Narration Cubes

from Our Story in Progress

Last night I read to my 6 year old from Winnie the Pooh. He chose the story "Eyeore loses his Tail." After we finished we got my narration cubes out. First he rolled characters so I had him name all the characters in the story we read. Then he rolled connections. I asked him what were some things he was reminded of while we were reading. Since Owl had taken Eyeore's tail and used it as a bell pull, mistakenly of course, Ben and I were reminded of the bell pull from The Wizard of Oz. Then he rolled on N which meant we could be creative. So I had him take his stuffed animals and create his own version of the story. He called it "Rabbit loses his Tail."

We had such a fun night! I love nights like that!

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.