Charlotte Mason Homeschool Cottage

I love the idea of nature study and bringing my kids outdoors and exploring science in a natural way. But how do you turn it into something where you know your kids have learned some of those scientific concepts you want to teach?

Sure, I like Charlotte Mason’s ideas of attention to detail and creating a picture in one’s mind of what you are looking at. I also like the idea of getting outside in the fresh air and experiencing science and nature first hand. But, I guess I’m a little to up tight to just leave it at that without turning it into some kind of lesson on a concept.

One way that Charlotte Mason and homeschoolers do this is by keeping a nature journal of what they are observing in nature. Through the use of observation and reading field guides, children can narrate onto journal notebook pages what they have observed in nature, what they read in the field guides, any other information about their nature walk, and maybe a drawing.

If you want to put this narration and drawing in a bound book, you can find these in book stores or school supply catalogs with lined or blank pieces of paper. Some may have fancy fabric covers; some may be plain white or with a simple outline sketch on the outside. We have used all of these variations and have enjoyed them all.

Now that is an effective way of teaching about what you see directly in nature. But, how do you teach areas within biology, physics, and chemistry from there? Well that’s where you build a bridge or connection between what the child experiences first hand in nature and has a personal connection with a concept of science that can be extended from the child’s first hand knowledge.

Let’s say you are studying weather where it is common to experience thunderstorms and lightning during that month. After you observe this weather, maybe making charts of what the weather has been or making predictions, and researching what causes thunderstorms and lightning, you want to extend your study into other areas of science. From thunderstorms, you  begin to read and do science experiments with sound waves and vibrations or examine the water cycle. Or, you look at acid rain and focus on some chemistry experiments looking at the effects of acid rain, which can extend into a study of acids and bases and ph.

Maybe you want to move from there and look at lightning and what causes that and do experiments with static electricity and electrical circuits and conductors and insulators. Or, after rain, sometimes you can see a rainbow. After looking at the causes of a rainbow, you look at the color spectrum and perform experiments with white light and prisms and color absorption.

As you can see one study in weather, can lead you into more detailed studies encompassing areas of physical sciences and chemistry. Any studies with different classes of animals and plants can build into anatomy and physiology, and botany studies.

So, don’t be afraid to let go of that textbook, at least for a little while. After exploring where your nature studies lead you, you may find you are enjoying and learning so much more science than you imagined that you will forget to return to your textbook.

If you are interested in more ways to teach science this way, check out Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year.

I had promised for a few months now, that anyone who subscribed to our newsletter would have a chance in a drawing for a copy of our new nature study ebook, Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year.

So, we notified our winner last night and received an answer back from her this morning! Congratulations, Joanna! We hope you enjoy the book and your nature study adventures with your kids!

If you haven’t checked out the book yet, please take a look here: Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year.

To check out a slide show describing this ebook, click on this link: Ebook Slide Show

We hope you enjoy!

It’s finished! I apologize for the delay – but family comes first The ebook I’ve been working on for months – Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year – is now finished!

A number of months ago, I had a poll on my website which some homeschoolers graciously filled out and requested more information in various areas of using Charlotte Mason methods in their home schools. The number one top request was more information on using nature study and nature journaling.

This ebook is a year long study of nature divided into seasons and months and the natural events that occur during those seasons. Through a natural introduction into science through nature, this study introduces children into different areas of biology, physics, and chemistry.

For an overview of what you will find in Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year, I invite you to view a slideshow I created to help explain my ebook:

 Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year ebook slideshow

Would you like to give nature study a try but don’t know how you will find the time or fit it into your schedule and still feel like you are covering everything you really feel the need to cover for science?

I’ve been there. That is why I have written a book that takes the time for nature study but still covers different areas of biology, chemistry, and physics as an extended study of what you observe in nature. These topics can be covered generally or more in depth. It all depends on you, your child, and the time and interest you have for each topic.

This 215 page study includes the following sections that you can print off a few at a time depending on the topic of your study and the time of year:

• Each Season has 3 months
• Each Month has poetry and quotes that have to do with that month or topics within that month
• There are different topics and a different number of topics depending on the natural events during that season or month.

  For example, under Winter, you will find December, January, and February. Within January, you will find the topics of Trees in Winter, Astronomy, Owls,and Nocturnal Animals.
  
  Within each topic you will find:
  

• Pertinent poetry and quotes
• Suggested Living Book list
• Nature Walk and Post-walk Activities
• Questions with which to engage your children in conversation about the topic of study during the walk
• Scientific Connections that naturally draw your child into an extended study of biology, physics, or chemistry that is connected to your nature study topic
  
  For example, a topic study in July is Weather – Thunder, Lightning, Rain, and Rainbows. After observing this in nature and studying it, a Scientific Connection offers suggestions in which to extend that study into a study of Electricity, Sound Waves and Vibrations, Color, Light, or Acid Rain.

