- Today we're answering some of your questions
about dictation.
(gentle music)
Welcome to The Simply Charlotte Mason Podcast.
I'm Sonya Shafer.
Today, we want to dive into a few questions
that we've received from readers,
different home educating parents who have questions about
Charlotte Mason's method of dictation.
Now, if you're not familiar with that wonderful method
for teaching children spelling,
then take a look at our video,
How to Do Dictation.
That video will walk you through the process
and the method so you know exactly what we're talking about.
Today we want to address some questions on that method
and to join me is my friend and coworker, Karen Smith.
Karen, thanks for joining us
on this wonderful question episode.
One of the first questions we get
is from parents who are just starting dictation
with a younger child
and the child might get everything correct
on the dictation lesson,
but then in their written narrations
or when they're writing on their own
for something, mistakes crop up.
And I know some parents that just terrifies their heart.
So let's talk about that first.
- The act of writing and getting your thoughts down on paper
is a great effort.
- It is.
- And when a child is doing a written narration,
you want the focus to be on getting their thoughts
on the paper rather than,
did he spell every word correctly?
Did he put the punctuation in correctly?
When he gets more,
when he gets used to getting his thoughts down on paper,
then you can start addressing the spelling issues
and the punctuation issues and that type of thing.
- I know when I'm trying to write something,
especially if I'm very involved
in what I'm trying to get across,
I often do typos and don't even notice it until later.
Like if I'm sending an email to someone
and they reply back.
- After you've sent it, you notice.
- Exactly. They reply and I go back and read what I wrote.
And it's like, "Oh, I have two typos in that.
Because I was so focused on what I wanted to say."
- Yes, yes.
And children are no different.
They're going to make those same type of mistakes that we do
as adults when we're getting our thoughts down on paper.
- So how do we give them grace, I guess, in this
without encouraging a sloppy attitude toward it,
what are some tips we have
for that particular situation?
- I think that at first, when your children
are first learning to do written narrations,
give them lots of grace
and you don't be too picky about
the mechanics of the writing.
And as they become more comfortable
with writing their thoughts,
then you can choose one thing for them to work on.
Maybe have them read it over to themselves
before handing in their work to you.
So see if they can catch some of those mistakes.
Now that they're not concentrating on the thoughts
and getting those down.
- Or even reading it aloud can sometimes,
when they hear it, it's like, "Oh,
I didn't mean to say it that way or something,"
but for spelling purposes, yeah,
they do need to see what they have written. That's true.
And I think the same applies
to when they're writing just for their own pleasure.
Now, if they are a budding author
and they want to,
they love to write fiction
or other types of things,
we want to be careful to encourage the thoughts
and not squelch that desire and that enthusiasm
by getting out our red pen
and bleeding all over it. - Bleeding all over it
- Yes.
But what about, okay,
if they're writing a letter to someone
and it's going to go outside the family
and other people are going to see this,
I've had moms talk to me about,
that's a representation of our home school.
And we don't want to,
the only term that comes to mind is air our dirty laundry
(both laughs)
to other people.
You know, we want them,
we want to present our best work.
So, one thing that I've mentioned,
maybe you have another idea,
one thing that I've thought about is,
if the child can capture their thoughts,
what they want to say,
and then let's go through it together
and make sure we don't have any typos in it,
because that is a presentation to someone.
- Yes.
- It's a gift to someone.
So we can go through it together
or if the child wants to, if they're very young,
they can dictate it to you and you can write it
with the correct spelling punctuation
and they can transcribe it
if it's a special situation like that,
if the parent is really concerned about that.
Now, in my case if it was going to Grandma
and I know Grandma supports me,
Grandma is not critical of the methods I'm using,
Grandma knows we are going to,
we're going to progress in spelling,
but we're not perfect at it yet,
then no big deal.
Let the child send it as is.
- Yes. Grandma will think that's special.
- True.
- But if it's a thank you note
to someone who is not a relative
or not a close relative like that.
- Or not a supportive relative.
- Yes. - Yeah.
- Then you may want to have the child,
maybe write it on a separate sheet of paper first
before they write it in a card
or whatever stationary
or whatever paper they're going to use
to write the letter on.
So those mistakes can be corrected
before the final writing.
- All right. Another question that we sometimes get
is from a child who is pretty fluent in their reading.
So let's say your ten-year-old
is reading at a sixth-grade level.
The question that usually comes our way is
do you select the dictation passages
that are for the sixth grader?
Or do you go ahead and start with the fourth grade level?
And usually the questions refer to
our books of "Spelling Wisdom."
And often it also involves the "Using Language Well"
grammar component,
which is built off of the spelling dictation passages.
So let's talk about that question as well.
- Okay. So reading ability and spelling ability,
maybe two different things.
- I agree.
- A child who can read well
is not necessarily a child who can spell well.
So you need to choose the level
that fits your child's spelling ability.
We recommend that when choosing a Spelling Wisdom level,
that you find the level where your child has
about no more than four words. - Yeah.
Three or four unknown spellings.
- Unknown spellings. Yes.
And that will be the sweet spot to start at.
So disregard the grade levels on the books
and find the level that your child fits at
for his spelling ability.
- Along with that in a related question,
the "Using Language Well" one
that goes with the "Spelling Wisdom" one
covers mechanics and punctuation,
capitalization usage, things like that.
Sometimes parents say
my child has already learned all of that.
So, can I just start with book two instead?
I think that that is also a potential hangup
because number one,
you don't know if your child is ready
for that higher level of dictation passages.
- Correct. Correct.
- And number two,
your child might have learned the rules,
but the approach is a little bit different
in "Using Language Well."
For example, they might know the rules
that each sentence starts with a capital letter
and ends with a period if it's a statement,
something like that.
But one thing we do in "Using Language Well" book one
is we will say here is the passage,
identify every punctuation mark
and tell why it is there.
- Yes.
- And sometimes that flips it around
and you see your child doesn't really have a good grasp.
- Yes. And that's an important point
that they should not only know where to put them,
but why they are putting those punctuation marks
in those places.
- So, I guess we want to encourage parents
with the younger children,
give them grace,
don't expect perfect spelling across the board
from the very beginning,
learning spelling is,
well it's a lifetime skill.
Isn't it? - Yes.
And the students at Charlotte Mason schools,
they still had spelling errors
and punctuation errors in their written narrations.
We have examples of that,
where they did not correct those.
- They would put in the volumes in their original state
so we could see that those were still part
even of the older children sometimes.
- Yes.
- But Charlotte did not let that become an obstacle
or let that downgrade the celebration
of what that child learned
and being able to capture his or her thoughts.
So, we want to give grace to our children.
We're still going to encourage them
and keep them going in the right direction,
help them grow.
- Yes.
- And some children are going to grow
at a slower pace than others.
- And some by leaps and bounds.
- That's right.
But each child is an individual,
we're going to respect each child
even as we give them the resources
that will help them take the next step
in their spelling journeys.
If you enjoyed this podcast,
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You can also subscribe to the audio version
or read the blog post on our website
at simplycharlottemason.com.
All of those links will be in the show notes,
along with links to the "Spelling Wisdom"
and "Using Language Well" series that we referenced.
Thanks for joining us.
I'll see you next time.