Let The Writing Lesson Be Short (Copywork: Part Four)

"I can only offer a few hints on the teaching of writing, though much might be said. First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson––a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later. In the meantime, the thing to be avoided is the habit of careless work––humpy 'm's, angular o's." Home Education pg. 234

For the first handwriting lessons, Miss Mason recommends only five to ten minutes. Have you ever timed your handwriting lessons? I hadn't until I first began reading about CM and her use of short lessons. I had my daughters (at age 4) writing for 20 minutes to finish their A Reason For Handwriting lessons! No wonder we were on edge by the end! By using short lessons (truly only 10 minutes or less, even 2 years later now) the children stay fresh and their concentrated efforts to form their "very best" letters do not give way to sloppy, half-hearted work. At the beginning, the important thing is to do it slowly and carefully - the very best the children can write for just a few minutes.

Charlotte Mason Distinctives: What Really Reeled Me In

What are the distinctives of a Charlotte Mason education? What makes the CM method so unique and why are so many homeschoolers choosing this route for their children?

When I first began reading about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy, I was already implementing some of her methods unknowingly. For instance, I knew I had a strong preference for using living books instead of textbooks in the areas of history, science, and literature. I had never heard the term "living book", but I knew that there were some wonderfully well written books available for children, and textbooks seemed unnecessarily dull and dry to me. I was interested when I heard there was a whole approach to homeschooling that used nothing but books likes these.

I took my first steps toward CM, and barely even knew it ;)

So, what exactly is a living book? In Miss Mason's third volume, School Education, she illustrates how a child's enjoyment of a book may be one measure of whether or not the book is living: "The children must enjoy the book. The ideas it holds must each make that sudden, delightful impact upon their minds, must cause that intellectual stir, which mark the inception of an idea" (p. 178). Here, I think, we find what we are trying to get at with living books. Impact. Ideas. Intellectual stir. There is no yawning and glum turning of page after page. These books are interesting. The thoughts that they stir up both feed and exercise the young minds of their readers. They must also be challenging, well-written, and able to be narrated. This is what is meant by a "living book".

Before I began reading Charlotte Mason, I was already beginning to see the benefit of short lessons in our home. My older two girls were learning to read early and well by means of just ten minutes a day. They were, similarly, learning to write their letters in just as little time. When I read that Charlotte Mason advocated short lessons for all of the school subjects, I was immediately intrigued. After reading more, her method made so much sense to me! With short lessons, children remain fresh, attentive, and engaged. Time is not wasted on dawdling, wandering thoughts, and discipline issues that arise from fatigue. Lessons are crisp, focused, and - short. The result is plenty of free time for playing outdoors and pursuing other interests, as well as a positive attitude about school work in general. Who wouldn't want that?

Around the same time that I was looking more carefully at CM, I was also reading Teaching the Trivium, which actually references Charlotte Mason here and there. I was initially confused when I read Laurie Bluedorn refer to Charlotte Mason as the Habitual Method. Why would she call it that? I had just started reading Home Education for the first time, and it did not take me long to find out why the CM method could easily be just what Bluedorn suggested. Charlotte Mason focuses a great deal on the importance of training our children in positive habits. In the same vein, she writes about preventing the formation of negative habits. We are all creatures of habit, she writes, everyday tracing the paths of habit more and more deeply into our minds. Habits are critical in the proper raising of children and they are foundational to a proper education. Miss Mason's advise regarding habits has been every bit as valuable to me as the best child training books on the market today. I have been continually challenged and encouraged by her writings on this topic. Habits are the backbone of the CM method in our home. As I read more of Volume One, I was beginning to really get hooked.

Then, with my interest peaked by living books, habit training, and short lessons, I read Miss Mason's thoughts on the out of doors life for my children. I know it sounds dramatic, but every page I read left me so joyful, so thankful that I had found this woman so early on in our home education! Miss Mason writes in Volume One, "The chief function of the child- his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life- is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses; that he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge got in this way; and that, therefore, the endeavor of his parents should be to put him in the way of making acquaintance freely with Nature and natural objects" (p. 96). I cannot tell you how much these words resonated with me. In my heart of hearts I knew that true education in the early years could not be divorced from the natural world, and here was Charlotte Mason encouraging me to let long hours in nature be a purposeful component in the education of my children! "Never," she writes, "be indoors when you can rightly be without."

Hooray!