             Each Scientific Connection has

• Suggested Living Books list (if books are available on the topic)
• Suggested Activities and Experiments
  Some of these are described in the book, others are websites or books of experiments.
   
• The Next Major Section of the book is Nature Journaling
  Here you will find Recommended Nature Journal and Drawing book suggestions and websites. You will also find Suggested Sources for Nature Journaling pages and Sample Nature Journal pages within this book to get you started right away.
  
• The Last Section is the Poetry section.
  Here you will find Suggestions in which to integrate Poetry into your nature study through Writing and Studying Literary Devices commonly found in Poetry.

 So, you can see that you CAN do a weekly nature study and still tie it into a more formal study of the traditional scientific areas and have the best of both worlds.

You can purchase the Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year ebook here with Paypal

for an introductory price of $14.95.

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Please let us know how you like the ebook after your purchase. We are eager to hear your thoughts! If you know anyone else that may be interested please share our post. Thanks! 

I tried lapbooking with my two non-cutting, non-coloring boys (who don’t mind making things from scratch or writing notebooking and pages and adding their own artistic renderings of what they have written). It was not the success I had envisioned or hoped for. Something about the file folder and putting all of these little booklets on the file folder turned them off. I still don’t completely understand the emotional reaction they had to this, but we have found something that does work for us.

I’d like to share this idea with you. We use pieces of card stock, 3-hole punched and place these into our notebooks alongside our notebook pages. We do a couple of little booklets or whatever at a time and glue them onto the card stock as we study the topic throughout the semester. I think the variety of combining the written narration, their own drawings, and the booklets a few at a time breaks up what they might have felt either overwhelming or monotonous in putting together a big lapbook alone.

To give you some ideas of what we have done, I broke down ideas into subject areas and have included pictures, descriptions of what we have done, and links to resources you might find helpful:

• Science
  Botany Notebook – Using Jeannie Fullbright’s Exploring Creation with Botany
       My son used Jeannie’s free notebooking pages available here – Botany notebooking pages and whenever we went on a nature, Charlotte Mason style, we would look for a sample of the plant life he was studying in this book to take home. We dried it, glued it onto a piece of card stock, labeled it, slipped it into a plastic sheet protector, and placed it into the notebook with the rest of the pages.
  At the same time, I printed off little diagrams or booklets about parts of a flower, seed, or plant that he would label or fill out. After completing each one, he glued that onto a piece of card stock and placed it into the notebook in the appropriate section discussing that topic.
  Each piece of card stock would be labeled with the topic on that page, and would be close to full- so that it wasn’t just one or two small items on the page.
  Whenever, my son had a science experiment to perform, we had a science experiment procedure notebook page, that he would use to write out his hypothesis, materials, procedures, observations, data, results, and conclusion. This page would also go in the appropriate area of study.
  In the end, he had a nice botany notebook with a cover provided in the free notebooking pages filled with samples, notes, experiments, and little diagrams and booklets. All of these placed in topic areas, as opposed to notebook sections labeled “notes”, “labs”, “projects”. This was more fluid for him.
• Apologia General Science with my older son was a bit different.
  My older son likes a bit more structure and functions better when things are categorized. He labeled sections of his notebook “notes” (written narrations for him or handouts of notes), “labs”, “questions and answers” (lapbook parts from Live and Learn Press), “quizzes” (review study guides and tests provided by Apologia), and a pocket for index cards that he used to make flash cards for himself from the study guide questions.
  His notebook was organized according to function of the piece of paperwork. It was a combination of notebooking pages on which he wrote narrations of topics he read aside from the Apologia text and handouts where he read something and answered questions (this usually was a tie in to the historic period we were studying and how it related to his science), science experiment procedure notebooking pages (just like his brother) or printed from the Apologia text CD-Rom, and lapbook booklets glued onto pieces of card stock.
  The lapbook components we use are from Live and Learn Press – Live and Learn Press. They have booklets in which he can write the answers to questions from the Apologia text and write down definitions to vocabulary words as he proceeds through the text. My son glues these onto pieces of card stock as he works on them in order of the text.

• History
  For the past two years, we have studied ancient civilizations and the middle ages. We put together a notebook for each during each year. We used a variety of notebooking pages from different sources for our written narrations and map study. For a study of crests and family history, we had matchbooks and other little books to glue onto cardstock to explain heraldry.
  For the chain of causes for the black plague, we used the wheel from the Story of the World Activity book, glued onto cardstock also.
  This year, we will be studying the Renaissance; we’ll be using a lap book (glued onto card stock pages) for that as well from Live and Learn Press along with our notebooking pages.

Heraldry and our Ancestors

Learning about the Hagia Sophia.

