Working on Narration

In order to get more acquainted with narration I made a narration jar for our family to use. I made a label, scrounged up an old Mason Jar and made some narration slips to go inside. Some of the narration activities are:

• Draw a picture of a scene from your reading.
• Set up a scene from the story with your blocks.
• Model something from the story using play-dough.
• Narrate into the tape recorder.
• Narrate orally to Mama.
• Write down five sentences about what you read.
• Tell me about another story or event that reminds you of what you just read about. Write down three sentences about what you read.
• You have 10 minutes to plan a short skit from what you read.
• If you were giving a test on this reading, what are three questions you would ask? Skip the narration today.
• Write a letter (or e-mail) to Grandma about the reading you did today.
• Tell me what you think is going to happen next, and why.

We also have used a narration cube which the children absolutely love!!

I borrowed Littlest’s cute book basket-she now uses another-and now my Jar, Cube and current family read-aloud have a pretty little home!

This page has some great information on Narration if you’re interested in more!

Miss Mason Monday

We will return to Miss Mason Monday's in one week. Until then continue enjoying your summer!!!

Lovin' Learnin'

Miss Mason Monday

The Habit of Attention

So I originally planned to follow up the narration blogs with some information on what many Charlotte Mason homeschoolers would label as “twaddle” however I have misplaced my notes. I will-once found-add that very important topic to our Miss Mason Mondays but until then I will leave you with some thoughts on the habit of attention from Penny Gardner’s wonderful book, The Charlotte Mason Study Guide..

For me this is a personal struggle! Before going to sleep every night I try to read a little from one of the few books that I am working through. It never fails that after a few minutes of reading I find myself not sure of what my eyes have been scanning because my mind has wandered. My eyes are still dutifully doing their job but my mind is no longer paying any attention! (Ever happen to anyone else?)

It’s frustrating isn’t it? This happens so much to me yet I am ashamed to admit that I get frustrated when my little ones do it. It is so important however to train our minds to pay attention but how do we go about doing it? Here are some quotes from Miss Mason’s Home Education Series.

“Our minds go off on tangents. Attention wanders because there are so many things that run through our minds.” (Vol. 1, p.137)

That pegs me right between the eyes!!

“It is the mother’s part to supplement the child’s quick observing faculty with the habit of attention. She must see to it that he does not flit from this to that, but looks long enough at one thing to get a real acquaintance with it.” (p.140)

That is so hard! Or at least seems like it would be! But think about it, how long will a little child, one of even two or three years, stare at the T.V. while watching a favorite video or show? The answer, as long as we let them!! Now we recently got rid of the T.V. in our own home and I am so glad that we did but I can remember times when my little ones would sit in front of the one-eyed monster like hypnotized little followers. It truly bothered me! Even though what they watched was always monitored I didn’t like what they looked like while they were watching it. But, if they can sit still and watch a T.V. show for any amount of time it is because the T.V. has their FULL ATTENTION! All we as Mothers have to do is to transfer that attention to things that are actually edifying and exercising their little minds.

Whatever it is that we are wanting our children to pay attention to we need to remember that Miss Mason advocated SHORT lessons. In keeping lessons short but expecting FULL attention we will be more successful in training this habit of attention. It will require some watchfulness on our parts, making sure that the child's full attention is given to whatever work is being accomplished at the moment. It will seem like a lot on us at first I'm sure (especially those of us with numerous children) but the effort will be well worth it because it will produce bright, educated lovers of learning people!

It is recommended to do something like this, “This applies to babies and toddlers also. Once the child starts lessons, keep them short and interesting. Don’t allow dawdling to even start. You might have to go to a very different subject then come back to the unfinished one after the change. Follow a schedule so child can see that he has only 20 minutes for math, 15 minutes for the next subject, and so forth. If he attends well and gets done early then the time left over is his free time-his reward (natural consequence) for attending."

Doesn’t sound too difficult does it? It’s consistency on our part that will add much to the success of training our children in the habit of attention.

