Homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way is so natural that the children don’t even have to know that what they’re doing is “school” or learning or academics or education or whatever you choose to call it in your home. I prefer to think of it as life.
NARRATION
Today’s topic is NARRATION. Once you understand what it is and what it isn’t you will find that it will probably be your favorite activity.
Narration looks a little different depending on what age the child is. For little guys it looks like a child talking to his mama about a story he enjoyed. For older children it looks like a creative writing activity.
Children younger than 6 don’t have to participate, but I find that they enjoy this so much that you don’t have to concern yourself with that little fact.
For children from around 6 years old through 10 years old (or so) you simply read aloud to them and then, at some point, you ask them to tell you the story that was read aloud. The younger the child, the sooner you ask. For instance, with a very young child you might read them a story right before lunch and ask them to tell you that story (in a casual manner) right after lunch. Please act natural, and not school-teachery. Be the mama. Just say, “Hey Johnny, Linda was napping when we read that story about the bunny, why don’t you tell it to her?” Or, “Johnny, did you enjoy that story about the bunny? Tell me your favorite part.” See, it’s so natural, you were already doing it, but didn’t realize it had much academic relevance.
Now, as the children get older, we require more. They must wait and tell Daddy at supper-time about the chapter you read to them this morning.
Then once they are comfy with a pencil or pen, and can write words with relative ease, then they can begin to write down their re-tellings. This fits so naturally into your family life. They are a big kid now, they can wait (if you’ve trained them to) and sometimes they must wait. After all, you do have other things you are doing. It’s not appropriate, anymore, for you to drop everything and listen to their story. So you say, “Johnny, I would love to read your version of the passage from our book this morning. Would you please go write it out so I can read it later this evening?”
The transition from speaking to writing can be difficult for some children, especially homeschool children who tend to think that mama is at their beck and call just ‘cuz she happens to be home. It’s a discipline and it’s a hard one. Give them very short assignments at first, like writing down a list of the characters in the story, or telling about the setting. Then progress slowly. Some children make the transition in 6 months, some take 2 years. By the time they are 11 or 12 years old it should no longer be a big production. They will grow to love this sort of writing.
Now, this writing is NOT to be marked up with your red pen. Do not correct their grammar, spelling, punctuation, or handwriting (unless you can’t read it). Copywork is the time to focus on those skills. Do not critique their own words. This hurts them. I know that we’re all frustrated school teachers deep down inside, but these written narrations are gonna look horrible at first. Just bite yer tongue. They will improve. Part of the child’s frustration with this process is his awareness of the horribleness of his paper. It’s gonna get better. Praise his memory and his words and ignore the rest (for now). If, after weeks of effort, there is no improvement, it’s just a discipline matter, his ability has improved, he just isn’t making an effort.
All the groaning and difficulty is really short lived and insignificant in contrast to the enjoyment that you and your children will experience through this activity.
Narration is not something that must occur every day. If you choose to do it daily, go cautiously and make sure you don’t over-burden your children. It can be quite taxing for children to “create” frequently. If you require a telling too frequently, the children will begin to sigh heavily when you tell them you are going to read to them. You know they enjoy being read to, don’t kill it by making too much work for them. In my house I find that once or twice a week is good, depending on the child.
Back to the older children. After the transition from oral to written (and don’t ever completely quit the oral) you may begin a new transition from using a chapter that you have read to the child, to using a chapter or short story that the child has read on his own.
My experience has been, that once this habit of re-telling is established the children begin writing stories that are of their own making. I don’t require that they even show me these stories, but they always do. Wouldn’t you? They want to show them off, they want my opinion, they want my approval.
While this activity is harder to explain than copywork, I find it easier and more natural to implement.
The children tend to take it a step further and act out what we’ve read and they also incorporate it into play time. This is family life and I love it!
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