Notebooking Links

Here are a variety of resources that you may find helpful in assisting you in your notebooking endeavors:

Notebooking Pages (Great pages to purchase – big sale right now)

http://www.homeschoolnotebooking.com/All_About_Notebooking.htm

 Cindy Rushton – Notebooking Queen

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Notebooking/

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/teacherslounge/notebooking.php

http://highland.hitcho.com.au/notebooking.htm

http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/productspage.html (Click on the Exploring Creation product and then the journal pages you want)

http://www.holdthatthought.com/ (Great notebook pages to purchase)

http://www.squidoo.com/notebookingexhibit (Great notebooking lens by Jimmie)

http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/notebooking.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NotebookingNook/

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/notebooking.htm

http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/notebook.htm

http://www.historyscribe.com/

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking-vs-notebooking

Notebooking training resources (ebooks, audio seminars in mp3 format)

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Notebook_Pages.php

Lapbooking

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lapbooking/

http://www.homeschoolingonashoestring.com/lapbooks.html

http://lapbooklessons.ning.com/

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks.htm

http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/stkitforla.html

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/teacherslounge/lapbooks.php

http://www.liveandlearnpress.com/

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/

http://lapbookladies.com/

Cindy Rushton lapbooking ebook and audio seminar

Using dictation goes hand in hand with the use of copywork in our house. We use copywork and dictation differently than posted on other Charlotte Mason websites and blogs. We study the same piece of copywork everyday for four days, focusing on different spelling and vocabulary words, literary devices, capitalization, punctuation, and various sentence structures. For more details about how we use copywork, please see the article entitled “Using Copywork.”

After studying a piece of copywork all week, at the end of the week, we use that piece as our dictation piece. As I read the selection phrase by phrase (only once), my children will write it down on a piece of notebooking paper. We then correct it together, as they read it aloud to me and mark whatever they find wrong, with some subtle hints from me. This allows me to determine how well they are grasping the grammatical and spelling skills we have reviewed during the week. Errors are reviewed and explained and those sentences will be used again.

My older child who is more language oriented can work with longer and more complex pieces, rarely making mistakes. While my younger one whose talent lies more in mathematics benefits from this use of copywork and dictation with its additional reinforcement.

The following links have various methods in which to use dictation and copywork and dictation sources:

http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=423&deptid=25&resourceid=345

http://www.donnayoung.org/forms/help/schetips.htm#Dictation

http://home-school.lovetoknow.com/Copywork_Using_Charlotte_Mason

http://home.att.net/~bandcparker/copywork.html

http://www.stmarysbaldock.fsnet.co.uk/hymns/

http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/hymns/

After you read these articles, you will see dictation can be used in a variety of ways that best suits you and your children. We also use different sources for copywork and dictation depending on what we are studying at the time. If we are not reading a book to go along with our history or science studies, we take the time to copy Bible passages, poems, classic literary works, or the boys pick passages from their favorite books. We look for interesting sentences that have new elements and written conventions and spelling words to learn. We then try those conventions in our own writing to make them our own after copying it and taking it down in dictation.

My boys have then made connections between this process when recognizing these writing techniques in pieces of literature and in their own writing. It’s wonderful when all the pieces come together for your children! I hope these methods will help your children make their own connections and enjoy reading and writing interesting sentences as much as we do.

If you have read my previous articles, you know that  I use some Charlotte Mason’s methods in a variety of ways. Some methods I follow exactly as Ms. Mason would have used them with her students; others, I have customized to suit my teaching style and my and my children’s needs.

Some Charlotte Mason followers advocate that copywork should be used only as handwriting practice and nothing more, while others state it can be used as copywork and a source of spelling practice. Ms. Mason wrote that copywork can be used as a careful “transcription” for handwriting practice using only the best handwriting, attention to detail, and short passages. She also states that the child should note a few spelling words to observe closely, close the eyes to see the word, and then write the word from memory. Allowing the child to pick his own favorite passages from assorted sources makes it a more meaningful exercise; and, when written in a personal journal, the child has a book of favorite selections as a keepsake.

I allow my children to select passages I’ve printed out and put into a folder, or select a book they are reading or have read, or choose a book that corresponds to the topics we are discussing from a few choices on our reading list. They can then choose a notebooking page they can copy on from another folder, where I have placed copies of notebooking pages with various theme borders or pictures.

When they have selected their passage, I point out to them any words I think might be challenging to spell, any capitalization and punctuation details, and a grammar concept, literary device, or special sentence structure used in the sentence. This piece of copywork will be used for the first four days of that week, so I will divide the items I want to discuss over those days of the week, and then use the copywork piece for dictation on the fifth day.  I look over the copywork and have my child read it to me aloud word by word so he will be editing his own work. He will usually catch his own mistakes and correct them this way. This forces my children to gain attention to detail and the corrections they make will remain in their memories so that next time they write the passage, that correction is still set in their minds.

