HOMESCHOOLING
We have homeschooled our seven children (aged 14 years to 15 months), from birth.
We have used various methods over the years. From beginning with traditional textbooks we then learned about the Charlotte Mason method, and began using more "living" books, with an emphasis on reading aloud. We have recently adopted some of the suggestions in the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education". It is our goal to raise children who have the necessary skills and ability to think for themselves - or to know "how to think". The aim of our education is not merely academic, but to equip our children for every facet of life. The three areas of education are:
We have homeschooled our seven children (aged 14 years to 15 months), from birth.
We have used various methods over the years. From beginning with traditional textbooks we then learned about the Charlotte Mason method, and began using more "living" books, with an emphasis on reading aloud. We have recently adopted some of the suggestions in the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education". It is our goal to raise children who have the necessary skills and ability to think for themselves - or to know "how to think". The aim of our education is not merely academic, but to equip our children for every facet of life. The three areas of education are:
- Skills
- Knowledge
- Character
I will be adding to the topics on this page, so do bookmark it and come back again!
I pray you will find a "gleaning" or two to take away with you that you can put into practice.
May the Lord Jesus bless you and your family today.
TOPICS
Homeschooling Help
Combining Charlotte Mason and Thomas Jefferson Education
Spelling
Narration
Responsibility and Relationship
Zachary (6) with History Fair project about John Deere
HOMESCHOOLING HELP
Everyone needs some help at times in their homeschooling journey. The purpose of this article is to give you some homeschool help. Homeschool stress is a real problem, and we all face it. We get frustrated when we compare ourselves with others, or when we strive for an unattainable goal. Each of us homeschool differently. This is as it should be, because our children are individuals, and one of the benefits of homeschooling is that we can teach specifically to our childrens' needs, abilities, learning styles, and interests. Sometimes I mentally reprimand myself for all the things I "should" be doing. At those times it is important to take a deep breath, re-focus on priorities, and recognise those things that I am already doing right. Looking at the list of "should be doing" and ask yourself "who says so?" If it is a matter of pride, or of comparison with someone else, toss it aside. If your husband wants it done, or if it is something God is speaking to you about, put it on the priority list - you may need to bump something else from your list to accomplish it though! My article " Priorities" on my "Homemaking" page will help you gain focus and organize your list.
In my blog, on November 5th, I wrote the following...
I am not SuperMum! Sometimes I need to be reminded...
Two weeks ago we took some goats to the local show. One of my does, Frosty, was admired by the judge, however, he gave her only Reserve Champion. His reason? He told me she should have been Champion, but I had neglected to trim her hooves properly, and they were growing out of shape. This is important for a milking goat, so he placed her second - but made it clear it was my fault, not hers.
Well, SuperMum here, I beat myself up for days over not looking after my stock properly. Until a friend brought things back into focus (thanks, Joli!) by gently reminding me that I am a mother of seven. I pondered on that fact for awhile, and it finally sank in that I cannot do everything! I am not SuperMum!! I have a terrible habit of looking at all the things I haven't done - or all the things I think should have been done, but I just haven't had the time. My garden is another example. Mark rotary hoed it beautifully a month ago - I planted some cabbages, brocoli and lettuce, which are growing well, but the rest of the garden has sprouted a bumper crop of twitch, about an inch high now, and giving an appearance of a thick covering of green hair. The small trees have been completely overgrown by the knee-high grass. Meanwhile, the seedlings and potatoes are still waiting to be planted. It is so easy to be discouraged when we look at what we haven't done. Perhaps instead we need to list what we have done. When I consider that during the past two weeks I have: taken the children swimming once a week; been to an all-day clearance auction for Mark; had both my mother and mother-in-law to stay; organized two cattle to be butchered, including delivering one carcass to the butcher shop, collecting and sorting the meat, taking some to two friends who had spare freezer space; driving Natalie to violin lessons; dropping in a form for the children's Spring Day to the organizer; arranging to host a speaker for church; attending a surprise birthday party for myself!!; flying to Auckland, then driving to Cambridge with Mark for the weekend to visit my sister and her family; made bread; de-cluttered the toy boxes; delivered Natalie and Bonnie to a birthday party; grocery shopping; paid bills; took the girls and a neighbour to Girls' Brigade; Oh, and all the usual things like cooking, washing, tidying, checking and sending emails, changing and feeding the baby, cuddling, correcting, reading, instructing, encouraging and schooling seven children... Is it any wonder that Frosty's hooves have not been looked at until this evening, when I did finally get around to trimming them? This list is not to blow my trumpet - every fortnight is not like that by any means, it was exceptionally busy - my point is that we all accomplish far more than we give ourselves credit for. If we focus on the "haven't done" list, and fail to even notice the "have done" list it is no surprise that we will be discouraged and feel like failures. Why not take a moment today to make a "have done" list, and see what you really have accomplished - give yourself a pat on the back, you SuperMum, you!
Homeschooling can be tough, especially if you have no support. Seek support when you need it, either in the way of local homeschool groups, or if none are available, join an online homeschooling forum. Homeschool help is available - there are plenty of wonderful books ranging from how to begin homeschooling to encouragement for seasoned veteran homeschoolers. Remember that you are not SuperMum! You can never hope to accomplish everything you would like to do, but do not let this fact depress you! Neither let it be an excuse for laziness. It is easy to be overwhemed by all the things that really do need to be done, and retreat to the internet, or telephone, or shopping (or even your bed!) rather than get started on any of them. Instead, decide which are the most important, then organize yourself to get these things done. You may need a schedule to keep yourself on task. You may need to seek advice from a more experienced homeschooler - someone you can bounce ideas off, or seek out a person you admire to mentor you. It may be that you can find the inspiration you desire from a book. If you are feeling really stressed by homeschooling, frustrated and making no headway just step back, do only the basics, re-assess why you are homeschooling, what are your long term goals, and how will you set about achieving them. Some of your current activities may not be in line with your long term goals, and you can feel guilt-free about cancelling them. Set yourself realistic goals, a schedule you can follow, and put new habits in place. Organize your housework and chores and declutter your home.
Everyone needs some help at times in their homeschooling journey. The purpose of this article is to give you some homeschool help. Homeschool stress is a real problem, and we all face it. We get frustrated when we compare ourselves with others, or when we strive for an unattainable goal. Each of us homeschool differently. This is as it should be, because our children are individuals, and one of the benefits of homeschooling is that we can teach specifically to our childrens' needs, abilities, learning styles, and interests. Sometimes I mentally reprimand myself for all the things I "should" be doing. At those times it is important to take a deep breath, re-focus on priorities, and recognise those things that I am already doing right. Looking at the list of "should be doing" and ask yourself "who says so?" If it is a matter of pride, or of comparison with someone else, toss it aside. If your husband wants it done, or if it is something God is speaking to you about, put it on the priority list - you may need to bump something else from your list to accomplish it though! My article " Priorities" on my "Homemaking" page will help you gain focus and organize your list.
In my blog, on November 5th, I wrote the following...
I am not SuperMum! Sometimes I need to be reminded...
Two weeks ago we took some goats to the local show. One of my does, Frosty, was admired by the judge, however, he gave her only Reserve Champion. His reason? He told me she should have been Champion, but I had neglected to trim her hooves properly, and they were growing out of shape. This is important for a milking goat, so he placed her second - but made it clear it was my fault, not hers.