Now, before you think that I was ready to just read a living book for fifteen minutes a day and then go run around in the woods all afternoon, let me assure you - there is a final distinctive that really drew me to a Charlotte Mason education. Charlotte Mason's method is academically rigorous. If anyone doubts that statement, one look at the average PNEU curriculum puts all concern to rest. Second graders read Pilgrim's Progress, fourth graders read Shakespeare and Tennyson, and sixth grade children are delving into Don Quixote! Unabridged! There is poetry, nature study, classical music and composer study, challenging history accounts, and more. This is no slacker curriculum. In fact, for some mothers, it can be rather intimidating. I am so thankful for the wonderful women who have collaborated and put together the free CM curriculum resources at Ambleside Online. They have taken so much of the potential stress and confusion out of applying Charlotte Mason's methods in the 21st century. What a tremendous blessing!

There are, of course, many other wonderful aspects of Charlotte Mason's approach. I have left out narration, copywork, dictation, drawing, handicrafts, and foreign languages. This entry is long already, though, and I couldn't possibly touch on all of them. If you have more interest in learning about these and other distinctives of the CM method, please click on the buttons in the sidebars of my homepage. I hope to be continually adding to my store of posts on these subjects.

I hope you have been blessed by something you have read here :)

How Many Pages In One Lesson?

Happy New Year, everyone! I wrote this before break. I'll be back to blogging in real time this weekend! We start our second term on Monday :)


We have now finished up our first term, and I've been reading and re-reading some of Miss Mason's writings to evaluate my methods. One area that I have been way off on, has been how many pages we have been reading in one sitting. I know, I know, if I had just followed the Ambleside Online booklist and schedule, I wouldn't have made this mistake. But, I didn't. I have some inexplicable desire to get my hands dirty when it comes to choosing curriculum. It's the same way in cooking; I can never follow a recipe exactly as it's written. I add a little here and take out a little there to make it taste just the way I want. I'm sure I could write an entire post analyzing this personality quirk, but I'll pass by the temptation to do so tonight.

So, I've been reading too much in one sitting. I realized this as I was preparing my exam questions for the end of the term. In the appendix to Volume 3, Miss Mason writes that the children in the lowest grade (Form 1a.) have "thirteen subjects of study, for which about sixteen books are used". She specifies that roughly 40 to 50 pages from each of these books are covered in a term. When you divide 40 or 50 pages up over the course of the term's 12 weeks, that leaves only 3 to 4 pages a week! That is far, far less than what we have been reading for most subjects. My worst offense has been in our missionary biographies. I had intended to study two missionaries this year, switching to the second in the middle of the year. The trouble is that each of the two biographies I had chosen was over 200 pages long! Even reading only one of those books all school year would still be more pages than Miss Mason recommends. Woops. I guess this is why we keep reading... so we can keep learning, right?

I'll be honest, only 40 to 50 pages seems like next to nothing to me. My husband thinks it sounds like hogwash to only read three pages a week in a book, but we are both willing to try it out. We've been continually impressed with Charlotte Mason's methods so far. What reason do we have to doubt her on this point? Our only objection is based on how very different such a schedule is from our own school experiences. That's not really much of a sound argument ;)

This little epiphany, of course, completely derails my plans for the second and third terms. I need to reconsider how quickly we are going through our books. I have to laugh as I write that, because it has taken us the entire first term to get through two thirds of our David Livingstone book! But, apparently, that's too fast. We still have 84 pages left to read. Originally, we were going to finish this book around Week 6 of the second term, but now (with my husband's agreement) we are going to try to finish the book on a truly CM pace. That means we will take the rest of Year One to finish those 84 pages. Doesn't that sound crazy? Two whole terms to read just 84 pages? I'll be doing the same thing with several of our other books.

It is interesting to note that, when you realize how few books you will have in one school year, you begin to feel very choosey about which books you'll use. We're not terribly excited about using the Christian Heroes: Then and Now series for missionary tales if we're only going to read one book a year. It's a decent book, but we might be compelled to find something better if we're going to spend 36 weeks on it, ya know ;) I'm not sure where we're going with the missionary biographies. We had chosen them to replace Trial and Triumph, but the switch to (truly) short readings has us rethinking more than a few things about our booklist and schedule.

I admit, I'm just trusting Charlotte on this one.

Isn't Charlotte Mason Attractive?

Well, I have finished the reading I wanted to get through before the New Year. With Christmas coming up fast, I won't likely be blogging much this weekend. I just wanted to take a moment to "recap" my experience this fall with Charlotte Mason and her teaching method. Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I already feel extremely blessed by the wisdom that the Lord shared with Charlotte over a hundred years ago. I have no doubt that she was a sister in Christ, and one uncommonly blessed with insight into children and their upbringing.

The most attractive thing to me about a Charlotte Mason education is that it seeks to teach the whole child. Wise parenting coupled with many different educational approaches could produce the same result, but how wonderful to have such a kind, thoughtful guide to help the young mother through such a potentially overwhelming task as that of educating her own children at home. Charlotte Mason was a homeschooler at heart, encouraging parents with the firmly held belief that a loving, nurturing home and family provide the best learning environment for a child.

