Let's talk about just two foundational methods,
two techniques that I want you to start implementing in your homeschool
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.
I'm Sonya Shafer
and today I’d like to discuss a question that I hear frequently.
It goes something like this: “The more I hear about the Charlotte Mason method, the
more I become convinced that this is the method that’s going to fit my family best.
This is what I want to do.
Currently, I’m doing ‘this.’
How do I make the transition?”
Well, usually the people who ask me that question fall into one of two camps.
Some of them are ready to just dive in with both feet.
Others want to make the transition a little more gradually.
Think about a swimming pool and all the kids at the pool.
Some of them just run to the deep end and jump right in.
They’re ready for a change right away.
Others want to go down one step at a time and get used to the temperature of the pool,
get used to that change a little at a time and ease into it.
It’s the same for transitioning to the Charlotte Mason method.
Some of you are ready to just dive in.
That’s great.
We’ve got some help for you.
Go to our website at simplycharlottemason.com and look at our curriculum there.
We’ll give you our favorite book lists and, if you want daily lesson plans to help you
work through those resources, those are available there too.
But others of you want to ease into it.
You want to break it down into smaller segments.
So what I want to do over the next few episodes is to break down that transition into five,
I’m going to call them “stages” rather than “steps."
To me a stage is a broader area.
You’ve got more room, more wiggle room if you will.
You can take several steps on that stage, but you can linger on that stage until you
are comfortable and ready to move on.
And that’s what I want you to do with this transition.
So today, let’s talk about the first stage in making the transition to the Charlotte
Mason method.
We’re going to call this one “The Basics”.
Let’s talk about just two foundational methods, two techniques that I want you to start implementing
in your homeschool.
And those are living books and narration.
First let’s talk about living books.
What is a living book?
You might have heard that term, but you might not be as familiar with what it actually is
and how you can find one and identify one when you see one.
Well, a living book, in its simplest terms, is a book that makes the subject come alive.
It fires your imagination, it touches your emotions, it makes you feel like you are living
maybe beside the person who is being talked about or in the event that is being described.
That’s why we call it a living book.
Let me give you a couple of examples to help you see the difference.
Or hear the difference, in this case.
Both of these examples are talking about Albert Einstein.
Both of them are biographies.
They are both aimed toward a middle-elementary age.
So let me read them and I think you will easily hear the difference between a regular, we’ll
call it “textbook biography," and a living biography.
First, here’s the textbook version: “Einstein was a scientist during the early 1900s and
came up with some of the greatest discoveries and theories in science.
People referred to him as one of the most intelligent people of the 20th century.
His name and face are often presented as the description or picture of the consummate scientist.”
Those are the first few sentences from that textbook biography.
Now, let me read you the first few sentences from a living book, a biography about Einstein:
“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride upon a beam of light?
In the first years of the twentieth century, there lived a young man who wondered about that.
In fact, he wondered about a lot of things, and what became of his wondering you shall see.
"In 1905 Albert Einstein spent his days in an office in the Swiss city of Bern, working
as a patent clerk.
He helped inventors fill out the paperwork so they would own their creations and no one
else could claim them.
He typed out the forms and filed them in their proper places, chatted with his friend in
the office next door, and ate his simple lunch every day at his desk.
When evening softened the sky, he walked home and greeted his wife and newborn son, and
then shared with them a dinner of beef and potatoes, or pea soup and cabbage.
"But all the while he was doing these normal, homely deeds, his mind was somewhere else.
He might be typing or chatting or eating, but he was thinking about light and time.”
You hear the difference, I’m sure you do.
In that second example you feel as if you are walking alongside Einstein.
You can see it in your mind’s eye, you can imagine it.
That is a living book.
So I want you to use living books during this stage.
Just in two subjects.
We’ll ease into it.
Use a living book for history and use a living book for Bible.
Now Bible is going to be an easy one because the Bible is the living book, so you can just
read those accounts, read those narrative portions.
The account of Adam and Eve, the account of Noah, the account of Jacob and Joseph, of
the life of Christ, of the early church, all of those wonderful accounts you can read to
your children.
Those are living books, living narratives, living stories.
But then, I also want you to use living books for your history.
Now, you might need to go through this in stages, in steps, and that’s fine.
Maybe you are not yet ready to let go of a textbook all completely, all together.
That’s all right.
What you can do first is look at what history time period are we covering in the textbook
and then bring in living books on the side that will elaborate on that same time period,
living books that will make that time period come alive to your children.
And, gradually, I think you will find that you become more and more comfortable with
those living books, because the facts are still there.
They are just clothed, they are presented, with all these living ideas that come with
the story.
So, history: Use living books.
Where can you find living books for history?
We will provide a link in the show notes that will take you to some of our favorite titles
for the different time periods.
So, you’re going to read these living books for history and Bible, but then as you read
them, I want you to remember the second technique that you will be implementing at this stage.
Rather than ask the kids questions and quiz them over what you have read, don’t do that,
I want you to use narration.
Narration is having the children retell what they just heard or read, in their own words.
It is not parroting what they just heard and putting it from the author’s words.
I want them to do a much higher thinking level than that.
True/false, multiple choice, those types of questions are at one thinking level.
Narration takes it to a higher level, because you are requiring your child to listen attentively,
you’re only going to read this once, listen attentively, take it all in, remember it,
mix it with ideas that they already have of other books that they have read, put it in
the correct sequence, form it into coherent sentences, and then give it back to you.
It is oral composition, is what Charlotte called it.
So, you’re going to ask them to do this.
We will give you links to several articles on our website that will help you with the
details of narration, but really that’s all there is to it.
You will read a short passage and then have the children tell it back to you in their
own words.
And I recommend that you start short.
Narration is something that is natural for kids to do when they’re excited about something.
You know, if your little one is all interested in a certain topic, he’ll talk your ear
off about it.
But what we’re asking the children to do is to intentionally use that method, that
natural thing that they do anyway, make them use that intentionally as a learning tool.
So, I want you to start short.
Don’t read a whole chapter at once, but just maybe start with a paragraph or two and
have your child narrate that.
Then look at the clock and see “Do I have time left to do another couple of paragraphs?”
You don’t want to go, I’m going to recommend no longer than twenty minutes to begin with,
reading and having the children narrate.
As they get more accustomed to this method, you will be able to nudge out and read longer
portions and have them narrate those longer portions.
But take your time with it.
So that’s your assignment for Stage 1.
Start using living books and narration for just the two subjects, history and Bible.
I think you can do that.
And remember to check the links for help with living books and narration.
Next will be Stage 2, but there’s no hurry to move on until you’re ready.
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