Childlight Conference

This past weekend I was able to attend a portion of the Childlight CM conference. When I got home I did what any good CM student would do and wrote my own narration of one of the workshops.

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The Digitization of Charlotte Mason

Spelling and Dictation

Bad spelling is usually a sign of not much reading, or sometimes, reading so fast that words are skimmed over instead of really seeing each word.

I will be honest and tell you I am very opinionated when it comes to teaching spelling. I suppose it stems from the long journey my children have taken me on and how I have sorted through those observations. For the most part I strongly agree with Charlotte Mason. Children need to see the words. My oldest daughter came from the public school environment which believed, at the time, in creative spelling. This is the method of allowing a child to continually misspell words with the thought that one day this will all click and good spelling will occur. Year after year we waited for the light to go on. I would protest with the teachers that I didn't understand why we were continuing to allow her to misspell words. At home I would frustrate her by trying to correct everything. We went from "don't worry she will get it" to "don't worry there's always spell check." After bringing her home and frustrating both of us I finally said, "Don't you see the words?" She looked at me exasperated and replied, "No."


This was a profound moment for me as the teacher. She was a veracious reader and I could not understand this confession. Charlotte warns of children not truly examining words and details the bad habit of seeing misspelled words. As my children were young or in remediation, we did take the time to study phonics and understand the true spelling rules of the English language. As that knowledge began to digest, we introduced dictation. In my daughter's case, we studied phonics and spelling rules for almost two years trying to undo the bad habits she had developed. The final stage was the process of dictation. Charlotte describes the process as a time of study for the child; carefully examining each word in the passage and preparing for the dictation. She also suggests allowing the child to choose the passage which develops ownership. For my daughter, it was Pride & Prejudice, her favorite book. She chose chapter 12 and for a year we carefully worked through the words taking note of her problem areas. Because we both had an understanding of phonics and of the spelling rules we were able to dissect each misspelled word.


I began to notice a change. She went from always asking how words were spelled to spelling them for me to see if they were correct to hardly asking at all.

Picture Study in a Jar

This product is a companion to Narration in a Jar. Included is a picture study cube with three levels of play, three levels of color-coded activity strips and a booklet to help guide through implementing picture study in your home.

The Art of Narrating

We must trust that his mind is capable of dealing with the nutrition it needs by itself.  Charlotte Mason Vol. 1 in Modern English

Today I was reading from Home Education by Charlotte Mason on narration and decided this was a great place to "think out loud." Charlotte speaks of how natural narration is to children. There is nothing that needs to be taught to the child. It is us, the parent, that must be taught to not only allow the child to narrate but also to enjoy the child's narration. It is simply not enough for us to add a smile or an occasional "uh-huh." We are to be engaged in their storytelling. She also speaks of the rich literary diet a child must feast upon. It is our duty to supply a well-balanced diet. (I could write a whole blog post on that but I will save it for another time.) It is the act of narration that creates ownership of the knowledge presented. I have seen this in my own life as I have journeyed down this "new" education. Narration also is as unique and individual as our children. It is not our job to interfere or correct but rather to allow the process to happen. We must trust that when feasting on a rich diet and then digesting it through narration the child will nourish itself.

Quick Tips for Narration:

• Read only an episode at a time
• Spend only a few moments reviewing what was previously read but jump right in to reading
• Do not correct the child while narrating
• Multiple children can take turns narrating 

Sunday School - with a CM twist

My husband and I teach a wonderful group of 2nd and 3rd graders Sunday School at our church. We have implementing much of Charlotte Mason's philosophy but still felt we had room to grow. Of course, knowing this God supplied us with some wonderful resources that were very helpful.

First I was able to have an afternoon by the pool with a friend who had recently returned from the Childlight conference. Eager to hear all she had learned we planned a swim day. During our discussion she shared a classroom format based on CM. I had a chance to hear a similar lecture on www.childlight.org from Nicole Hutchinson. It was so helpful to hear her teach and to "be the student." From that I set to work on our Sunday school class.

This week we were introducing the concept of regeneration and rebirth.

1. We started with a question. It can be simple but it is designed to intrique the children and peak their interest. For us we started our lesson with a butterfly that the children could color. We gave them time to talk with us about the process of going from caterpillar to butterfly. We will draw from this discussion at the end of our lesson.

2. We quickly reviewed what had been taught last week. We only kept them on topic. The children did most of the talking.

3. We then asked the children questions and had them look up the answers in the Bible. Each child was given a sheet with the questions written on it. After reading the Scripture and discussing what it meant we then instructed them to write their answers down.

4. We also introduced our memory verse. After finding the verse in their Bibles we asked one child to read. From this the children were given a final sheet which had part of the verse filled in. They were to complete the verse for copywork.

5. At the end of the lesson we had children tell us about the butterfly and how that might apply to our verse that we just learned. We then instructed them to write the word "regeneration" at the bottom of the butterfly paper.

All of these items will go into their Sunday School notebooks.

A Living Book Moment

A while back I read The Velveteen Rabbit to my son. I sat down and wrote it in my journal while it was still fresh in my mind. My hope is that hearing this encourage you.

This past Tuesday night I took the time to read The Velveteen Rabbit to Ben. This night was different because Ben did not fall asleep during the story. Normally, he would gather up his rabbit, crawl into bed with me and be fast asleep before the middle of the story.

I must take a moment and share a little about Ben or this story will lose its impact. He is the last of four children. I tease that our third child, Kaelyn, is our last but God had other plans for our family and our life would not be the same without Ben. Since birth he attached himself to two things…his thumb and a blue, silk stuffed rabbit. Ben is now five and has willingly given up his thumb but rabbit is his “true blue” friend. Rabbit goes everywhere with Ben and of course rabbit shows all the wear and tear of a boy’s love.

With this understanding, you can see why The Velveteen Rabbit would be such an incredible story to read to Ben. This particular night his attention was focused on the boy in the story. He realized right away that he (Ben) was the boy and rabbit was his rabbit. As the story took life in Ben’s imagination, he quickly showed signs of concern for the rabbit, all the while holding his rabbit just a little closer. The boy said he thought his rabbit was a real rabbit and Ben proclaimed that he, too loved his rabbit just as much. We continued reading…the boy grew sick and the rabbit stayed close. Tears welled up in my 5 year olds big, green eyes. “Mommy, why is the boy sick?” he questioned. I assured him we needed finish the story and all would be understood. The boy began to get better. That is when the nanny determined that the velveteen rabbit must be burned in order to keep the boy healthy.

Tearfully my son pleaded, “But he loves his rabbit.” I wrapped my arms tighter around Ben and rabbit and told him that everything would okay. “But Mommy, will the boy ever see his rabbit again?” Ben questioned. “Keep listening Ben. It will all be answered.” I continued to assure him. He hung on to every word longing to hear how the boy would be reunited with his rabbit.

As we finally finished the book, Ben paused and then his little heart burst open. He held his faithful blue friend in his arms, noticing for the first time how much he loved his rabbit. His rabbit is a bluish gray color now. His pink nose is faded and the whiskers are long gone. There is no fluff to his body anymore. And his fluffy white tail is nothing more than a dingy spot on the bottom of his limp body. Ben saw his love and friendship in that old, worn-out bunny. And then through his sobs he pleaded that his bunny should not have to go away and become real. He was heartbroken over the sad truth that these two friends would be changed forever. He was the boy in the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. He understood the bittersweet ending to this classic story.

For me, this is the very definition of a living book. We didn’t have story time Tuesday night, we lived story time instead.