I love this next quote, “Ability-a different thing from genius or talent-is simply the power of fixing attention steadily on the matter in hand and success in life turns upon this cultivated power far more than on any natural faculty.” (Vol. 5, p 94)

Our children will have the ability to accomplish whatever it is that they desire if they are successfully trained in the habit of attention.

“We need not labor to get children to learn their lessons; that, if we would believe it, is a matter which nature takes care of. Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight. The call for strenuousness comes with the necessity of forming habits;but here again we are relieved. The intellectual habits of the good life form themselves in the following out of the due curriculum in the right way. As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing. We are all aware, alas, what a monstrous quantity of printed matter has gone into the dustbin of our memories, because we have failed to perform that quite natural and spontaneous ‘act of knowing,’ as easy to a child as breathing and, if we would believe it, comparatively easy to ourselves. The reward is two-fold: no intellectual habit is so valuable as that of attention; it is a mere habit but it is also the hallmark of an educated person.” (p.99)

Whew! Did you get all that? If the children are allowed to do the work and parents don’t spoon feed the information to be learned, the children will learn their lessons and learn with delight. We just need to be sure that what we are doing we are doing in the right way. (And to be honest I am still learning and getting comfortable with the “right way” that Miss Mason speaks of.)

But you know what I'm thinking? If we, as parents, would work diligently to train our children in the habit of attention we would eliminate the need for all of that "cramming" that is done by high schoolers and college students alike. I can remember being in college and trying to cram a semester's worth of information into my little brain the NIGHT BEFORE the final. Ya know what, I didn't always do so well on those tests. But if I had been trained in the habit of attention as a young child then I am sure that the things that I was learning would have actually been aquired knowledge and not just crammed, temporarily memorized knowledge. Just my thoughts.

So, that is my little bit for this week. Nothing profound, not a lot of McMama in here. Just some great suggestions on the important habit of attention. If you have any thoughts please link up and share!



Lovin' Learnin'

Miss Mason Monday

Summer time is upon us! We will be finishing up our '09/'10 school year this week and are looking forward to a more relaxed pace. Although to be honest with you it has been pretty relaxed here these last couple of weeks!! It's been hard keeping our focus when we've felt the end ever so mischiveously tickling at the backs of our necks.

So I said that I would talk about summer narration today. This is what I am planning to do. I am planning on having my school age children read 10 books of my choice this summer. These are good quality literature books that I have picked using the following resources:

• Honey For A Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
• Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson
• For the Love of Literature by Maureen Whitman
• Classical Christian Education 1000 Good Books List (Great place! Bookmark it!!!)

I will have the girls go through the books on their lists this summer and once done I will allow them some free choice reading (from a McMama approved list). I am doing it this way because as we are still learning and growing in the CM philosophy we are also slowly training an appetite for the best in literature. My children still seem to lean toward twaddle so I feel that it is best for now if I do the book choosing.

The books that I have chosen for them are not very long books. I have carefully selected books that are on the shorter end as far as page numbers are concerned so that they can feel a sense of accomplishment more quickly. Baby steps...baby steps.

Once a day I plan to have my children narrate from their reading. I will mix it up so that they do not always have to verbally narrate. My hubby and I are both people of few words and our children tend to be the same way. In this aspect verbal narration is going to be a benefit to them as they grow older however it is not a natural strength. What is a natural strength is art. The girls are fabulous artists and have been drawing since I can remember! I will incorporate much drawing for narration and some drama (acting out parts of the story) along with the ever faithful verbal narration. Here are more ideas that I have found from The Common Room:

• Draw a picture of a scene from your reading.
• Set up a scene from the story with your blocks.
• Model something from the story using play-dough.
• Narrate into the tape recorder.
• Narrate orally to Mama.
• Write down five sentences about what you read.
• Tell me about another story or event that reminds you of what you just read about. Write down three sentences about what you read.
• You have 10 minutes to plan a short skit from what you read.
• If you were giving a test on this reading, what are three questions you would ask? Skip the narration today.
• Write a letter (or e-mail) to Grandma about the reading you did today.
• Tell me what you think is going to happen next, and why.