Well, SuperMum here, I beat myself up for days over not looking after my stock properly. Until a friend brought things back into focus (thanks, Joli!) by gently reminding me that I am a mother of seven. I pondered on that fact for awhile, and it finally sank in that I cannot do everything! I am not SuperMum!! I have a terrible habit of looking at all the things I haven't done - or all the things I think should have been done, but I just haven't had the time. My garden is another example. Mark rotary hoed it beautifully a month ago - I planted some cabbages, brocoli and lettuce, which are growing well, but the rest of the garden has sprouted a bumper crop of twitch, about an inch high now, and giving an appearance of a thick covering of green hair. The small trees have been completely overgrown by the knee-high grass. Meanwhile, the seedlings and potatoes are still waiting to be planted. It is so easy to be discouraged when we look at what we haven't done. Perhaps instead we need to list what we have done. When I consider that during the past two weeks I have: taken the children swimming once a week; been to an all-day clearance auction for Mark; had both my mother and mother-in-law to stay; organized two cattle to be butchered, including delivering one carcass to the butcher shop, collecting and sorting the meat, taking some to two friends who had spare freezer space; driving Natalie to violin lessons; dropping in a form for the children's Spring Day to the organizer; arranging to host a speaker for church; attending a surprise birthday party for myself!!; flying to Auckland, then driving to Cambridge with Mark for the weekend to visit my sister and her family; made bread; de-cluttered the toy boxes; delivered Natalie and Bonnie to a birthday party; grocery shopping; paid bills; took the girls and a neighbour to Girls' Brigade; Oh, and all the usual things like cooking, washing, tidying, checking and sending emails, changing and feeding the baby, cuddling, correcting, reading, instructing, encouraging and schooling seven children... Is it any wonder that Frosty's hooves have not been looked at until this evening, when I did finally get around to trimming them? This list is not to blow my trumpet - every fortnight is not like that by any means, it was exceptionally busy - my point is that we all accomplish far more than we give ourselves credit for. If we focus on the "haven't done" list, and fail to even notice the "have done" list it is no surprise that we will be discouraged and feel like failures. Why not take a moment today to make a "have done" list, and see what you really have accomplished - give yourself a pat on the back, you SuperMum, you!
Homeschooling can be tough, especially if you have no support. Seek support when you need it, either in the way of local homeschool groups, or if none are available, join an online homeschooling forum. Homeschool help is available - there are plenty of wonderful books ranging from how to begin homeschooling to encouragement for seasoned veteran homeschoolers. Remember that you are not SuperMum! You can never hope to accomplish everything you would like to do, but do not let this fact depress you! Neither let it be an excuse for laziness. It is easy to be overwhemed by all the things that really do need to be done, and retreat to the internet, or telephone, or shopping (or even your bed!) rather than get started on any of them. Instead, decide which are the most important, then organize yourself to get these things done. You may need a schedule to keep yourself on task. You may need to seek advice from a more experienced homeschooler - someone you can bounce ideas off, or seek out a person you admire to mentor you. It may be that you can find the inspiration you desire from a book. If you are feeling really stressed by homeschooling, frustrated and making no headway just step back, do only the basics, re-assess why you are homeschooling, what are your long term goals, and how will you set about achieving them. Some of your current activities may not be in line with your long term goals, and you can feel guilt-free about cancelling them. Set yourself realistic goals, a schedule you can follow, and put new habits in place. Organize your housework and chores and declutter your home.
Ultimate Homeschool Expo! Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE Convention!. Check out all of the details here: Homeschool Expo
I discovered the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling early on in our homeschooling journey. I loved the idea of reading aloud to my children, and did not take a lot of convincing to leave behind most text books and embrace a literature based approach to educating my children. During the pre-school years we had spent much time enjoying reading together. Once “real schoolwork” started we, like most new homeschoolers, bought text books and began “teaching”. Somehow we had less time to read aloud. I was introduced to the Charlotte Mason method, and enthusiastically bought Karen Andreola's book “The Charlotte Mason Companion”. It was like a breath of fresh air, and I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly to this more relaxed approach, and the excuse to schedule reading aloud into our homeschool day. We began implementing Charlotte's ideas:
• Reading aloud “living” books
• Narration
• Picture Study
• Music Appreciation
• Learning Science from Nature (although ours is modified from the real CM approach described below)
• Mother Culture
• Self Education
• The Happiness of Habit
For those of you unfamiliar with the Charlotte Mason approach, here are some quick definitions:
“Living” books
Sometimes called “Classic” books – these are books you can learn something more from each time you re-read them. They are books you enjoy. In a sense, you form a relationship with the author. Written by a single author, never a committee, the love and passion the author has for his/her subject flows out from the book and makes a connection within the heart and/or mind of the reader (or hearer, in the case of children listening to it read aloud). The term “living” can also be applied to other fine arts – a musical composition, or a painting, for example. Narration
Is the art of telling back what you have read (or heard being read). When a child has listened to a story, a chapter, or a paragraph (depending on age and ability, and the length of the book), he “tells back” what he has heard. Young children often do this naturally, and can do so with fantastic accuracy and detail, and many times amusing imaginative flair. Narration is a wonderful skill for us all to learn. To be able to narrate, the child must first of all pay attention to the reading. He must absorb it in such a way that he understands, then he must put the thoughts he has heard into his own words – he must get the facts in order, and be able to articulate his thoughts. His vocabulary increases remarkably as he tries out unfamiliar words he has heard, incorporating them into his re-telling.
Picture Study and Music Appreciation
Charlotte Mason encouraged the study of one artist at a time. An artist's pictures should be displayed, usually one or two at a time, in a prominent place in the home. From time to time have the children look closely at the picture, talk about the detail you see, narrate the picture – either tell about it or try to draw it. Play the composer's music. Read about the musician/artist's life.
Nature Study
Spend time outdoors! Enjoy picnics at the park, beach, or forest. Charlotte kept a Nature Notebook, and required her students to do the same. Any creature, flower, leaf or rock could be sketched into the notebook. Much detail the eye would normally miss is discovered when required to study an object closely enough to copy it. Comparisons can be drawn between the object and other subjects studied previously, and relationships noted. Discussion should take place, with the mother providing knowledgeable information from her field guide. The sketches should be labelled with the common and Latin name, and any other information the child wishes to record. Sometimes a diagram may be drawn, such as the parts of a flower. The Notebook can also be a place to copy poems about nature, or a quote from a book, or verse of scripture which has inspired the child.
Mother Culture
This is simply time for mother to read, reflect, and “recharge”. With all the giving out that a homeschooling mother does each day, she needs inspiration and encouragement going in as well. Take time to do something you enjoy, read challenging, interesting, and enjoyable books, most importantly, spend time each day with God.
Self Education
Each child begins educating himself as soon as he can think. Soon he learns to speak, and his education explodes with the ability to ask questions. Children must be lead to continue this self education throughout their lives. To take the responsibility for their own growing knowledge is crucial to a child's education. In the Charlotte Mason method, this is achieved through a steady diet of the best books, combined with narration. The child becomes engrossed and intrigued in the book, it becomes a part of him, and his enthusiasm to narrate serves to increase his retention, build comprehension, composition, and oral presentation skills.
The happiness of Habit
Habits are easily formed, both good and bad. Charlotte exhorts us to form good habits. Much as a railway track, once laid, is easily followed, so too, setting a schedule, or routine and disciplining yourself and your children to follow it, will become our natural path for the day. When good habits are established we need no longer spend time thinking about doing them, they become our automatic response.
After a few years, I came across another homeschooling approach, through a book called the Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver Van DeMille. Andrew Pudewa, from the Institute for Excellence in Writing, introduced the book at a conference I attended. After buying this book, I set about reading and putting it into practice.
Like Charlotte, Oliver stresses the importance of self-education. He says that for learning to take place, the student must take responsibility. The parent is not a “teacher”, so much as a “facilitator”.
The other important components of a Thomas Jefferson Education are “Classics” and “Mentors”.
When classic books are read, studied and discussed with a mentor, the student learns to think. He is not taught “what to think” (as in a fill-in-the-blank or multichoice text book), nor is he taught “when to think” (as in training for a specific job or profession), but “how to think”.
The parent reads the same books as the child (when old enough to read on their own). As the child's mentor, the parent must think about the book and ask herself the questions she will later ask the student. These questions must be open-ended, and provide meat for discussion with the student. The student should be guided to think for himself, and not merely parrot off the “correct” answer.