I like to use examples of good writing and point out what makes the piece good writing, so that my child understands what he sees as he writes. That way later, when we are writing our narrations and we discuss what makes their writing good or better, we can refer to what he has learned in our discussions of copywork.

I know some homeschoolers using Charlotte Mason might be jumping up and down right now with their arms waving and saying “but you don’t have to point all of this out to the child, he will pick it up as he continues to copy down good literature.” And others maybe  saying, “I’ve never heard of copying the same piece everyday or using it for the dictation piece at the end of the week.” This procedure is what my family follows because it is what has worked best with my teaching style and my children’s learning styles. They continue making connections between what writing elements have been used in their copywork with other pieces of literature they are reading or later copywork that comes along. I guess I must feel the need for a little bit more structure to the copywork than letting my child pick this up more intrinsically.

Whatever way you use copywork, it is well worth the time spent for a number of reasons: developing handwriting skills, spelling skills, and copying good writing, which could be a precursor to emulating good writing as you use good literature as your model to follow when writing your own piece.

Find the best way copywork works for your family and have fun with it. Use a variety of pieces your children find interesting; write on fun notebooking pages and decorate them; and put together a neat looking notebook at the end of the year.

Here are some resources to use for copywork pieces:

http://www.amblesideonline.org/Copywork.shtml

http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/manucopywork/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AOCopywork/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianhscopywork/

http://www.notebookingpages.com/index.php?page=What-Is-Copywork

http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/printables/printablescopywork_bible.html

Have fun with your copywork and creating books of your own!

I love using  Charlotte Mason’s methods. I don’t profess to be an expert or even a “pure CM’er.” I am, though, a homeschool mom of two boys with very different learning styles, personalities, and talents. I have tried many different materials (my shelves and closets will back me up on this) and different teaching and learning methods. Now, after a number of years, I feel like we have found something that works for us. I enjoy using alot of Charlotte Mason’s ideas, techniques, and philosophies – but unless I make them my own and tweak them so they are my comfortable way of doing things or my boys’ way of learning, these methods would not work as effectively for us as they do.

So, with fair warning to all those looking for “pure Charlotte Mason”, I would like to share with you some ways that we use narration in our homeschool that may be a little different than what Charlotte Mason might have had in mind.

Last week, I wrote about oral and written narration. I also included links that suggested creative ways to use narration other than completing notebooking pages.

This week, I would like to introduce the use of timelines and end of semester (or quarter) exams and high school essays through narration.

We do not avoid all forms of tests; it just hasn’t been a goal. We learn for the enjoyment with another goal of mastery, not a letter grade on a test. We do have however, oral quizzes periodically on vocabulary words, Spanish and Latin words, and science ( for my older son using Apologia) ( he makes flash cards for himself – he and I orally quiz from those in preparation for written tests for this program.)

You are probably beginning to see we use oral narration as a major technique in our assessment and evaluation. There are times it does not apply, as in math beyond simple computation skills and math facts. But alot of the time, oral narration is such a great means to evaluate your child’s knowledge and thinking skills, while giving him the practice in organizing and expressing his thoughts in a logical and coherent manner.

Our big evaluations or assessments are usually in our history study. We include literature, history, science, math, art, and music in our history study, so our periodic assessments include alot of subjects.

Our assessment takes the form of an oral narration as we place timeline figures onto our chronological timeline. We have long rolls of butcher paper with a line drawn through the middle. The top portion focuses on the western hemisphere and the lower half focuses on the eastern hemisphere.

Around what would be quarterly, we place timeline figures for what we have studied that quarter. As we place them chronologically, we take turns orally narrating what we have learned about that person or event. When a person is done, another does his own narration and adds new information or puts the information in his own words. By the end of the year, we have had about four oral exams covering most of what we have read in almost all subject areas.

We add to this timeline every year. When we are done homeschooling, each child will have a timeline from the creation of the world to the present day. We also will have revisited each time period at least twice and added to it with more timeline figures and narrations. You can use this idea for our timeline, or you can do the same kind of review and oral narration with a Book of Centuries.

The other use of narration is for high school essay preparation. As my older son gets closer to high school, while he does his oral narration, I will ask him a question or two that requires him to use higher order thinking skills to develop his answer. The question pertains to what we have read aloud or what he has read alone, but he needs to interpret or analyze the reading to develop his answer. Sometimes the question addresses the reading and makes a comparison or contrasting statement, or asks for a cause and effect analysis of two events we have read about or two time periods we have studied.

This practice prepares my son to think about what he has read and then organize his thoughts, so he can coherently explain them. Then he can write them down after giving me his answer and we have discussed it from different angles.

This also gives us the opportunity to practice different kinds of essay formats, depending on his answer. For example, to write an answer that includes a comparison and a contrast of an event requires a different format than a paper where he describes a cause and effect.

