. SCM's Individual Studies continues by numbered grade. If you have a ninth grader, look at that slice before you buy a Form bundle or a grade-7 leftover guide.
Both houses are Christian. If you need secular, stop here and look at Wildwood instead of forcing substitutions through either feast.