“Living” books
Sometimes called “Classic” books – these are books you can learn something more from each time you re-read them. They are books you enjoy. In a sense, you form a relationship with the author. Written by a single author, never a committee, the love and passion the author has for his/her subject flows out from the book and makes a connection within the heart and/or mind of the reader (or hearer, in the case of children listening to it read aloud). The term “living” can also be applied to other fine arts – a musical composition, or a painting, for example. Narration
Is the art of telling back what you have read (or heard being read). When a child has listened to a story, a chapter, or a paragraph (depending on age and ability, and the length of the book), he “tells back” what he has heard. Young children often do this naturally, and can do so with fantastic accuracy and detail, and many times amusing imaginative flair. Narration is a wonderful skill for us all to learn. To be able to narrate, the child must first of all pay attention to the reading. He must absorb it in such a way that he understands, then he must put the thoughts he has heard into his own words – he must get the facts in order, and be able to articulate his thoughts. His vocabulary increases remarkably as he tries out unfamiliar words he has heard, incorporating them into his re-telling.
Picture Study and Music Appreciation
Charlotte Mason encouraged the study of one artist at a time. An artist's pictures should be displayed, usually one or two at a time, in a prominent place in the home. From time to time have the children look closely at the picture, talk about the detail you see, narrate the picture – either tell about it or try to draw it. Play the composer's music. Read about the musician/artist's life.
Nature Study
Spend time outdoors! Enjoy picnics at the park, beach, or forest. Charlotte kept a Nature Notebook, and required her students to do the same. Any creature, flower, leaf or rock could be sketched into the notebook. Much detail the eye would normally miss is discovered when required to study an object closely enough to copy it. Comparisons can be drawn between the object and other subjects studied previously, and relationships noted. Discussion should take place, with the mother providing knowledgeable information from her field guide. The sketches should be labelled with the common and Latin name, and any other information the child wishes to record. Sometimes a diagram may be drawn, such as the parts of a flower. The Notebook can also be a place to copy poems about nature, or a quote from a book, or verse of scripture which has inspired the child.
Mother Culture
This is simply time for mother to read, reflect, and “recharge”. With all the giving out that a homeschooling mother does each day, she needs inspiration and encouragement going in as well. Take time to do something you enjoy, read challenging, interesting, and enjoyable books, most importantly, spend time each day with God.
Self Education
Each child begins educating himself as soon as he can think. Soon he learns to speak, and his education explodes with the ability to ask questions. Children must be lead to continue this self education throughout their lives. To take the responsibility for their own growing knowledge is crucial to a child's education. In the Charlotte Mason method, this is achieved through a steady diet of the best books, combined with narration. The child becomes engrossed and intrigued in the book, it becomes a part of him, and his enthusiasm to narrate serves to increase his retention, build comprehension, composition, and oral presentation skills.
The happiness of Habit
Habits are easily formed, both good and bad. Charlotte exhorts us to form good habits. Much as a railway track, once laid, is easily followed, so too, setting a schedule, or routine and disciplining yourself and your children to follow it, will become our natural path for the day. When good habits are established we need no longer spend time thinking about doing them, they become our automatic response.
After a few years, I came across another homeschooling approach, through a book called the Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver Van DeMille. Andrew Pudewa, from the Institute for Excellence in Writing, introduced the book at a conference I attended. After buying this book, I set about reading and putting it into practice.
Like Charlotte, Oliver stresses the importance of self-education. He says that for learning to take place, the student must take responsibility. The parent is not a “teacher”, so much as a “facilitator”.
The other important components of a Thomas Jefferson Education are “Classics” and “Mentors”.
When classic books are read, studied and discussed with a mentor, the student learns to think. He is not taught “what to think” (as in a fill-in-the-blank or multichoice text book), nor is he taught “when to think” (as in training for a specific job or profession), but “how to think”.
The parent reads the same books as the child (when old enough to read on their own). As the child's mentor, the parent must think about the book and ask herself the questions she will later ask the student. These questions must be open-ended, and provide meat for discussion with the student. The student should be guided to think for himself, and not merely parrot off the “correct” answer.
The student learns to express his views and present them in a discussion with others in a group setting, or even in a debate.
This growing ability to think – to ask questions of himself and others – equips the student to be self-governing. He will become a leader in whatever sphere he finds himself – someone who will think “outside the box”, not lamely following the crowd, like the “fill-in-the-blank, multichoice” student will.
I have found that the Charlotte Mason method and Thomas Jefferson Education model work very well together. I tend to lean more towards Charlotte Mason for the younger children (when TJEd says they should be in the “love of learning” stage – setting foundations, good habits, and values). Once they have the foundations of reading and writing in place it is time to add some “meat” with TJEd. Even as young children, of course, many of the books you read aloud will be “classics”, and you will naturally discuss the books as you read and they narrate. The books will get more difficult as the child matures, and the discussions will become more challenging. Wonderful spiritual insights can come to light as you and your student dig deeply into classic books. The characters' values and morals (or lack of), and the consequences of these make great springboards for discussion on Biblical versus our culture's worldview. Your child will benefit from learning his own lessons from the decisions, good and bad, characters make. He will revel in the triumph of good over evil, and empathise with the downtrodden. Particularly in those young people who choose to challenge their parents' views, classic books will speak volumes into their lives without your having to point out the lesson.
So my advice is, start out with Charlotte Mason's methods, read, narrate, discuss, get the basics, the foundations of learning, habits of discipline, and values of the Bible. Begin to move into Thomas Jefferson Education when your student is ready –continue to read and discuss, and gradually require more of your student in the way of expressing his ideas – both in oral and written presentations. Watch your children bloom and grow into thoughtful, intelligent, excited young people with a love of life-long learning.
This growing ability to think – to ask questions of himself and others – equips the student to be self-governing. He will become a leader in whatever sphere he finds himself – someone who will think “outside the box”, not lamely following the crowd, like the “fill-in-the-blank, multichoice” student will.
I have found that the Charlotte Mason method and Thomas Jefferson Education model work very well together. I tend to lean more towards Charlotte Mason for the younger children (when TJEd says they should be in the “love of learning” stage – setting foundations, good habits, and values). Once they have the foundations of reading and writing in place it is time to add some “meat” with TJEd. Even as young children, of course, many of the books you read aloud will be “classics”, and you will naturally discuss the books as you read and they narrate. The books will get more difficult as the child matures, and the discussions will become more challenging. Wonderful spiritual insights can come to light as you and your student dig deeply into classic books. The characters' values and morals (or lack of), and the consequences of these make great springboards for discussion on Biblical versus our culture's worldview. Your child will benefit from learning his own lessons from the decisions, good and bad, characters make. He will revel in the triumph of good over evil, and empathise with the downtrodden. Particularly in those young people who choose to challenge their parents' views, classic books will speak volumes into their lives without your having to point out the lesson.
So my advice is, start out with Charlotte Mason's methods, read, narrate, discuss, get the basics, the foundations of learning, habits of discipline, and values of the Bible. Begin to move into Thomas Jefferson Education when your student is ready –continue to read and discuss, and gradually require more of your student in the way of expressing his ideas – both in oral and written presentations. Watch your children bloom and grow into thoughtful, intelligent, excited young people with a love of life-long learning.
LOGICAL SPELLING
It has always been important to me to teach my children to be good spellers. At the beginning I tried a couple of different curriculums with Levi, then I read a book which said that children who read a lot will be good spellers, and it was not a good idea to start teaching spelling until the child was reading fluently, around 8 years old. So I stopped teaching it altogether for awhile.