To give you some ideas of questions to ask to get your older children orally narrating and writing more complex narrations, I’ve included some links where you can find some.

HippoCampus has different subject areas, some AP. If you click in the chapter sections and look at their discussion questions, you might get ideas for questions when reading about the same subject.

studentsfriend.com discusses use of thinking skills in the study of history and geography and looking at causal relationships among other types of questions.

constitution challenge - this site focuses on the constitution and is for grades 5-8, and poses questions in a game show format, but includes the idea of orally narrating your answers while using some higher order thinking skills.

Enjoy experimenting with the Charlotte Mason method and try out different ways to use her philosophies and ideas in your home school; you might be surprised by the results. I know I was! And, I like to think she would be pleased. My kids are and that’s what makes learning so enjoyable for us.

(If you haven’t signed up for our drawing for a chance to win a free ebook for your nature study, there’s still time – sign up for our newsletter, Katie’s Homeschool Cottage.)

This week’s focus is on narration, Charlotte Mason’s art of narration to be more specific. When I first heard of the word narration before I started using Charlotte Mason’s methods in my homeschooling, I would have an image in my head of a child standing by a desk at the teacher’s request, reciting answers to questions of a homework assignment while the teacher looked on with a stern manner.

Today, I picture my children and I lounging on our sofas in our livingroom reviewing what we last read, reading our next chapter in our “living book” selection, and then my children relating to me with their own personal versions of what we just finished reading. I much prefer this second picture. Narration has now become my favorite part of our school day, aside from just reading together.

There are two forms of narration we will focus on – oral and written. First we will discuss the oral form of narration.

From the time our children can start forming words (and then even when they just “babble”), they are born narrators. Children love telling stories and relating to you what they have seen or experienced. How many of you have read a book over and over again to your child at his request, and then later heard that same child retell that story to himself, a toy, or to another person later on. Or, if you miss a word or page, they immediately let you know what you left out. My older son loved the story of “The Little Train that Could.” After having heard it routinely, by 3, he was narrating it with all of the different train voices to his stuffed animals – even using the words “as he puffed off indignantly.” (Which is quite funny hearing it from a 3 year old in the voice you might hear coming from a proper crotchety old gentleman.)

Anyway, to get back to narration – it is the art of being able to retell what you have just read or heard. This is a wonderful art to give to your children. It helps them organize their thoughts, use words and sentence structure they heard in the read aloud, express themselves in words and expression, recall information and details, and gives them confidence in their speech. When we first began narration, I was surprised that my usually verbal older son found it more difficult to narrate a read aloud than my normally quiet younger son. But, it was a habit that had to be formed. And we did. Bit by bit, until it  became a natural and normal action for each of them.

If you are just beginning with narration, before you begin reading aloud, let your children know they need to pay close attention to what you are saying because they will be expected to remember and tell you what they heard when you are done.  Start with reading aloud a short chapter that’s not very complex in its content. When you are done, ask who would like to tell you what they remember hearing in the read aloud. Let your children, one by one, tell you what they remember. Do not concern yourself with the proper order of events or specific details; just get them used to speaking to you about the reading. If they find it difficult to get started, ask a specific question about something that happened and ask them to tell you what happened next. This should get the ball rolling and for the next couple of weeks, continue your narration in this way as they get more comfortable and can narrate more details to you.

As your children grow more comfortable with the art of narration, you can ask them to try to retell what they have just heard in the order of what they heard and then move on to more specific details – by asking a question to draw their attention to that detail. You will be surprised how quickly and naturally your children will follow this habit. We narrate our history or science readings at least three times per week, now that we do longer readings and narrations. At the beginning, they were shorter and four to five times per week. You can adjust this to your family’s needs and the ages of your children.

The second form of narration is the written form. I also love this in our homeschooling! This is where you can really have some fun and develop notebooks on what you are studying.

After your children have become comfortable with their oral narrations, they should be ready to try written narrations after some of their oral narrations. You don’t have to have a written narration after every reading and oral narration. We usually write down the most interesting topics to us or what I may feel are the major or most important ideas, events, or people in our study.

When your children are very young, younger than 8, 9, or 10, (Charlotte Mason and other Charlotte Mason homeschoolers begin written narration around 10.) you can do the written narration for your child. Do you remember from your school days, those big pieces of flimsy tan paper with big lines and dashes in the center, with a big empty space on top for a picture? And, you would practice writing your words and sentences with those fat pencils and then when you were done, you got to draw or paint a picture of your story? Well, with written narration for your youngest child, you can have him orally narrate his read aloud to you, while you write his words down for him. When he is done, he can draw a picture or pictures to go along with his story. You, then, read his story to him as point to each word you are reading. This will connect what you are saying to each word as you say it. Read this story to him routinely and then have him read it to you. It’s okay for him to memorize it and “practice read” it to you.