These ideas will be typed up in large bold print, cut into strips and put into our Narration Jar. When it is their turn to narrate they will choose a slip of paper and do whatever kind of narration activity that it listed. I am anticipating having some fun with this one!!! We will also use a simple narration cube.

This page over on Squidoo has some great narration bookmarks avaliable for printing. There is also a link to a page on Funschool for narration cubes. All of these will help us in our journey in narration.

Why am I going through all of this trouble this summer? Well I have prayerfully decided that we will do only two "school" things this summer with the girls, Math games (from Rightstart) and Reading. I am going to devote as much time to working on narrating as I possibly can. Beginning this in the summer will allow me to do just that! We are also going to try to work with Brother on his letter sounds.

Okay, so that is my summer narration bit. Now, here are my *unfinished* lists of reading choices:

Biggest age 8:

1. Leave Horatio Alone
2. Horatio Solves a Mystery
3. The Velveteen Rabbit
4. Fiona's Flea
5. Pimm's Place
6. The Most Wonderful Doll in the World
7. Betsy and Bills
8. Betsy and Tacy Treasury (a selection or two)
9. George Washington's Breakfast
10. A science book from our shelf

Big Sis age 6:

1. The Little Wooden Farmer
2. The King at the Door
3. Dandelion Hill
4. When I Was Young In the Mountain
5. 
   
   
   George Washington's Mother
6. Bread and Jam for Francis
7. Bedtime for Francis
8. Christian Liberty Press Nature Reader Book
9. The Ordinary Princess
10. Tales of Trotter Street

Brother's "Read-to-Me" List:

1. Blueberries for Sal
2. Corduroy
3. Caps for Sale
4. Angus Lost
5. The Carrot Seed
6. Mike Mulligan
7. George and Martha
8. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
9. Johnny Crows New Garden
10. Happy Winter

Family Read-Alouds

1. finish Ginger Pye
2. Missionary Stories with the Millers
3. Mr. Popper's Penguin's
4. The Adventures of Old Man Coyote
5. Mountain Born

And here is a sample of Big Sis' narration from her Christian Liberty Nature Reader bk. 1. In this narration she is describing a robin and a moth.

"The robin has a brown body but his belly is orange. He has an orange beak and orange feet. The robin's song is like this, "Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet."

"At first a moth is a caterpiller. Then he turns into a moth. During metamorphosis he changes inside his cocoon. The caterpillar makes his own cocoon. Inside he is changing into a moth. When he comes out he has two antannae, two wings and a head."

Still a work in progress!! Any suggestions? I had to prompt her quite a bit during these two narrations...patience...I need patience!!!!

**Update** We just used the Narration Cube that I printed off at Squidoo. After we finished with our History reading I had Biggest roll the Narration Cube. She rolled the PLOT square she was to describe what happened in the story. She procedeed as follows,

"In the story General George Washington put on his coat and left his cabin for a walk. As he was walking he came to a group of soldiers that were trying to build a fort. They were trying to lift a very heavy log. Their Colonel was shouting orders at them but wouldn't help them. General Washington ran up and helped them to get the log up. After they were done he asked the Colonel why he did not help his men. The Colonel said that because he was their Colonel. Then General Washington took off his coat and they were all surprised to know that their very own General had helped them. The Colonel was ashamed. General Washington was not too great to help his men."

I was sooooooo excited as her narration progressed because this was hands down turning into the absolute best narration she had ever given!! Normally narrations from her are choppy and disconnected and she needs lots of prompting but this time it was so beautiful!!! I think that the "fun" in rolling the cube, not knowing what they were going to have to do took a lot of the pressure off of her...Mommy pressure that is!! I am excited about all of this!!

 Okay, post a response, thought or suggestion to your blog and then link up! Why? So you can share your own experience with Miss Mason's philosophy with me (I could use the suggestions!) and others. Tell us how narration works in your home, how your children are growing with it etc. Hope to see somebody sharing!!

Thanks!!! See you next at the next Miss Mason Monday!!
Lovin' Learnin'

Miss Mason Monday

So it isn’t actually Monday…I know! Yesterday was so crazy (as life can sometimes be with four little ones) that I didn’t get around to typing up my notes. Sorry!! Although this is one of my many priorities it takes a back burner to the others. I am hoping that this will be the exception and not the norm but we will see…

Narration- Chapter 3

This has been one area that we have struggled with so much this year! No, we haven’t struggled in implementing narration because anything can be turned into “narration practice” but we have struggled with getting good narrations from our children.

