The Charlotte Mason Girl

Language Arts - the Goal

Did you celebrate Charlotte Mason's Birthday yesterday?  I am always so grateful that the Lord created this woman who has so inspired and equipped me to give my children a fantastic education!  Happy Birthday, Miss Mason!

 

We have finally come to the happy result of teaching Language Arts!  NOW your child is really becoming an artist of the language!  You know Why Language Arts is Important to your child's education.  He knows the basics - because you have worked through the First Steps of Language Arts.  He has worked his way through learning to read, he is narrating passages comfortably.  He has a good grasp on using good grammar in his writing.  You are about to see the fruit of all your labors in teaching Language Arts!

 

Your child is going to be writing his own stories!  Of course, some of you may have little writers who have already begun the art of great story telling.  I mean, some children get so inspired by the great stories you are reading to them, or ones they read on their own free time (isn't it glorious when that happens?!), that they just start spilling out their own wonderful stories!  Well, now it's time to make sure you capture those wonderful stories!  It's time to ask them to record those stories.  It's fine to have them record them first on video or audio.  But, be sure to have them WRITE the story down, too!  This will give them practice on all those great things they have been learning about communicating through writing.  

 

Ask for at least one writing assignment per week.  Make sure you always praise the story!  Even though you want to make sure that correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation are used, you want to encourage all efforts at creativity.  You may not see a writer blossom right away, but you never know what will trigger the floodgates of creativity, so keep cheering them on in their creative endeavors!  Also, I think it's permissible - especially for students that might struggle more with grammar, spelling, or punctuation - to sometimes forego the scrutiny of those areas and focus solely on the story itself.  Let your little writer free!  You will be surprised to see that, as time goes by, she will automatically use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.  What a happy time that is!  

 

As for subject matter for writing assignments - it's entirely possible to come up with ideas from the books you read, articles you come across, or your child's own imagination.  Some people just have all kinds of ideas flowing all the time.  If that's not you, it's perfectly acceptable to use writing prompts.  You may find some great ideas online by doing a google search.  Because I am always looking for ways to reduce the number of decisions I have to make every week, I love using Story Starters.  There are dozens of narratives in this book - designed to drop your child in the midst of a predicament, and have him pick up pen and paper, and decide where the story goes from there.  It's a great resource to have on hand, and can inspire story ideas in your children for years to come!  

 

Once you embark on this part of your homeschooling adventure, you will be amazed at what comes out of your child's mind!  I tend to think that, because I am with my children all day every day, that I know them so well they won't surprise me.  Well, I should know by now - there's a lot going on in their brains that they don't always share!  Reading their stories opens up a whole new window into their minds for me.  Of course, they are continuing their education, and as a result of this, I get to know my children better!  It's a win-win! 

CM Quote - Grammar

Vol 3, pg 235  "Language.––In Language, by twelve, they should have a fair knowledge of English grammar, and should have read some literature."

 

Vol 3, pg 181:  "Disciplinary Devices must not come between Children and the Soul of the Book.––These few hints by no means cover the disciplinary uses of a good school-book; but let us be careful that our disciplinary devices, and our mechanical devices to secure and tabulate the substance of knowledge, do not come between the children and that which is the soul of the book, the living thought it contains."

 

Question:  What most surprises you about CM's approach to Grammar instruction?

Language Arts - Grammar

Teaching grammar is something that I have feared in the past.  Before I really got started 'officially' teaching, I was so unsure of myself in this area!  I had been able to get through my high school English classes, but I didn't really understand the way English worked.  First off, it didn't make sense to me that I even had to take English - I already knew how to speak, read, and write in English - it is my native tongue!  It wasn't like Spanish - something I had to learn from scratch.  Why did I need to take English?!

 

Well, I never really figured it out while I was in High School - or after - so I was really stumped at what to do for my own children.  Perhaps this is another part of the reason that CM appealed to me so much - everything is taught in such a natural way, that it is easy to teach, and easier to learn!  I also saw that I didn't need to worry about teaching grammar right away, so I relaxed about it at the beginning.  

 

Once my oldest child hit fourth grade, I knew it was time to start teaching her the basics of grammar.  I read that grammar is not a complicated study that takes years to master - like science or math - but it's vitally important to teach grammar to our children when they are ready.  Strike while the iron is hot!  After a few years of reading great literature, and narrating wonderful stories, your child is ready to organize his knowledge through the study of grammar.  Just like he learned to talk long before he learned to read, he has already used great grammar in his narrations, and now is ready to study grammar.  

 

Karen Andreola has written a wonderful book titled Simply Grammar that walks you through the grammar lessons needed for a student of 10 or older.  I confess that when I used the book for the first day, I thought to myself, "This is WAY to simple, and TOO short!  She'll never remember these lessons!"  But, I didn't know what else to do, so I kept at it, all the while thinking I was wasting our time.  Months later, my daughter still remembered that first lesson - and the lessons following!  I had forgotten a basic part of Charlotte Mason's philosophy.  When you harness the child's natural apptitude for literature, you can more easily teach your child some great lessons!  