My younger son wanted to be like his older brother and “write his own book” too, so he started writing his sentences down after his oral narration also. For both my sons, this was another case of forming a habit. It was slow going for both of them. But, as they stared at the ominous blank piece of paper, I would ask them to repeat to me what they had narrated to me from our read aloud only moments ago. Then I would say, “See, you have the words you want to use; now just write down the sentence you just told me.” It took them awhile to get over the intimidation of that blank piece of paper even though they had just repeated to me their oral narrations. First, your children might only be able to write down one or two sentences the first few times they have to write down their narrations. But, just as we did, your children will grow accustomed to the idea that after narration to you, they will write down their narration on paper. You will soon see them writing five sentences, then whole pages and eventually ask for another piece of paper if it is a topic they are particularly excited about. Depending upon the topic we are reading or my sons’ interests, I may choose a notebooking page with a large space for a picture, because I know they will really want to spend time drawing their narration. Other times, if it is more dry and not as creative, I may give them a notebooking page with a simple picture already on the page or a small square where they draw a little picture of their own.

There are quite a few pages throughout the internet with blank notebooking pages, pages with specific formats or pictures depending on the topic you are studying, and pictures of completed notebooking pages you can look at to get ideas for your homeschool. You can keep these pages in some kind of notebook binder or slip the pages into sheet protectors and then put these into a notebook. Either way you have something of a keepsake and study guide of your year together. Your child has something he can look back at and be proud of, and you have something you can use in a portfolio assessment at the end of the school year if you are required to do that in your state.

For middle and high schoolers and narration, their oral and written narration can go beyond just retelling and summarizing what they have read. This is where their writing can really come naturally from their oral narration and their writing gets interesting. You can have them write different forms of essays in response to their reading, just as they would need to on any exam they take for college admission or in college. Great preparation! They can write descriptive narrations of what they have read, personal narrations – even taking on the role of a character in history, science or a literary piece they have just read. What about a compare/contrast paper between two books or other literary selections they have completed? Or a process paper after reading a book or two on a topic of interest to them. ( My son is constantly reading books and magazines about fishing – his summer is going to be spent putting a book together with everything he has learned as a 4-H project.) What about a definition paper? Start out by defining a word as it means to him or the dictionary and explore in detail what that word or concept really means through detail and examples if you have read a book about democracy for example, or courage, or faith. Are you getting the idea. I find, though, the key for my guys, including my oldest, is to let them tell me about it first. Let them organize their thoughts out loud and bounce ideas off you – even if you don’t speak and they can hear their ideas out loud. Their ideas flow much better in this informal situation before sitting down in front of that ominous blank piece of paper.

You will soon notice, as I do, that your children will be unconsciously narrating to themselves as they read to themselves or after you have read something to them. My guys will have conversations between themselves, without me or my prompting, about what we have been reading. Or, like my younger son did today, while he was reading his science book (Exploring Creation with Astronomy) to himself, he was actually narrating what he was reading back to himself – but in a song he made up- while he was reading it. These are moments that will definitely make you smile and you know that you are doing something right!

Here are some sites with more information about narration:

Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series

Narration Ideas beyond Retelling and Summary

Narration Ideas including Narration in Lapbooking

Here are some sites with assorted notebooking pages:

Notebookingpages.com

Homeschoolhelperonline

Hold that thought notebooking pages

notebooking nook

jeannie fullbright – exploring creation science series

Cindy Rushton – the notebooking queen

Hope you find these ideas helpful and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask or share any great tips you might have in our comments section! Thanks! Please share our post with anyone you might think may be interested in narration or notebooking.

(And remember to sign up for Katie’s Homeschool Cottage newsletter for our drawing for a copy of our new ebook coming soon called Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry!)

We are beginning a new series so that each week there will be a different topic in using the Charlotte Mason method. Based on the Charlotte Mason series, we will explore the various materials, topic areas, and methods used by Charlotte Mason with her students and a practical application in homeschooling using those methods. We will share resource ideas, homeschool uses, and websites that illustrate examples of using Ms. Mason’s methods.

I hope this new series will be helpful to everyone who visits our site. The first topic area of our series will explore “Living Books.”

Living Books – the first topic in our weekly series in using Charlotte Mason methods

My family and I use the Charlotte Mason method in our own way and what best serves us. I use recommendations from various Charlotte Mason books and websites, including Ambleside Online. However, we don’t strictly follow the scope and sequence recommended by Ambleside, but we do use some of the living books and methods advocated. I believe parents need to modify educational methods that work best for the members of their family.  This applies to selecting the books you will use in your homeschool as well.