A typical narration from them is a fragmented sentence hurriedly spat out. They are also masters and mumbling. I know that this may sound harsh but it is the reality in our home. I know exactly where they get those habits from by the way!

So, we have slowly worked on this thing called narration.

What exactly is narration? It is the assimilation of information and retelling it in your own words. Catherine Levison says in her book that  “you cannot narrate what you do not know. If you can narrate it, you know it.”

Miss Mason states in her The Original Home Education Series, “Things that we read only become knowledge as we assimilate it, as our mind acts upon it. We must read with the specific intention to know the matter being read. We can read without that effort but it does us no good.” (Vol. 6, p.12-13)

I have seen the truth of this in our own experiences! It is very easy to tell if a child has gained understanding and knowledge using the method! But why is this so important to us? It is important because this is a cornerstone of the CM philosophy.

“This, of getting ideas out of them, is by no means all we must do with books. ‘In all labor there is profit,’ at any rate in some labor, and the labor of thought is what his book must induce in the child. He must generalize, classify, infer, judge, visualize, discriminate, labor in one way or another, with that capable mind of his, until the substance of his book is assimilated or rejected, according as he shall determine; for the determination rests with him and not with his teacher.” (Vol. 3, p.179)

Wow huh? I’ve read this before but just know am able to more clearly see what Miss Mason was getting at. Narration is labor, it is a work but is profitable! Books, great books must speak to the child. He then needs to grown into bringing all that was read into his own thoughts and then his own words. BUT he is to determine what parts he will leave out and what parts he will include. This is his work, not the work of the teacher.

I have a hard time with not feeding my children information. I guess it is because we are still slowly growing with narration that I feel I must give to them ideas and thoughts instead of just letting them take the time to form their own. I however am working on this!!

So, how do we go about executing narration? Miss Mason’s suggestion, “The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading, –one reading, however slow, should be made a condition.” (Vol. 3, p.179)

For those starting out it is suggested that narration be taken slowly, bit by bit, piece by piece. There should be no rush. Read one passage 10-13 minutes in length. Now I will interject that I have been advised to even do paragraph narrations or even more extreme, sentence narrations. If the children are struggling with narrating a whole chapter (as I would even struggle) then shorten it to whatever length that your child can handle. Slowly, throughout the course of a few months to even a year, build up to longer readings.

Also we must require that our children give their complete attention to the readings. Do not interrupt the readings to define words (also hard for me). Once finished with whatever length of reading that is appropriate for our children we are to ask them what the reading was about. Our main job is to sit back and listen. We can then comment on the narration when it is over, add in details that were missed (not pointing out, “You forgot this and this and this!!) and even ask if anyone else has anything to add.

Oral narration is to begin at age 6. 

“Until he is six, let Bobbie narrate only when and what he has a mind to. …narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.”  (Vol. 1)

Before age six we should allow our children to narrate about what they please. Let them tell you about a bug that they just saw outside, what happened in Sunday School, what he and Daddy did that afternoon, anything!! I had my son (4.5 yrs.) run in the other day and tell me about something that he saw outside. I stopped what I was doing to get down, look him in the eye and listen. A few years ago I would have kept on doing whatever it was that I was doing and not even looked at my girls when they were his age. I’ve learned a lot since then and am trying to correct my errors. Miss Mason is helping me along the way! Children will narrate about anything and everything…if we let them! This is wonderful for their little minds! Let’s all try to do it more.

Well, my time is quickly running out so I will leave it here for this week. Next week I want to share some ideas about summer narration. I am also working on a summer reading list. Share yours in the comment section if you would like! I am also going to share a narration or two from my own sweet children. Just remember, this is a work in progress here!!

Until next time!