 

Now, that daughter is in high school, her writing is as gifted as her father's, and she uses the English language so well!  Not only does she use the good grammar she learned in grade school, but the influence of the great literature she has read throughout her life is evident in her writing.  I am seeing the fruit every day in my older children of lessons learned many short years ago.  (Doesn't time fly while your children are growing?!)  I am so glad that I trusted Miss Mason knew what she was talking about!  

 

I hope you have gained encouragement as you embark on teaching your children grammar.  Question - what was your biggest fear in teaching your child?  How did you overcome it?

Thursday's Resource Review - Language Arts Bundle

Today, I'm going to offer a shameless plug for a bundle we have put together for you over at Ancient Paths Christian Bookstore.  It's our Language Arts Bundle, and it's available for an excellent price this week.  We've been talking about the challenges of teaching our chldren language arts as part of their excellent education.  

 

Grammar! Copy work! Creative Writing! WOW! Do any of these intimidate you? I love the ‘idea’ of all these things, but when it comes to putting feet to my idea, I get a bit stumped. We have put together a selection of books that will help you in each of these areas and more! Finding a new passage for copy work every day is quite challenging. The Rules of Civility, famously written down by George Washington, are a wonderful copy work tool. Most are short and all will encourage your student to think on how to behave in polite company. These are on a CD in .pdf format – so you can put them in your computer and print them out for each student. After your student is reading well, and you are ready to start formal grammar lessons, Simply Grammar is the way to go! Each lesson is gentle, short, and easy to teach. When you want your student to produce their own stories, but neither one of you know where to begin, Story Starters comes to the rescue! With dozens of stories started for your student, they will find inspiration for their own creativity to take off and finish each story with their own touch!  Head on over to check this out today!

 

Next week, when I'm feeling better, I'll write more on some items I have used to help me teach language arts to my children!

Tuesday's CM Quote - Narration, cont'd

“Here we get the mind forces which must act continuously in education,--attention, assimilation, narration, retention, reproduction. But what of reason, judgment, imagination, discrimination, all the corps of 'faculties' in whose behoof the teacher has hitherto laboured? These take care of themselves and play as naturally and involuntarily upon the knowledge we receive with attention and fix by narration as do the digestive organs upon duly masticated food-stuff for the body.” Philosophy of Education,p. 265

 

"And yet this (speaking of narration), the chief part of education, is drowned in torrents of talk, in tedious repetition, in objurgation and recrimination, in every sort of way in which the mind may be bored and the affections deadened."  Philosophy of Education, p. 65

Language Arts - The Next Step

Last time I wrote about Language Arts, I reminded you that you are already doing the first, and most important step in teaching Language Arts to your children - reading great living books!  What should your next step be?  It really depends on where your children are in their education.  Just as the first step in teaching your child to talk is to talk to your child, reading to her is the first step in teaching her to read.  If your child does not yet know how to read - this should be the next step on the journey in becoming a lover of language and the art of using the language in an excellent way.  There are many excellent reading programs out there, or you could just go to the source to see how Charlotte Mason taught her students to read.  The link above is to the pages of Volume 1 in which Miss Mason lays out the when, why, and how of teaching children to read.  Teaching your child to read is really a whole other series of posts, so that's all I'm going to say here.  

 

At the same time your child is learning to read, he will want to begin to write the letters, and eventually the words he knows.  Again, there are many good writing programs out there, and you can find one that works well for you.  We like the Italic series by Getty & Dubay.  Find one that you like, can afford, and works well for your child.

While your child is learning to read and write, you will continue to read excellent writing to her.  Keep that beautiful, masterful use of the language always before your child, in order to keep the mind lively and growing.  Once your child hits the age of six or so, begin asking for narrations.  I really could do a whole series on narration - and maybe I will someday - but let's talk briefly about it here.  

 

Narration - or the 'Art of Knowing' is another natural instinct many children have, and those who don't can be trained easily enough - if you keep at it consistently.  For those who naturally like to tell stories, this will be a breeze!  Others may need a bit more coaxing and cheering for first efforts.  The most basic description of narration really says it all - it is the telling back of a story (or portion of a story) in the child's own words.  You read a small portion of a new story - ONCE - then ask your child to tell the story back to you in his own words.  Something AMAZING happens when your child does this!  

 

Have you noticed that you learn something MUCH better when you need to teach it to someone else?  You are processing the information in another way altogether from just receiving it.  This is what happens when your child narrates a story.  His brain actually gains a whole new grasp of the material in the story, and he will often remember a story years later, even if he only heard it one time - IF he narrated that story.  