Some homeschoolers believe books that might be more modern light reading  to be twaddle and should be discouraged. Other parents with reluctant readers might use these books to interest these readers into reading books recreationally on their own. You do, however, want to read aloud and encourage your children to read quality literature in its theme, content, and writing. Barring learning disabilities, children’s vocabulary and reading and writing abilities develop with exposure to more sophisticated literature rich in imagery and descriptive language. Their taste for good stories is encouraged with a steady diet of well developed plots and characters, including non-fiction events and famous people. If we read a title that was recommended by Charlotte Mason websites or programs that we found uninteresting, even though others had raved about it, we simply stopped reading it after giving it a good try. Some titles are going to appeal to some and not to others. If I were to force my children to listen to the book and myself to read it, we would not be using our time wisely and would be killing our joy in learning. As I tell my children repeatedly, life and use of your time is a matter of choices, and you want to choose the “best”, not just “good.”

Charlotte Mason discouraged twaddle in her students’ reading. She encouraged “living books.” These books are whole books with entire stories or are written on one topic, not written like a textbook covering a wide variety of topics with summaries of facts. Living books can be used in all subject areas including math. For a more detailed explanation of using living books in math or with the topic of Pi, read our articles about using Charlotte Mason methods in math.

For history, science (including nature study), literature, and even geography there are a number of books out there written on one topic or time period written by people with a knowledge and passion for that topic. This passion and attention to detail is what makes the children enjoy reading these books, interested in the topic, and remember what they read.

History and historical figures come to life through detailed stories of events and lives of people in different time eras.  More in the fashion of a classical education, we study our history in a chronological fashion starting with ancient and biblical times. We also study the time period horizontally across the hemispheres and different continents. We read a couple of books as our spine that cover the time period, while reading other books that are about specific topics pertaining to that time period. For example, while studying ancient Egypt and using Story of the World and A Child’s History of the World as spines, we also read books about pyramids, King Tut, and scientific discoveries. We also read fictional books that centered around characters and their daily lives during the ancient Egyptian times to get a feel for the time period and what common daily life was like. We had a framework with details to fill in that framework. Some places to look for history titles that might interest you would be homeschoolchristian.com, Yesterday’s Classics, the Baldwin Children’s Online Project. Also you will want to study primary sources that tie into your history study.

For science, you might want to read living books that include biographies of scientists or books about specific topics. We tie our science study in with what area of science was being developed or the scientists that lived during the specific time period we are studying. For example, if you are studying the renaissance, you can read about Galileo or Leonardo da Vinci. For your nature study, there are numerous sources from which to choose as well. Some places to look for titles are Noeo Science, homeschoolChristian.com, Nature Study, Nature Stories. We also use the Apologia series for the elementary and the middle/high school levels. We read books aloud that go along with our studies in these books.

When studying geography, we read general geography books and others that go along with our studies of a specific time period or geographical area in history. We’ve read Holling C. Holling books and mapped the area as we read. Charlotte Mason also wrote her own geography books – Geographical readers. Two other geographic living books are A Child’s Geography series.

Good literature to read has a good plot, detailed and vivid character descriptions, and various literary elements with extensive vocabulary. A good example of clever use of words is found in The Phantom Tollbooth with all of its puns, idioms, and plays on words. For adventure and satirical comedy, we have read Tales of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle and The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain while we studied the middle ages. My sons laughed out loud with the comedic situations in these stories. My son has also enjoyed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn with Mark Twain’s style of tongue in cheek sense of humor. He was very tickled reading about their big plans they would make in their club that actually turned out to be nothing in reality, but in their imaginations they had great adventures they would retell to one another. These books tie in the historical period of the time, but are also thoroughly enjoyable, and develop your child’s creativity, vocabulary, and use of words. Some places to look for lists of good books are Charlotte Mason education book list recommendations, homeschoolchristian.com reading lists, Baldwin Online Children’s Project.

Remember to look in our Unit Study Resource Store for other titles of living books as well. You know your children, what interests them, what their individual abilities are, and what you are studying. You make the decisions about what you feel is good literature for your children. These are suggested titles that have worked for us. Don’t feel you have to start or finish a book just because you see that it has been recommended by other Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. Use what you feel will work best for your family and enjoy your time reading aloud with one another. My children and I take turns reading and creating the voices of the characters in the stories and how we think they would sound based on their personalities in the story or the time period they are in!

Hope you can use these ideas and have found this information helpful! Check back here for another Charlotte Mason topic next week – Narration for all age levels.

It’s science fair time! Some science projects can take awhile to prepare and study so that they will be ready for the science fair. In preparation for science fair season, I am sharing an article by Felice Gerwitz with tips on getting ready and preparing your science fair projects so you and your children will have a fun, educational, and successful good time!

Science Fairs Tips to Get You Started!
by Felice Gerwitz

Creation Science classes and more with Cindy Rushton

 
Exciting, fun, and educational may not be the words you would use to describe your past experiences with science fairs! Yet, it can be a wonderful experience for your children.
Understanding a few simple organizational techniques as well as getting a handle on the rules can go a long way to making the event satisfying for all involved.