When I started again I began by choosing a list at random and writing them in a notebook for the children to learn, and be tested at the end of the week. This is how I remember learning spelling myself. It worked OK, but I was not really satisfied. There was no method to it, no links between the words on the list, no rules nor reason why some words with the same sound were spelled differently to each other, and when I tried to organise the lists I got hopelessly frustrated with all the exceptions and contradictions, with no knowledge of the phonic rules myself, to guide me. I then discovered “Phonics Pathways”, which listed words and syllables that were alike in some way, and gave a reason for the spelling. I liked this approach. It made sense to me to put the words in order, and to teach children the rules. For example, when do you use “ible” and when do you use “able” at the end of a word? I learned, to my amazement, that if a word is complete in itself without the suffix, we usually spell it “able” (suit-able, bend-able), but if not, we usually use “ible” (ed-ible, cred-ible). Of course, there are exceptions, as there are to most of the rules!! However, the exceptions are usually few and can be learned individually without too much effort. It seems obvious that to learn rules that cover most words, and memorise the exceptions is a whole lot easier than trying to memorise every word individually. This book opened my eyes to the logical spelling of most words. As I had only borrowed the book I decided to buy it, but a friend suggested that Spelling Power was also arranged in logical lists and was more comprehensive. I bought it, and found this to be true, to an extent. My children's spelling progressed in leaps and bounds using this book, but I found it time consuming to test each child every day, and the children proffessed a deep dislike of it. I was also frustrated by the seemingly random way words with the same sound were spelled differently. The book lists words with the same sound, but includes in the list different ways to spell the sound, with no reason, pattern, or rule given. For example: “ence” and “ance” are in the same list, with no hint to help you remember or figure out which to use. I have later learned that, just like “able” and “ible”, usually “ance” is used after a word which can stand alone (“attend-ance”), and “ence” after a non-word (“evid-ence”). (There are more rules that go with this suffix, as not all words follow this rule, but I haven't room to write it all here – see “spellingrules.com”). I still find Spelling Power a great resource for word lists, but search on the internet for the rules.
Andrew Pudewa's seminar offered me another new approach – oral spelling. After hearing his talk I pretty much abandoned the Spelling Power methods, but still using their lists, I drilled the children orally. They liked this much better, it took less time, and they still progressed in a pleasing way. During the year I read about the early pioneers in America, and was astounded at the words their children could spell – some I had never even heard of. I began to investigate their methods. It was clear to me that the parents really valued spelling. I believe this is a key. Spelling is not a priority for too many people these days. It is not taught at high school at all. Creativity is seen as most important, and must not be stifled by a teacher correcting spelling – besides, there is always a spell-checker! Many emails I have received lately are written in “text” language. That really makes me cross! It appears lazy to me. It gives the impression that the senders are poorly educated, and that they have no desire to better themselves. It is a death-blow to literacy and a victory for dumbing down “the masses”. But, back in early America, they thought it was important, and within everyone's reach, to learn to spell fluently. They would drill their children in the evenings. The school had spelling bees, everyone in the community competing to be the best speller. This was great entertainment!! Literacy in America was at an all time high, and the quality of the books they were enabled to read puts us to shame in our day. Intrigued, I bought a McGuffey spelling book and some readers. From the very first Primer the children learn to spell the words they are learning to read. It is assumed the child already knows the phonic sounds before they begin. Because they can break the words into their sounds they can spell as well as read. Even if they don't know the letter names, as long as they know the sounds they can “sound out” the words.
This ability to distinguish each sound in a word is sometimes called “Phonemic Awareness”. My five year old enjoys playing a game to find the word “hidden in the sounds”. I sound out a word, pulling the word apart, and saying each sound on its own. He then guesses the word. As he has progressed, he is now able to sound words for me to guess. (Example: “Where is your F – OO – T? Where is your N - O – SE?” From here he can spell simple words like C – A – T, D – O – G. He will often give the sounds for the older childrens' spelling words. Now all he needs to learn to do is to learn the letter combinations for the sounds and write those sounds on paper. Teaching oral spelling and reading go hand in hand, and should not be taught separately. Writing is a natural progression. These are new thoughts for me, and I am excited at the prospect of my younger children reaching their spelling potential!
The written symbol for the sound is called a phonogram. “Phono” meaning “sound”, and “gram” meaning “write”. So each sound has a phonogram. The sound /b/ is written with the phonogram “b”. The sound /ow/ can be written with the phonogram “ow” or “ou”. I have read that there are 44 sounds in the English language, with 70 spellings of these sounds. The rules are interesting to discover, and do not require memorising, so much as understanding and applying. I would only suggest memorising a rule if the child had difficulty with spelling those words it pertained to. Otherwise just reading about the rule and using it with a variety of words should suffice. One rule I found particularly interesting was the phonogram /wr/. It is always at the beginning of a word, and, of course, has a silent “w”. The fascinating thing is that it always has the meaning of twisting, in some way. Think of “wrestle, wring, wrong, wrinkle, wrap....”
I then discovered that the Founding Fathers had learned words by breaking them into syllables as they spelled out loud. For example: “C-O-R cor, R-E-S corres, P-O-N-D correspond”. I began to see that with this system all you needed to do was to learn the spelling of the syllables (and they usually follow patterns and rules), then put them together to make all manner of different words. Look at the word “confidential”. To break into syllables it looks like this: CON – FID – EN – TIAL. The first three syllables use simple phonics that a very early reader could spell from their sound. The last syllable is the sound “shul”. (I will discuss the spelling of this sound more in a moment). The next thing I discovered about spelling in syllables in this manner is that you can keep your place in the word easier when spelling orally. It is easy to lose your place, for example, when spelling the word “competition”, when you get to the first “T-I”, it is tempting to think you have almost finished, and spell “competion” instead, but by saying it in the manner described you do not get lost. I decided, therefore, to give the three older children (aged 9, 12 and 13), the same words as each other – previously they had individual lists – and to give them multi-syllable words, because in learning harder words they would just naturally learn the easier words at the same time. (If you can spell “excommunicate” you should also be able to spell “communicate” and “commune”, as well as any other word beginning with the prefix “ex” and any word ending with the suffix “ate”). I group the words according to a rule or pattern. They learn two words per day, four days a week. . At the end of each day they should know their two words, (it is up to them to study and learn the words by whatever method they find best), and by the end of the week they are tested on all eight words, plus revision of previously learned words. We discuss rules as they come up, and roots, suffixes, etc. Doing this with the whole family around means the younger ones pick up a lot. I have found the internet to be a good source of lists. When I wanted words that ended in “tial” I could only think of “essential”, but by searching for “ words ending in tial” I found more sites than I cared to look at, but the one I chose gave me 15 words, plus 12 ending in “cial”, the reason for the difference (if the sound “shul” follows an “n”, use “tial”, but if it ends in a vowel use “cial”), plus two exceptions to this rule, and four exceptions which follow an “r”. It gave me five other interesting rules as well, which I will be using in the future, and the site is supposed to be expanding to cover 100 spelling rules. (See www.spellingrules.com ). Sew, teech you're childern two spel!!!
It has always been important to me to teach my children to be good spellers. At the beginning I tried a couple of different curriculums with Levi, then I read a book which said that children who read a lot will be good spellers, and it was not a good idea to start teaching spelling until the child was reading fluently, around 8 years old. So I stopped teaching it altogether for awhile.
