Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part Three)

This post is intended to give an example, step-by-step, of an actual lesson with an actual child (mine!) using the Charlotte Mason method for teaching a child to read as detailed in Home Education. I hope to post a more concise version in Word format soon for others who may wish to try these CM reading lessons with their own children.

For both types of our reading lessons, "word-building" and "reading at sight", Miss Mason's description of the first lesson has really taken full three lessons to complete. Our first reading at sight lesson took three separate days, and now our first word-building lesson has taken just as long. I think this is good for others to know ahead of time :) If I had tried to cram all of the material into one initial lesson, that lesson would have easily been 45 minutes long - which would have been miserable. Instead, we broke the lesson up over several days. This post covers the final portion of the first word-building lesson. (As before, Miss Mason's words will be represented in italic).

"Accustom him from the first to shut his eyes and spell the word he has made. This is important. Reading is not spelling, nor is it necessary to spell in order to read well; but the good speller is the child whose eye is quick enough to take in the letters which compose it, in the act of reading off a word; and this is a habit to be acquired from the first: accustom him to see the letters in the word, and he will do so without effort." Home Education pg. 203

Punkin completed the first two parts of our first word-building lesson last week. This week, we started out with the third and final part. Just as we had done before, I placed the card with the syllable "at" in the center of the table. Then, I asked Punkin to choose a letter card to add to "at" to make a given word. Like this:

"Okay, baby, here's the first card. What does it say?"

"At".

"Very good! Now, can you find a letter that will make the word, 'bat'?"

Punkin scans over the choices I have placed out before her. She takes the 'b' card and slides in front of "at".

"Great! Now, what does that new word say?"

"It says, 'bat'."

"Good! Now, today we're going to do something a little differently. I'm going to have you cover your eyes and tell me how to spell the word 'bat'."

"I don't know how to spell it, Mama."

"That's okay, today we're going to learn. So, you've made the word 'bat', very good. Now, I want you to really look at the word. That's right, now close your eyes... good. Can you tell me the first letter in 'bat'?"

"Yes, it starts with 'b'."

"Yes!!! That's great! Now, what comes after 'b'? Can you spell the word?"

"b....a....(some pausing)....b....a....(sounds it out)....b-a-t."

"Woo hoo!!! That's so good, sweetie! You spelled it! You spelled, 'bat'! Now, let's do another one. Put the 'b' away, and now choose a letter to make the word, 'fat'. "

And we repeated the steps until Punkin had spelled all of the words we had read in the previous lessons (at, hat, bat, fat, mat, rat, cat, sat). She has had repeated trouble with the "c" sound, thinking that c makes the sound "g". We had to review a little while spelling, "cat". Also, covering her eyes started to bother her, so we switched to covering up the word with my hands instead. I noticed something very interesting when I covered up the word and she spelled it out. She always looked into the air, slightly to her right. She was visualizing the word! This is exactly what we are after with CM spelling. I was honestly surprised, because of all of the children, I would consider Punkin to be the least visually oriented. She has not shown any signs of a learning disability - that's not at all what I'm saying - she just hasn't been as strikingly visual as her sisters (and even her little brother) have been. I was very encouraged to see her staring off into a definite point in space as she spelled!!!

One important thing to note from another passage (about sight reading) in Home Education:
"As spelling is simply the art of seeing, seeing the letters in a word as we see the features of a face - say to the child, 'Can you spell sky?' - or any of the shorter words. He is put on his mettle, and if he fail this time, be sure he will be able to spell the word when you ask him next; but do not let him learn to spell or even say the letters aloud with the word before him." pg. 206

When the child is looking at the word, he must not be allowed to say to himself, "bat...b...a...t" in an effort to memorize the order of the letters. The idea is to encourage him to see the word as a whole and to be able to see it still, even when the word has been covered up or when the child has closed his eyes.

So, we have now officially finished the first word-building lesson as outlined in Home Education! I've been reading Mary Poppins to the girls before Punkin's nap this week, and it's been fun to stop now and then, put my finger beneath a word, and wait for Punkin to read it. She's read "bat", "hat", "fat", "at", "little", "so", "what", and a few more words that way during the last few days. It's so rewarding for her to see the words that she knows, right there in Mary Poppins! :)

We'll be beginning our next word-building lesson with a new ending syllable, "et". Check back in!!

Thanks for reading :)

Do you have a child that really struggles with visual learning? Click here :)

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part Two)

This post is intended to give an example, step-by-step, of an actual lesson with an actual child (mine!) using the Charlotte Mason method for teaching a child to read as detailed in Home Education. I hope to post a more concise version in Word format soon for others who may wish to try these CM reading lessons with their own children.