Science fair projects, when done correctly, can stimulate interest in science topics, mathematics and engineering. They provide students with educational opportunities to experience scientific research. It affords the student with an opportunity for public recognition once the project is brought to completion. And, perhaps most importantly, it allows the student to share the information they have learned with other students, teachers, and members of the community.

Where do you begin? The first place is by understanding the rules. If your students are lower elementary aged, K-5 the competitions stop there. You may have a class or school wide competition. For grades 6 and older, it is a different story. These grades are eligible for class, school-wide, and regional competitions. There are state and international competitions for older students as well.

The lower elementary grades need not be concerned with the international rules, but for the upper grades this understanding is imperative. If you learn nothing else from this newsletter know that you should have a copy of the international rules and you can download one for free at www.sciserv.org. This official website of the International Science and Engineering Fair consists of useful information to get even the most reluctant student (or teacher) started and well armed with up-to-date information.

Here is a synopsis of helpful hints to make your science fair experience is a happy one!

1. Begin planning early.
a. Attend informational workshops for teachers (held by the local school board or other organizations in your area.)
b. Notify students and parents as soon as you have a science fair date
c. Explain the science fair process to participants. If you plan on having students enter a regional competition make sure you understand the rules associated with paper work and the signatures required, prior to beginning the project.
d. Research! Give students an outline of acceptable project topics
e. Encourage time to brainstorm for ideas and plan library or internet time for research

2. Explain judging and evaluation criteria to students.
a. Prepare a flow chart for students and parents. Have student/parent meetings. (A flow chart is contained in my book on Science Fairs.)
b. If your students are upper level (grades 6 and older) make sure the project topics are approved and all the necessary paper work is prepared correctly.
c. Older students submit research plan
d. Authorized scientists sign all the paper work
e. Teacher checks the paper work to make sure it is correct.

3. Students begin researching, experimenting, recording their observations, writing a project report, etc.
a. Care is taken to record all research and information pertaining to the project. This will come in handy when it is time to write the report.
b. The experiment is executed.
c. The information is recorded and analyzed. The results are compared to the hypothesis and the original question. Did you answer the question? If not, should you do additional research? Can you explain why your project didn’t work out the way you planned?
d. Use your evidence to write your report. Your report format should be professional yet conversational and follow the scientific method. Write the abstract. This is a 250 word synopsis of your project.
e. Students complete their projects and prepare their display boards.
f. Prepare a brief presentation highlighting major points of the project.
g. Practice this presentation.
h. You are finished!

Of course younger students will concentrate on the basic ideas of a science project and complete their display boards with the help of parents or another adult. Even on a primary level science fair projects can be done correctly and with little fanfare. Understanding the idea behind a science project, asking a question and searching for an answer is grasped by most children.

Scientific Method

The scientific method can be broken out in the following way:

1. Purpose:
The question to be answered

2. Research
The question is researched to be better understood so a statement and plan can be made in relation to this purpose.

3. Hypothesis
An educated “guess” based on research, investigation, discussion, or an observation.

4. Procedure
A plan to carry out the project which consists of research, asking questions of others more knowledgeable, gathering information from observations, experimentation (which will include trial and error), and using every source available. An understanding of the variables that may occur during experimentation is necessary and should be explained to the student. The experiment should be preformed several times to work out any bugs or fine tune the process.

5. Observation:
A gathering of data from experimentation and research which involves may skills such as mathematics, filling out charts and graphs, writing and recording, etc. Recording the observations such as in note taking, drawing or photographing the results may prove useful. Careful thought should be given to areas where error might have occurred.

6. Conclusion
When all of the data is collected and studied the hypothesis is analyzed to see whether it has been proven true or false. The student may find the hypothesis is false which does not mean the experiment is a failure, especially if the student can explain what the experiment found and why.

Finally for the older students, grades six and above, an understanding of writing an abstract is imperative. This single piece of information when done properly with a well thought out and executed experiment can be the winning edge. An abstract is a brief, clear, concise, 250-word (maximum) summary of your project’s purpose, procedure and data, and a short synopsis of your conclusions. Once again, this important aspect of an upper level project can make or break the competition.

A winning science fair project is not necessarily one with the most ribbons attached. Winning projects are those that are done correctly and have satisfying conclusions. They give the student a sense of contentment for a job well done, and it is the parent’s responsibility to make each child, who has completed a project, feel that all projects are worthy of praise!

About Felice Gerwitz…

Felice Gerwitz has lectured extensively on the topic of science fairs. She is an award winning author and her book “An Insider’s Guide to Successful Science Fair Projects” was chosen book of the month by God’s World Publishing. Let Felice help you teach Creation Science here:

Creation Science classes and more with Cindy Rushton