When I started again I began by choosing a list at random and writing them in a notebook for the children to learn, and be tested at the end of the week. This is how I remember learning spelling myself. It worked OK, but I was not really satisfied. There was no method to it, no links between the words on the list, no rules nor reason why some words with the same sound were spelled differently to each other, and when I tried to organise the lists I got hopelessly frustrated with all the exceptions and contradictions, with no knowledge of the phonic rules myself, to guide me. I then discovered “Phonics Pathways”, which listed words and syllables that were alike in some way, and gave a reason for the spelling. I liked this approach. It made sense to me to put the words in order, and to teach children the rules. For example, when do you use “ible” and when do you use “able” at the end of a word? I learned, to my amazement, that if a word is complete in itself without the suffix, we usually spell it “able” (suit-able, bend-able), but if not, we usually use “ible” (ed-ible, cred-ible). Of course, there are exceptions, as there are to most of the rules!! However, the exceptions are usually few and can be learned individually without too much effort. It seems obvious that to learn rules that cover most words, and memorise the exceptions is a whole lot easier than trying to memorise every word individually. This book opened my eyes to the logical spelling of most words. As I had only borrowed the book I decided to buy it, but a friend suggested that Spelling Power was also arranged in logical lists and was more comprehensive. I bought it, and found this to be true, to an extent. My children's spelling progressed in leaps and bounds using this book, but I found it time consuming to test each child every day, and the children proffessed a deep dislike of it. I was also frustrated by the seemingly random way words with the same sound were spelled differently. The book lists words with the same sound, but includes in the list different ways to spell the sound, with no reason, pattern, or rule given. For example: “ence” and “ance” are in the same list, with no hint to help you remember or figure out which to use. I have later learned that, just like “able” and “ible”, usually “ance” is used after a word which can stand alone (“attend-ance”), and “ence” after a non-word (“evid-ence”). (There are more rules that go with this suffix, as not all words follow this rule, but I haven't room to write it all here – see “spellingrules.com”). I still find Spelling Power a great resource for word lists, but search on the internet for the rules.
Andrew Pudewa's seminar offered me another new approach – oral spelling. After hearing his talk I pretty much abandoned the Spelling Power methods, but still using their lists, I drilled the children orally. They liked this much better, it took less time, and they still progressed in a pleasing way. During the year I read about the early pioneers in America, and was astounded at the words their children could spell – some I had never even heard of. I began to investigate their methods. It was clear to me that the parents really valued spelling. I believe this is a key. Spelling is not a priority for too many people these days. It is not taught at high school at all. Creativity is seen as most important, and must not be stifled by a teacher correcting spelling – besides, there is always a spell-checker! Many emails I have received lately are written in “text” language. That really makes me cross! It appears lazy to me. It gives the impression that the senders are poorly educated, and that they have no desire to better themselves. It is a death-blow to literacy and a victory for dumbing down “the masses”. But, back in early America, they thought it was important, and within everyone's reach, to learn to spell fluently. They would drill their children in the evenings. The school had spelling bees, everyone in the community competing to be the best speller. This was great entertainment!! Literacy in America was at an all time high, and the quality of the books they were enabled to read puts us to shame in our day. Intrigued, I bought a McGuffey spelling book and some readers. From the very first Primer the children learn to spell the words they are learning to read. It is assumed the child already knows the phonic sounds before they begin. Because they can break the words into their sounds they can spell as well as read. Even if they don't know the letter names, as long as they know the sounds they can “sound out” the words.
This ability to distinguish each sound in a word is sometimes called “Phonemic Awareness”. My five year old enjoys playing a game to find the word “hidden in the sounds”. I sound out a word, pulling the word apart, and saying each sound on its own. He then guesses the word. As he has progressed, he is now able to sound words for me to guess. (Example: “Where is your F – OO – T? Where is your N - O – SE?” From here he can spell simple words like C – A – T, D – O – G. He will often give the sounds for the older childrens' spelling words. Now all he needs to learn to do is to learn the letter combinations for the sounds and write those sounds on paper. Teaching oral spelling and reading go hand in hand, and should not be taught separately. Writing is a natural progression. These are new thoughts for me, and I am excited at the prospect of my younger children reaching their spelling potential!
The written symbol for the sound is called a phonogram. “Phono” meaning “sound”, and “gram” meaning “write”. So each sound has a phonogram. The sound /b/ is written with the phonogram “b”. The sound /ow/ can be written with the phonogram “ow” or “ou”. I have read that there are 44 sounds in the English language, with 70 spellings of these sounds. The rules are interesting to discover, and do not require memorising, so much as understanding and applying. I would only suggest memorising a rule if the child had difficulty with spelling those words it pertained to. Otherwise just reading about the rule and using it with a variety of words should suffice. One rule I found particularly interesting was the phonogram /wr/. It is always at the beginning of a word, and, of course, has a silent “w”. The fascinating thing is that it always has the meaning of twisting, in some way. Think of “wrestle, wring, wrong, wrinkle, wrap....”
I then discovered that the Founding Fathers had learned words by breaking them into syllables as they spelled out loud. For example: “C-O-R cor, R-E-S corres, P-O-N-D correspond”. I began to see that with this system all you needed to do was to learn the spelling of the syllables (and they usually follow patterns and rules), then put them together to make all manner of different words. Look at the word “confidential”. To break into syllables it looks like this: CON – FID – EN – TIAL. The first three syllables use simple phonics that a very early reader could spell from their sound. The last syllable is the sound “shul”. (I will discuss the spelling of this sound more in a moment). The next thing I discovered about spelling in syllables in this manner is that you can keep your place in the word easier when spelling orally. It is easy to lose your place, for example, when spelling the word “competition”, when you get to the first “T-I”, it is tempting to think you have almost finished, and spell “competion” instead, but by saying it in the manner described you do not get lost. I decided, therefore, to give the three older children (aged 9, 12 and 13), the same words as each other – previously they had individual lists – and to give them multi-syllable words, because in learning harder words they would just naturally learn the easier words at the same time. (If you can spell “excommunicate” you should also be able to spell “communicate” and “commune”, as well as any other word beginning with the prefix “ex” and any word ending with the suffix “ate”). I group the words according to a rule or pattern. They learn two words per day, four days a week. . At the end of each day they should know their two words, (it is up to them to study and learn the words by whatever method they find best), and by the end of the week they are tested on all eight words, plus revision of previously learned words. We discuss rules as they come up, and roots, suffixes, etc. Doing this with the whole family around means the younger ones pick up a lot. I have found the internet to be a good source of lists. When I wanted words that ended in “tial” I could only think of “essential”, but by searching for “ words ending in tial” I found more sites than I cared to look at, but the one I chose gave me 15 words, plus 12 ending in “cial”, the reason for the difference (if the sound “shul” follows an “n”, use “tial”, but if it ends in a vowel use “cial”), plus two exceptions to this rule, and four exceptions which follow an “r”. It gave me five other interesting rules as well, which I will be using in the future, and the site is supposed to be expanding to cover 100 spelling rules. (See www.spellingrules.com ). Sew, teech you're childern two spel!!!
Ready to Try Narration?
by Cindy Rushton
To go to Cindy's website Click Here
Heard about narration, but wonder what it is and how to do it? Been intrigued, but what you have heard just sounds a bit too tough—like another thing to do in your busy day? Well, my dear friend, narration is as easy as A, B, C! It is as easy as talking! When you see how easy and natural narration can be, I think you will be hooked! Want to give it a chance? Here is how…
Read a book to your children.
Yes, why not grab a neat book today and cuddle up with your children for a nice time of reading aloud. There is something about reading aloud to anyone of any age that just nurtures and makes sweet memories. Learning becomes easy. If there is one thing that can bring life and closer relationships into the home, it is reading.
In our home, we love biographies. We just love digging into the lives of great people! Right now, we are reading biographies produced by Youth with a Mission (YWAM Publishing). They are just THE BEST! Through the years, we have gone back in time with those that leave their legacy with us through the life-stories. Why not pull out a biography today?
Of course, biographies are not the only great books for narrations. My son has always been a “fact” kid. He loved digging out information from non-fiction books, magazines, and research materials. He spent hours digging out information and then just poured out the information in his own “literary” style through oral narration (talking!). It was so natural! My only job as a teacher was to LISTEN! Can’t beat that!
Grab a great book, cuddle up, and read!
Let them retell the story to you.
That brings me to the next point…listen to them retell what you read to them. Don’t make it stiff or “school-y.” Make it a relationship thing!