Tuesday's CM Quote - Narration

"Children Narrate by Nature.––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. A creative fiat calls it forth. 'Let him narrate'; and the child narrates, fluently, copiously, in ordered sequence, with fit and graphic details, with a just choice of words, without verbosity or tautology, so soon as he can speak with ease. This amazing gift with which normal children are born is allowed to lie fallow in their education. Bobbie will come home with a heroic narrative of a fight he has seen between 'Duke' and a dog in the street. It is wonderful! He has seen everything, and he tells everything with splendid vigour in the true epic vein; but so ingrained is our contempt for children that we see nothing in this but Bobbie's foolish childish way! Whereas here, if we have eyes to see and grace to build, is the ground-plan of his education." - Volume 1, page 231

 

"Method of Lesson.––In every case the reading should be consecutive from a well-chosen book. Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little (and get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is to be read, in order that the children may be animated by expectation; but she should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative. Then, she may read two or three pages, enough to include an episode; after that, let her call upon the children to narrate,––in turns, if there be several of them. They not only narrate with spirit and accuracy, but succeed in catching the style of their author. It is not wise to tease them with corrections; they may begin with an endless chain of 'ands,' but they soon leave this off, and their narrations become good enough in style and composition to be put in a 'print book'!

This sort of narration lesson should not occupy more than a quarter of an hour." - Volume 1, pages 232-33

Tuesday's CM Quote - Teaching Language Arts

After sharing a note from Susanna Wesley about how she taught her children to read, Miss Mason said, "It is much to be wished that thoughtful mothers would more often keep account of the methods they employ with their children, with some definite note of the success of this or that plan." on page 200 of Volume 1 - Home Education

On page 247 of that same book, she says:

"Before they are ten, children who have been in the habit of using books will write good, vigorous English with ease and freedom; that is, if they have not been hampered by instructions. It is well for them not even to learn rules for the placing of full stops and capitals until they notice how these things occur in their books. Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons, and leave the handling of such material to themselves. If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books. They should narrate in the first place, and they will compose, later readily enough; but they should not be taught 'composition.'"

 

Question - Do these statements encourage you about teaching your children language arts?  Why?

First Steps in Studying Language Arts

I mentioned last week that the place to start in studying language arts is exposing our children to the great artists of the language through excellent living books.  There is so much that our children pick up in reading or being read to about the use of words and expressions.  They won't necessarily know all the parts of speech, but they will be so used to seeing the language used in a good way, that they will recognize when it is not used well in other writing.  (Have you read the newspaper lately?!  Ugh!)

 

When you read Charlotte Mason's description of how to teach a young child language arts, you will see that she wanted her students to know two things before they finished grade school - first, to capitalize proper nouns and the beginning of sentences; second, to end a sentence with punctuation.  Teaching our children the proper punctuation is a breeze!  I learned from Cindy Rushton to say this for our punctuation lesson - "You end a statement with a period.  You end a question with a question mark.  When you say it with passion - use an exclamation point!"  When you repeat this at all the teachable moments that present themselves while your children are learning to read and write - they pick up the punctuation rules without any effort on their part.  The effort is on you to make sure you take advantage of the teachable moments.  Really, it's not a hard effort at all, because you are ready with this small lesson when each opportunity presents itself.  

 

A CM education teaches language arts with a few simple, but vitally important tools.  Reading (phonics), handwriting, copywork, grammar, and composition.  All of these aspects of language arts take effort, but the effort is so natural for your child, that it hardly seems like work at all.  That's probably not true for every single child, and YOU must put in a lot of effort to make it SEEM effortless for your child.  For me, I think I have found that the hardest part of the effort is to stay alert for all the hundreds of teachable moments that come along each week.  I need to pay close attention to the questions my children ask, and pause to give them an answer.  (This is a challenge when I have set myself a goal of reading x number of pages today - I get focussed on reaching that goal, instead of the goal of teaching my children well.)

 

So, I'm sure if you are using a Charlotte Mason method, you are already doing the first step in language arts - exposing your children to the great artists of language!  As your children learn to read and write, they will be taking the step on the journey of learning language arts for themselves.  Once they have handwriting down, they can tackle copywork, and then composition.  Along the way, you will want to make sure they learn the parts of speech and the four types of sentences.

 

Next Monday, I'll share more about how to teach your children well in this area of their education - even if it doesn't come naturally to you right now.  

 

Question - What is your biggest challenge to teaching your children language arts?

Tuesday's Charlotte Mason Quote

Tuesdays on TheCharlotteMasonGirl.com will now feature one or more quotes from Miss Mason on our current Monday series topic.  I hope you enjoy reading Miss Mason's own words about educating your children.

 

Currently, we are talking about Language Arts on Mondays.  Here is something Miss Mason had to say about this:

 

"In the first place, grammar, being a study of words and not of things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should he be hurried into it. English grammar, again, depending as it does on the position and logical connection of words, is peculiarly hard for him to grasp." - Volume 1, pg. 295

 

"Because English grammar is a logical study, and deals with sentences and the positions that words occupy in them, rather than with words, and what they are in their own right, it is better that the child should begin with the sentence, and not with the parts of speech; that is, that he should learn a little of what is called analysis of sentences before he learns to parse; should learn to divide simple sentences into the thing we speak of, and what we say about it––'The cat-sits on the hearth'––before he is lost in the fog of person, mood, and part of speech." Volume 1, pg 296

I am sharing these quotes without comment - but I would love to read YOUR comments, your thoughts on these quotes!  Please, leave a comment as to what you think about what Miss Mason said here about language arts.