Lovin' Learnin'

Miss Mason Monday

So I've read the first chapter in my Miss Mason Monday series. I have to applaud Mrs. Catherine Levison, author of A Charlotte Mason Education. She packs a lot into one little chapter!! Much of what I read in chapter 2 was actually just renforcing my knowledge of Charlotte Mason because I have done a good bit of studying before but review is always a good thing right? And I am starting with chapter 2 because I kinda delved into chapter 1 during my intro a couple of weeks ago. Well, let's begin.

The Method in Brief-chapter 2

Miss Mason belived whole heartedly that "children were born persons and should be educated by the humanities."

So what are humanities? They are academic disciplines (or field of study) which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical (relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory) approaches of the natural and social sciences. Some examples of the disciplines of the humanities are ancient and modern languages, literature, law, history, philosophy, religion, and visual and performing arts (including music).

That right there lays the basis for why Miss Mason included the "subjects", if you will, that she included.

She also believed that "children should have a love for learning and we are not to kill that love." I believe that most children are born with a natural desire to learn. Have you ever been around a young child who has constantly asked question after question? I know that mine do that often! Honestly it is diffcult to not want to ignore them after some time because it is easy to grow weary of all of the questions. But if we are to foster a love of learning in our children we are going to have to "go the extra mile" at times to do just that.

One thing I appreciate about Miss Mason's educational philosophy is that the goal is to gently and gradually lead the child in such a way that they learn to self-educate. That means that in the beginning we are needed quite a bit but as they grow and mature they will become self-educators who need no one to encourage them to learn because they have fallen in love with learning themselves.

And although we may be needed more in the early years Miss Mason stresses that we are not to "be in the way" of the learning in the sense of not leading a child to learn this or that but to be available for whatever help is needed.

That is a hard one for me because my kiddos seem to need me to show them "what to do next". I'm not sure they would ever learn if it weren't for me....but then again maybe I should just let them try.

So how, you might be asking, does a parent know if a child is actually learning? Well that is where narration comes in. After a child spends time studying and learning about something have them tell back to you what they have learned. This method of narration is a wonderful way of varifying knowledge rather than comprehension questions or workbooks. I will warn you however that good narration takes patience. I will admit that I have been frustrated a time or two because the narration that I've recieved from my kiddos was just plain sorry. I know though that time needs to pass and practice given for them to be able to give a full and beautiful narration.

Narration is something that I have found to vary from Mom to Mom. What one might require of her children differs from what another requires. How do you know then what to expect? You pray first of all. Ask the Lord to allow you to begin to intimately understand each of your children so that you can teach to them as individuals. And then decide, from what you are learning about your precious children what each can handle at their various ages.

I have one child who excells at narration and another who struggles greatly at getting her thoughts out in an understandable manner. This process will take loads of patience and you will have to refrain from comparing one to the other because each is made differently.

Miss Mason also belived in the use of exams but only to show what a child does know rather than what she doesn't know. The child is to learn a body of information say about Australia and then they are to be asked to tell what they know about the country, essay style. This allows the parent and child to focus on the learning that has taken place rather than what has been "forgotten."

One of the most popular aspects of the Charlotte Mason method is her use of "whole and living books." A whole book is a book that the author wrote-one author. The opposite of this would be a book comprised of selections of different author's works.

A living book is opposite a textbook. Texts are facts-just facts. Living books have lives, emotions, people are married, and pass away. They are "clothed in literary language." A good example would be an accurate historical novel or biography.

I have read that Miss Mason didn't entirely give up on text books. I belived that they were used for subjects such as grammar and math I think but the emphasis in her schools were not put on textbooks as they are in our schools today.

Miss Mason's method also consists of short morning lessons with a large variety of subjects. She recommended switching subjects every 15-20 minutes in the younger grades because she felt that this invigorates the minds of the children. She was very adament that dawdling not be allowed during those few minutes so that the time was used as efficiently as possible. Mrs. Levision recommends using a timer and stopping when it goes off and moving to the next lesson. I think that this is a great idea and will be doing that tomorrow!!

The following is the child's motto:

I am, I can, I ought, I will.