Listen to them share what THEY are truly “getting” from the selection. Listen to what they deem as important. Goodness, all of those wonderful teachers manuals out there dig into questions that someone else deems as important. Many of those are written by adults who have lost the wonder of learning that is still locked up in our children. Their questions are not about the most interesting things in a book or material. In fact, many miss the whole point in many books or studies. They simply cannot see the great mind-food that is there!
So, instead of feeling as though your children need to learn a certain amount of information, sit back and enjoy just listening to all that they are extracting from the material. It will change YOUR life!
Just listening will help you to know that they are truly absorbing from their studies. You will never see education the same again! It will feed YOUR mind too!
Want to Write It Down? Sure! But first…
There is something in us from our school days that feels as though we need to have info recorded for education to happen. That is fine. Of course, before I tell you how, I want to caution about this. I simply LOVE paper trails. I love notebooks. I love to see LOTS of “proof” for what I do with our time. This is something I had to learn about myself as I began homeschooling. Without quite a bit of paper, I just do not always “see” what we have accomplished. If I cannot see it, I battle with feeling as though we are doing enough. Make sense? Well, you have to know this in order to understand that this is one of the reasons that we began notebooking and found notebooking to be such a blessing for our home. With notebooking, we could SEE what was really being accomplished. It helped me to relax and enjoy learning with my children. Now, with that said, all things that we do must be used as tools. We cannot let anything be set up above ministering to the hearts of our children. If we do, then it will burn them out…and most likely, it will cause us to burn out too.
Ok…with that said, this is one of my greatest concerns with narrations. After years of using narration, copywork, dictation, writing books, and making lapbooks, I see the danger in feeling that everything MUST be written down. One of the best perks about narration is that it CAN be entirely oral. There are so many fruits with oral narration—teaching our children how to express their thoughts, how to present what they are learning, how to share with others what they find important, on and on. It is a wonderful preparation for public speaking. They need all of those skills throughout their education. But, there is even more to education.
Even after they become great writers, keep in mind that they will always need to talk. Narration encourages us to develop a relationship with our children early—really listening to them. In the teen years, this is one of the most vital needs for our relationship with them. We need to keep them talking to us. So, as you move through the process of writing, don’t lose your children in the process. Move slow and steady. Keep them talking and sharing. Don’t sacrifice them on the “high places” of education.
Ok…Now…Let’s Write It Down!
You have read the book. Now, what? Either JUST listen or you can let them narrate the story while you take down the story with dictation on paper to keep in a notebook. I really want to stress that writing down narrations is a great way to train your young writers, but it can be very dangerous. Our children can share SO much more from very young ages when they share verbally. Don’t begin this step too early OR make it every day.
How do you know that you are ready? Well, let me share about what happened with my daughter one day.
Elisabeth was always so adorable when narrating. She usually shared twice as much as we would read! Actually, both of my children were like that—humm…could it be having a mom who is a writer? Ha! No, I really think that when we listen to our children and WANT to know what they know, they will all share verbosely.
Well, one day, we were reading while we were traveling. Normally, we would read while dad was at work, then when he would come in from work, the children would be about to bust to share with him every single detail about what we had read or learned during the day. He was a great sport in listening to them go on and on about what we had studied. But, until this day, he had never heard them listen to a story and then make it their own and share it back. I thought it would really excite him to see how much they grasp from their studies. Well, the lesson that day was not for anyone else, but me!
We read the book. It was such a great story. Then, I asked Elisabeth to retell it for Daddy. She had a perplexed look on her face and then asked, “But, Mom, didn’t he just listen?” This was going to get good here… I told her that Daddy HAD listened, but that I wanted for him to see how much she could remember and how neat she shared it back. Of course, my children have never “performed” in front of others like I wanted—it began when they were little and would not say those new words for anyone but me…or walk for anyone but me…or show ANY signs of genius for anyone but me! I always felt that they were trying to make me look like a nut in front of the world—actually, that is what I get for being so very excessively proud of my children! Ha!
Long story, short here…Elisabeth and I had a clash that day. It simply did not make any sense to her that she tell Daddy what she had learned when he could hear it at the same time as her. God whispered to my heart to just drop it that day. I was aggravated with her so much! Of course, God had a treat in store for me!
It was only about a week later. Harold was off work that day. They wanted to go to the park for lunch and to try out their metal detectors. I took my lawn chair and computer to enjoy writing outside. While we were there, Elisabeth ran up to me and asked me how it was going. She loved to hear me tell her what I was working on—in her mind, it was “my schoolwork” that I worked on. I told her what I was doing—working on my Homeschooling The Easy Way Magazine. She asked me if she could do a narration for me—on the same book she would not narrate the week before. Something in me wanted to choke her—in a non-abusive way, of course! Ha! (Why, oh why don’t they do their “tricks” when you want them too?) God had a treat for me!
She began to dictate her narration to me as normal—she would dictate to me, holding her thoughts bit-by-bit until I typed it in for her. By the way, this is SUPER training for the young writer. It helps them to learn how to keep their thoughts in mind while writing down the thoughts. They have to learn this skill before they can become great writers. Of course, there is so much to learn when learning to write—how to manually write, how to spell, how to set up writing, how to punctuate. All of those things are best learned by Copywork through the years. Copywork works great alongside of Narration. They need to be learned parallel. Students are not ready for written narration until they can copy at least ¾ of a page of Copywork easily and effortlessly. Another thing that they really need to know well before beginning to write their own narrations is how to keep their thoughts while writing. This is best learned by learning how to dictate their narrations while mom or dad write them down.
Back to my story…She began the typical process of dictating her narration to me while I typed it into the computer. It was beautiful. The process was the same as so many other days. But, as she asked me to read back over it to let her “see how it sounded,” she had the “light-bulb” go on! She declared to me, “OH! Mommy! That sounds like the book! It is better than the book!” Yes! That was where we wanted to be. We want for our children to get the idea that THEY TOO can be a writer. We want for them to know that their words can be powerful too. When they get here, then they are able to move into even more written narration and their own original composition. They will be great writers!
Wondering how much should be written? Well, I found that I personally got very weary helping them write down narrations. We decided that we would not do this with EVERY book we read. We just read too much material. It was too artificial to have a written narration on everything that we read. It’s perfectly OK to just listen to them as they share oral narrations along the way. In our home, we only use written narration as a tool to train our children to compose on their own or to write easy homemade books. This keeps it fresh and fun, but never artificial!
Using Narrations as Copywork
Before we move on, one thing that we enjoyed doing during the process of training our young writers was to use our narrations for copywork. When they narrated to me, I took the narration down by dictation. Then, I re-copied the narration for them to use as Copywork assignments or I typed them into the computer for a printed copy of the narration for their notebooks.
This worked great for my children. Usually we would sit down for me to take down their narration and I would set it up for them to use as Copywork selections over a period of several days (their narrations were so long). These made nice “stories” for their notebooks and mini-books. Plus, it trained them to copy longer and longer passages. This was perfect training to help them stretch into writing more and more. In addition, this made it easy for them to become accustomed to getting those narrations on paper. Eventually, they no longer needed for me to take down their dictation, they could hold their thoughts until they could get it all on paper. It was amazing to watch the process. Since we allowed it to happen naturally, they never decreased the amount of material that they narrated. They naturally had nice, long, descriptive writing—the easy way!
So…What Now? In High School?
Now, as our children have grown up, they continue to use narration on a daily basis. What does it look like? It looks like real writing today!
You see, nothing is new under the sun. All writing is a form of narration. All speaking is a form of narration. We are retelling what we have learned. Sure, much of what we learn comes from a variety of sources—books, people, real life, personal experiences, etc. As I share this article, I am retelling things I have learned by reading, by experience, by learning from my children, and by God’s leadership in my life. The same happens with our children too.
As they grow into the high school years, they begin to research areas that need to be learned for a complete education. They research areas of study that they want to pursue for their professions and for marriage and parenting. They can use these skills for that education. In fact, if they haven’t had a good background in narration, this is a MUST for the high school student. They need to know how to read material, make it their own, and share it back in an articulate manner.