I am also deeply encouraged by the purpose behind her method. Education is not pursued for education's sake. Charlotte Mason believed that a proper education must be sought out for the children's sake. And to what end? That they be well-educated and live successful lives on the earth? Certainly, those are benefits. But, Charlotte again and again reminds us that children must be well-educated and well 'brought up' for the good of others - that they may be useful in the kingdom, a blessing to others, and glorifying to the Lord Jesus Christ. Character is highlighted. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is paramount. Education strives toward these ends. Not that they speak 5 languages or even that they score such and such on their SAT, but that others maybe be blessed and that the Lord may be glorified. What a vision for noble, God-honoring parenting!

Now that I have passed over into the Charlotte Mason recruitment ranks, let me stop there, LOL :) The following are some highlights of what I find to be The Best of Charlotte Mason in the practical, teaching sense (as much for my own notes as for the benefit of anyone reading):

Time Out-of-Doors:

I think this is a critical component for a healthy childhood - especially for the pre-school and early elementary grades. With this priority, the "whole child" is considered, not just the child's academics. Children must run, skip, holler, imagine, observe, feel, see, and smell outside. Here is the time for a child to "consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air"...

Short Lessons:

This one is a bit more controversial, and there are many convincing arguments for and against short lessons. Simply put, it makes good sense to me. The idea is NOT to make school overly easy for the children, nor is it stemming from the belief that children cannot be expected to sit still for long periods or attend for more than a few minutes. Basically, the idea of short lessons is to ensure that the child gives the whole of his attention, energy, and effort to the task at hand. Everything is to be done to the very best of his ability. Sloppy carelessness is not tolerated. Half-hearted work is not acceptable. He must give his best. Here's a good illustration to explain the idea: Charlotte asserted that a child who writes only six or so "h"s in his very best writing with careful attention is better off than the child who writes 30 letters, becoming tired and sloppy by the last line - allowing him to write part of his lesson without neatness, without the desired outcome. What good is a row of sloppy "h"s from a tired, distracted child? At this point he is learning little more than how to slack off and make sloppy letters. Better to never let his hand make the sloppy letters at all, and to keep his energy fresh. There is also bound to be less conflict between the mother and her children as the children are kept positive and interested in short lessons. As the child matures, his lessons gradually increase in length. Never so long, though, in the early years that plenty of time outdoors would be prevented.

Living Books:

I don't think I've mentioned the idea of living books, yet. Sometimes they are also referred to as "whole books". This is a central idea in CM's method. Basically, dry textbooks are to be avoided. They are written by scholarly committees usually far removed from actual children as well as from a true love for their subject matter. Whole books are written (usually) by one author, an author who has a passion for his topic. They are filled with information, yet personal and engaging. I've been looking over some "real books" for first grade science. Here's the dedication written inside one of the books I plan to use on Birds:

"To the children and the birds of America - that the bonds of love

and friendship between them may be strengthened..."

Isn't that beautiful? This author wants children to have more than just a memorized list of birds in this family and that family, more even than the ability to name a bird on a flashcard. He wants the children to learn to love the birds, to become friends with them. This book is a living book. Textbooks are not going to give the same response. Whether we do an official Charlotte Mason education or not, real books are a must for our family.

Narration:

This is a bit harder to explain. For brevity's sake, I'll just say that narration is a child's verbal response to something that has been read in a book, either alone or as a read-aloud with the rest of the family. It is "telling" a short book report, or verbally answering a leading question about a passage. Sometimes it can be accompanied by an illustration. Sometimes Mama writes down the child's narration for him; he may or may not copy it afterward. Narration begins in first grade, and completely takes the place of written tests or reports until the second half of elementary school. The idea is that asking a young child to write down an original composition concerning a book or passage requires him to not only organize his thoughts, but pay attention to his still fledgling spelling, handwriting, grammar, and punctuation. He is not able to fully give his mind to any of it. By verbally "telling", the child is allowed to focus in on the content of his words and the content of the passage. He is composing verbally, without the distractions of mechanics he has not yet mastered. Mama knows if he "got it" when she read to him or when he read in the living room for ten minutes, because he is able to verbally tell her all about it - often with a great deal of detail and enthusiasm.

The Humanities:

This is purely my preference. I love how much Charlotte Mason focuses on literature, poetry, music, and art. Certainly, the more mainstream subjects are not ignored. CM students follow a rigorous science, history, and mathematics "curriculum" in their school years. How often, though, is a school-aged child exposed to the beauty and great thought in the humanities? The best art, music, poetry can only add beauty to a child's life - a real sense of God's gifts in all things good.

There's much more, really, but these are my closing thoughts on a wonderful Charlotte Mason semester. The 'method' that can lift my mind and thoughts higher is certainly welcomed to do so.