Narration

"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."
(Vol. 1 Part IX.--The Art of Narrating, p.231)

I have been reading everything I can about the Charlotte Mason method of Homeschooling and I am loving every word of it.

My children have been doing school at home, so I am easing this method into our homeschooling. Slowly taking "school" out of our homeschool.

I have started with narration. Right now my children use text books. They read something, do the review questions, and then I correct their mistakes.

I have started having them read from their text books and then narrate to me and each other what they have read. This is the homeschool I have been searching for. We have had great discussions, my 6 year old even discusses what my 7th grader is narrating. I have also noticed that when my husband gets home, the kids are eager to tell him what they learned that day. They want to narrate to him as well.

Last night as we said prayers my husband was discussing with the kids about how everyone makes mistakes. He got on the subject of Noah and Moses and how they also made mistakes. This sparked my children's attention. My Daughter suggested that my son read about Moses and she would read about Noah and then they could retell what they learned to us the next night.

I sat there quiet, smiling to myself thinking, I found it! This is how my children like to learn.

The next book I will be reading is Hearing and Reading, Telling and writing: A Charlotte Mason Language Arts Handbook

You can download a free sample of the handbook on narration.

As I said, we are going to be implementing the CM method slowly. I can already see an improvement by using a tiny bit of what the method suggests. I'm excited to learn right along with my kids!

This site has been very helpful to me, Simply Charlotte Mason. Another helpful place is the group on Facebook called, Hip Homeschool Moms. The people in that group are great and so helpful. It is a group for all homeschoolers not only those using Charlotte Mason.

I hope this journey keeps going well for us and I'm looking forward to the new things to come.