These are the years that they can research topics deeply, decide what they think is interesting and share that information in research papers, articles, homemade books, or very deeply detailed narrations. Of course, one of my favorite methods for High School students to use narration is by just “talking” with them. We have had incredible discussions based upon what my children have been reading and studying through the years. We have kept the communication lines open by talking, discussing, debating, and problem solving ideas from books and studies. Completely priceless!
So…What About Narration?
Narration is one of those old-paths in education that has been around from the beginning of time. It is the method that God used to preserve His Word. It is the method He instructed parents to use to teach their children about Himself. It has been used all throughout history to teach, to learn, to share. Narration is in REAL LIFE...it happens naturally as you go along the way, talking with one another about life and what is being learned. What could be a more effective way to teach our children? A sure-fire method. A GREAT education. Sweet memories. Relationships. Plus! It is just that easy! So, why not dig in today???
Happy Homeschooling!
Cindy
********************************************************
Need MORE Help?
How about the ULTIMATE mom-time? Yep! Check out our Ultimate Homeschool Expo! Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE Convention!. Check out all of the details here: Homeschool Expo
by Cindy Rushton
To go to Cindy's website Click Here
Heard about narration, but wonder what it is and how to do it? Been intrigued, but what you have heard just sounds a bit too tough—like another thing to do in your busy day? Well, my dear friend, narration is as easy as A, B, C! It is as easy as talking! When you see how easy and natural narration can be, I think you will be hooked! Want to give it a chance? Here is how…
Read a book to your children.
Yes, why not grab a neat book today and cuddle up with your children for a nice time of reading aloud. There is something about reading aloud to anyone of any age that just nurtures and makes sweet memories. Learning becomes easy. If there is one thing that can bring life and closer relationships into the home, it is reading.
In our home, we love biographies. We just love digging into the lives of great people! Right now, we are reading biographies produced by Youth with a Mission (YWAM Publishing). They are just THE BEST! Through the years, we have gone back in time with those that leave their legacy with us through the life-stories. Why not pull out a biography today?
Of course, biographies are not the only great books for narrations. My son has always been a “fact” kid. He loved digging out information from non-fiction books, magazines, and research materials. He spent hours digging out information and then just poured out the information in his own “literary” style through oral narration (talking!). It was so natural! My only job as a teacher was to LISTEN! Can’t beat that!
Grab a great book, cuddle up, and read!
Let them retell the story to you.
That brings me to the next point…listen to them retell what you read to them. Don’t make it stiff or “school-y.” Make it a relationship thing!
Listen to them share what THEY are truly “getting” from the selection. Listen to what they deem as important. Goodness, all of those wonderful teachers manuals out there dig into questions that someone else deems as important. Many of those are written by adults who have lost the wonder of learning that is still locked up in our children. Their questions are not about the most interesting things in a book or material. In fact, many miss the whole point in many books or studies. They simply cannot see the great mind-food that is there!
So, instead of feeling as though your children need to learn a certain amount of information, sit back and enjoy just listening to all that they are extracting from the material. It will change YOUR life!
Just listening will help you to know that they are truly absorbing from their studies. You will never see education the same again! It will feed YOUR mind too!
Want to Write It Down? Sure! But first…
There is something in us from our school days that feels as though we need to have info recorded for education to happen. That is fine. Of course, before I tell you how, I want to caution about this. I simply LOVE paper trails. I love notebooks. I love to see LOTS of “proof” for what I do with our time. This is something I had to learn about myself as I began homeschooling. Without quite a bit of paper, I just do not always “see” what we have accomplished. If I cannot see it, I battle with feeling as though we are doing enough. Make sense? Well, you have to know this in order to understand that this is one of the reasons that we began notebooking and found notebooking to be such a blessing for our home. With notebooking, we could SEE what was really being accomplished. It helped me to relax and enjoy learning with my children. Now, with that said, all things that we do must be used as tools. We cannot let anything be set up above ministering to the hearts of our children. If we do, then it will burn them out…and most likely, it will cause us to burn out too.
Ok…with that said, this is one of my greatest concerns with narrations. After years of using narration, copywork, dictation, writing books, and making lapbooks, I see the danger in feeling that everything MUST be written down. One of the best perks about narration is that it CAN be entirely oral. There are so many fruits with oral narration—teaching our children how to express their thoughts, how to present what they are learning, how to share with others what they find important, on and on. It is a wonderful preparation for public speaking. They need all of those skills throughout their education. But, there is even more to education.
Even after they become great writers, keep in mind that they will always need to talk. Narration encourages us to develop a relationship with our children early—really listening to them. In the teen years, this is one of the most vital needs for our relationship with them. We need to keep them talking to us. So, as you move through the process of writing, don’t lose your children in the process. Move slow and steady. Keep them talking and sharing. Don’t sacrifice them on the “high places” of education.
Ok…Now…Let’s Write It Down!
You have read the book. Now, what? Either JUST listen or you can let them narrate the story while you take down the story with dictation on paper to keep in a notebook. I really want to stress that writing down narrations is a great way to train your young writers, but it can be very dangerous. Our children can share SO much more from very young ages when they share verbally. Don’t begin this step too early OR make it every day.
How do you know that you are ready? Well, let me share about what happened with my daughter one day.
Elisabeth was always so adorable when narrating. She usually shared twice as much as we would read! Actually, both of my children were like that—humm…could it be having a mom who is a writer? Ha! No, I really think that when we listen to our children and WANT to know what they know, they will all share verbosely.
Well, one day, we were reading while we were traveling. Normally, we would read while dad was at work, then when he would come in from work, the children would be about to bust to share with him every single detail about what we had read or learned during the day. He was a great sport in listening to them go on and on about what we had studied. But, until this day, he had never heard them listen to a story and then make it their own and share it back. I thought it would really excite him to see how much they grasp from their studies. Well, the lesson that day was not for anyone else, but me!
We read the book. It was such a great story. Then, I asked Elisabeth to retell it for Daddy. She had a perplexed look on her face and then asked, “But, Mom, didn’t he just listen?” This was going to get good here… I told her that Daddy HAD listened, but that I wanted for him to see how much she could remember and how neat she shared it back. Of course, my children have never “performed” in front of others like I wanted—it began when they were little and would not say those new words for anyone but me…or walk for anyone but me…or show ANY signs of genius for anyone but me! I always felt that they were trying to make me look like a nut in front of the world—actually, that is what I get for being so very excessively proud of my children! Ha!
Long story, short here…Elisabeth and I had a clash that day. It simply did not make any sense to her that she tell Daddy what she had learned when he could hear it at the same time as her. God whispered to my heart to just drop it that day. I was aggravated with her so much! Of course, God had a treat in store for me!
It was only about a week later. Harold was off work that day. They wanted to go to the park for lunch and to try out their metal detectors. I took my lawn chair and computer to enjoy writing outside. While we were there, Elisabeth ran up to me and asked me how it was going. She loved to hear me tell her what I was working on—in her mind, it was “my schoolwork” that I worked on. I told her what I was doing—working on my Homeschooling The Easy Way Magazine. She asked me if she could do a narration for me—on the same book she would not narrate the week before. Something in me wanted to choke her—in a non-abusive way, of course! Ha! (Why, oh why don’t they do their “tricks” when you want them too?) God had a treat for me!
She began to dictate her narration to me as normal—she would dictate to me, holding her thoughts bit-by-bit until I typed it in for her. By the way, this is SUPER training for the young writer. It helps them to learn how to keep their thoughts in mind while writing down the thoughts. They have to learn this skill before they can become great writers. Of course, there is so much to learn when learning to write—how to manually write, how to spell, how to set up writing, how to punctuate. All of those things are best learned by Copywork through the years. Copywork works great alongside of Narration. They need to be learned parallel. Students are not ready for written narration until they can copy at least ¾ of a page of Copywork easily and effortlessly. Another thing that they really need to know well before beginning to write their own narrations is how to keep their thoughts while writing. This is best learned by learning how to dictate their narrations while mom or dad write them down.