• 
  
  
  I am a child of God.
• 
  
  
  I can through the power of God
• 
  
  
  I ought to out of duty
• 
  
  
  I will is different than I want. (It shows a choice or decision has been made. The child decides to do what is right.}

Parent's motto:

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."

We need to make education, learning, a natural part of the lives of our children.

That wraps up our first Miss Mason Monday. As I stated before, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here. So much has been written and written well about the CM philosophy but I just wanted to share what little bits and pieces that I am grasping. I still have a LONG way to go before I become as seasoned homeschooling CM Mommy but I wanted to jump in somewhere and get some real understanding of this wonderful philosophy. Blogging about it just holds this "put it off until later" Mom accountable and gives me a deadline.

I hope that you learned a little something new. And please if you have any imput feel free to comment about it!

Lovin' Learnin'

Learning of Charlotte Mason

For quite some time now I have been slowly reading up on some of Charlotte Mason's education philosophy. I've not done any real indepth study, just spent some free time here and there reading and attempting to understand what I can about her ideas of educating.

I have been intrigued by what I have read. Miss Mason was born in England in 1842 and was an only child. Tragically she became an orphan at the young age of sixteen. It was also at a young age that she decided that education would be the work of her life. She would dedicate the rest of her days to understanding young children, they way they learn, how they excel and how best to asisst parents in educating their children to the best of their abilities.

I'll admit that Miss Mason does seem to have been blessed of the Lord when it comes to understanding these precious little ones. Although she never had any children of her own she was able to pour herself in to her "life's calling" in such a way that she resulted in having an intimate knowledge and understanding of children and learning.

Last week I was able to go to a local homeschool used book sale and picked up a book by Catherine Levison entitled A Charlotte Mason Education: A Home Schooling How-To Manual. I have seen this book around and have wanted to purchase it for quite some time but never did. I am so glad that I didn't because I was able to pick it up at the sale for $2.00!!! I also picked up at that same sale last year a wonderful book by Penny Gardner called Charlotte Mason Study Guide.

Although both about the Charlotte Mason education Mrs. Levison's books seems to be a more practical how-to book. From what I can gather by just flipping through the book it seems like it would help me understand how to teach each subject along the CM lines.

Mrs. Gardner's book however seems to go into more details about the actual reasons behind why Miss Mason taught as she did. She simplifies the philosophy for us more so than the first book.

My plan is to slowly read through the following books:

A Charlotte Mason Education -Catherine Levison
Charlotte Mason Study Guide-Penny Gardner

Why don't I just read the books Miss Mason wrote on her own? Well, I might dip into those since I can print them from the web for free but honestly, being a homeschooling Mommy of 4 little ones my time is very limited . I am also highly distractable so I would either a.) do nothing but read through her works or b.) begin and not ever finish!!

I figure that these smaller books are more practical for me at this point in my life. Although someday I do plan on reading through Miss Mason's own writings I don't forsee that happening anytime soon. So in the meantime I will utilize what managable books I do have to the best of my ability.

I would like to warn you however. This little study of mine is not going to be done as many "CMers" would probably do it or approve of. I am a simple lady. I do not believe that I will be tackling any great philosophical anythings and posting about them here! These will just be my simple thoughts and conclusions. Simply McMama!

What I would like to do is blog once a week about what I've learned from my readings. Maybe I'll give it a cute name like....Miss Mason Monday...or Twaddle-free Tuesday...or...I don't know, it's late! I've got nothing else!

Anyway I would like to welcome anyone else who is interested to join in! If you have access to any of the books please feel free to comment on what you are learning as well. Just leave a comment below and who knows, I may like what you have to say so much that I have you blog on here too!!

I am only going to be sharing what the Lord speaks to me about through these books and I would love to hear how He is working in your lives as you learn to be a better "educator" of your children!

As far as a schedule goes, yeah I'm so relaxed that I hadn't really thought about that yet! (This is going good huh??!) I will probably read just one chapter a week in each book. I will try to work on something and post it here within the next couple of weeks.

My official Miss Mason Monday (just decided to call it that! what a great planner I am! Hope I don't scare any of you away!) will begin on Monday, June 7. Hope to see some of you here!!

Lovin' Learnin'