Back to my story…She began the typical process of dictating her narration to me while I typed it into the computer. It was beautiful. The process was the same as so many other days. But, as she asked me to read back over it to let her “see how it sounded,” she had the “light-bulb” go on! She declared to me, “OH! Mommy! That sounds like the book! It is better than the book!” Yes! That was where we wanted to be. We want for our children to get the idea that THEY TOO can be a writer. We want for them to know that their words can be powerful too. When they get here, then they are able to move into even more written narration and their own original composition. They will be great writers!
Wondering how much should be written? Well, I found that I personally got very weary helping them write down narrations. We decided that we would not do this with EVERY book we read. We just read too much material. It was too artificial to have a written narration on everything that we read. It’s perfectly OK to just listen to them as they share oral narrations along the way. In our home, we only use written narration as a tool to train our children to compose on their own or to write easy homemade books. This keeps it fresh and fun, but never artificial!
Using Narrations as Copywork
Before we move on, one thing that we enjoyed doing during the process of training our young writers was to use our narrations for copywork. When they narrated to me, I took the narration down by dictation. Then, I re-copied the narration for them to use as Copywork assignments or I typed them into the computer for a printed copy of the narration for their notebooks.
This worked great for my children. Usually we would sit down for me to take down their narration and I would set it up for them to use as Copywork selections over a period of several days (their narrations were so long). These made nice “stories” for their notebooks and mini-books. Plus, it trained them to copy longer and longer passages. This was perfect training to help them stretch into writing more and more. In addition, this made it easy for them to become accustomed to getting those narrations on paper. Eventually, they no longer needed for me to take down their dictation, they could hold their thoughts until they could get it all on paper. It was amazing to watch the process. Since we allowed it to happen naturally, they never decreased the amount of material that they narrated. They naturally had nice, long, descriptive writing—the easy way!
So…What Now? In High School?
Now, as our children have grown up, they continue to use narration on a daily basis. What does it look like? It looks like real writing today!
You see, nothing is new under the sun. All writing is a form of narration. All speaking is a form of narration. We are retelling what we have learned. Sure, much of what we learn comes from a variety of sources—books, people, real life, personal experiences, etc. As I share this article, I am retelling things I have learned by reading, by experience, by learning from my children, and by God’s leadership in my life. The same happens with our children too.
As they grow into the high school years, they begin to research areas that need to be learned for a complete education. They research areas of study that they want to pursue for their professions and for marriage and parenting. They can use these skills for that education. In fact, if they haven’t had a good background in narration, this is a MUST for the high school student. They need to know how to read material, make it their own, and share it back in an articulate manner.
These are the years that they can research topics deeply, decide what they think is interesting and share that information in research papers, articles, homemade books, or very deeply detailed narrations. Of course, one of my favorite methods for High School students to use narration is by just “talking” with them. We have had incredible discussions based upon what my children have been reading and studying through the years. We have kept the communication lines open by talking, discussing, debating, and problem solving ideas from books and studies. Completely priceless!
So…What About Narration?
Narration is one of those old-paths in education that has been around from the beginning of time. It is the method that God used to preserve His Word. It is the method He instructed parents to use to teach their children about Himself. It has been used all throughout history to teach, to learn, to share. Narration is in REAL LIFE...it happens naturally as you go along the way, talking with one another about life and what is being learned. What could be a more effective way to teach our children? A sure-fire method. A GREAT education. Sweet memories. Relationships. Plus! It is just that easy! So, why not dig in today???
Happy Homeschooling!
Cindy
********************************************************
Need MORE Help?
How about the ULTIMATE mom-time? Yep! Check out our Ultimate Homeschool Expo! Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE Convention!. Check out all of the details here: Homeschool Expo
Training our children in responsibility is an ongoing process. At one time I thought my children would reach a magic age when I would be able to ease up on the training and they would suddenly be qualified, competent "responsible children". Then one day it dawned on me that this will never be the case. My job as a parent will certainly change over the years, from that of being fully in charge of my baby's every moment, to being the trainer and teacher, to being the coach and encourager - but I will never retire from being Mum! 2 - 5 year olds are the most enthusiastic workers! Always at Mum or Dad's side, they continuously want to "help", and more often than not it would be easier to do it yourself. However, make the most of this willingness, and encourage helpfulness in your little ones. With only a little training they will be able to do several tasks for you - such as putting away clean laundry, handing you the pegs at the washing line, or stirring a batch of biscuit dough. Always try to make work fun - tell stories, sing songs, play games when you can. Don't overdo it - gauge when the child has had enough and let him go play. The time will vary - sometimes the work will only hold his attention a few minutes, but another job may fascinate him for hours. I have found that around age 6 - 10 a child begins to use initiative at times, and start to take on more responsibility for himself/herself. However, he still needs copious amounts of encouragement, and will be distracted easily. An older sibling or Mum working alongside will do wonders for his attitude. When everyone works at the same time of day this helps children to get into the spirit of "we're all in this together". Having a routine also helps, so the children know that after chore time comes play time, and the chores won't last an indefinite amount of time. This age can be a challenging one, as children sometimes resist working, and may whine, complain, or flatly refuse to obey. This then becomes a discipline issue. There must be consequences for disobedience, so the child learns to obey quickly with a happy attitude. He needs to know who is in charge in your home, and a child who knows Mum and Dad are in charge is a secure, contented child. You can begin giving more responsibility as the child proves himself capable. However, beware not to burn him out. Particularly if he is the oldest child you will rely on him a lot, (more than you realise), and he can easily become resentful towards you and/or his younger siblings. If you sense this has become the case in your family ease off on the child. Try giving him very specific responsibilities at specific times of the day - such as: Empty the rubbish bins before breakfast, put your clothes away before lunch, tidy the lounge floor before tea - the same things every day. Then make sure you give him free time in between, without constantly thinking of something else he can do to help you. If you do this for a time, then re-assess, and begin adding more responsibilities, chores, or requests for help, as you sense he is ready. A good rule to help you to distribute the work fairly and not give it all to the oldest child/ren, is to give the job to the youngest who is capable of doing it. | |
Ephesians 6:4 "And do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord". |
By 10 - 12 a child is capable of taking on far more responsibility - and enjoys being in sole charge of a particular job. Give him jobs that suit his interests and personality when you can. But he also needs to learn the patience and diligence required to stick at a boring, repetitive job when necessary. It is easy to take a child of this age for granted and be continuously asking for his help, because he is often quite competent, and a compliant child especially will require diligence on the parents' behalf to ensure they show appreciation.
At all ages and stages it is imperative that our children know they are valued and appreciated. Give credit where it is due, and rewards where appropriate. Larger jobs that you would have to pay someone else to do can become paid jobs for your older children.
Most important of all, take time to build a good relationship with each of your children. You don't want them to think of you as someone who just bosses them around all the time. Spend time enjoying one anothers' company - and this can be during work, or during play. Ask your child what he would like to do with you, and make the time to do it. Make time, too, to listen to him. Discuss books, current events, things that happen in your lives, anything to keep communication open and allow you to really know each other.
Don't get too busy doing things outside your home. If you are too busy, and always stressed about getting the work done, cut something else out of your schedule. Your children will grow up far too quickly, so make sure you know who they are, and what is important to them. Make fun memories together, laugh together, and delight in their company. Remember that housework is just a means to an end. The relationship you have with your children is of far greater priority. Imagine lying on your deathbed and saying "I wish I had kept my house tidier". I have never heard of someone saying that, but an often repeated scenario is one where the dying person says "I wish I had spent more time with my family". Keep your eyes on the goal of loving relationships with your children, and let the house be messier if you must!