Punkin's first reading lesson was based on the "word making" lesson example on page 202 of Home Education. The lesson went fairly well, after a little practice; although, it did take longer than I had anticipated. Because of that, we didn't actually cover all of the material that Miss Mason recommends for the first lesson. Plus, I had put the list of words in a column instead of a row (as suggested), so I wanted to redo that step. Two days after that first word building lesson, we continued from where we had left off. It went well! :) Far smoother and quicker than the first day. Here's a recap (with Miss Mason's words in italic):

"Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows. Set the words in a row, and then let him read them off. Do this with the short vowel sounds in combination with each of the consonants, and the child will learn to read off dozens of words of three letters..."

Firstly, we did a brief review of the previous lesson. I placed the "at" card in the center of the book/table and gave Punkin a chance to tell me each new word as I placed different consonants in front of the "at". She did this really well, often not even pausing to sound anything out - she just pronounced the word. Great fun :) Then, fairly quickly, I had her make a few words at my dictation - "Put a letter in front of 'at' to make the word 'pat'", and so on. After this review, I brought out the newly typed and printed page with rows (not columns) of these words for Punkin to read off to me.



With the larger print, she read the words quickly. A few times she "read" the word incorrectly, but then corrected herself. I had wondered if perhaps part of the problem with the previous day's reading at sight lesson had been related to the size of the font. Was it the little font size that was goofing her up? Just for kicks, I printed a line of 'at' words in a smaller font size further down on the page, and then a line of much smaller font toward the bottom. (Note: the graduated font sizes are not mentioned in Home Education. I added the smaller fonts because I sensed that Punkin would benefit from exposure to them).


She had more difficulty with the smaller words, but after getting used to them, she read them fairly well. I pointed to each word in several different orders - left to right across the row, right to left, at random, but I made certain that Punkin understood that actual reading was always done from left to right, and we talked about that a little. After Punkin had read the entire page with only a few mistakes, I noticed that our lesson had gone over ten minutes again. I hugged her, told her that she did a lovely job reading, and we put things away for the day.

The word building lessons are going rather well, I would say. She's certainly jumping into three letter words far more quickly than her sisters had done with Phonics Pathways. The reading at sight lessons? Well, that's a different story. Although, I did have a big epiphany at the beginning of our second sight reading lesson that I think made a big difference :) More on that in my next post!

Thanks for reading!

Word Building: Lesson 1 (Part One)

This post is intended to give an example, step-by-step, of an actual lesson with an actual child (mine!) using the Charlotte Mason method for teaching a child to read as detailed in Home Education. I hope to post a more concise version in Word format soon for others who may wish to try these CM reading lessons with their own children.


After spending last week reviewing letter sounds, Punkin began today with her first lesson in "word building"! I'm going to extensively quote page 202 from Home Education as I give examples of how we applied Miss Mason's text in our lesson. I'll type Miss Mason's words in italic. Before I get started, though, I should mention that I printed typed letters onto cardstock and cut them out in preparation for today's lesson. Unfortunately, I'm not particularly thrilled with the result. I plan on redo-ing them for a more uniform shape and size after cutting. They worked for today, though. Just FYI, we did the lesson on my bed, using a sizeable hardback book as a table.

Here's the play by play...

The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable 'at': tell him it is the word we use when we say 'at home,' 'at school.'

I spelled out "at" with two of my lowercase letter cards, then I told Punkin that the word was "at" as in "at home". She piped up and came up with a few other options like, "at church", "at the store", etc. When she got to "at the pillow" and "at the table", I smiled a little, but then told her we needed to get back to the lesson - no silliness.


You can see that I lined up a column of appropriate consonants on the left side of the mock table. Here's why -

Then put b to 'at'–– bat; c to 'at'––cat; fat, hat, mat, sat, rat, and so on. First, let the child say what the word becomes with each initial consonant... Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows.

At this point, I moved the consonant from the left column to the front of "at". We began with 'b'. I waited for Punkin to read it. Judging from Miss Mason's little quote above, one would expect a child to have an epiphany and realize the new word like it was a piece of cake. Now, I do not wish to shock you, but it did not just click in Punkin's little brain that the word was now "bat". Instead, after I placed the 'b' in front of 'at', she looked at me with a confused expression that seemed to say, "Why did you do that?" It was clear that I needed to fill in between Miss Mason's lines a bit. So, I pointed to the 'b' and asked her to tell me its sound. She did. Then I pointed to "at" and asked her what it said. She didn't remember. Instead, she sounded it out. Technically, Miss Mason wants the children to learn the last two letters of the words by sight as a whole, grouped together, not sounded out. Punkin has been sounding out little words here and there on her own, though, for a while, and she naturally shifted to this mode. I encouraged her to look at "at" again, and just say "at". She did. We started over. I pointed to 'b' again, she gave the sound. I pointed to "at", she said "at". I put the 'b' back in front of "at", pointed to 'b', she said it, pointed to "at", she said it. Then, (all on her own!) she said, "bat!". Hooray! :)

We continued on with the other consonants. I had to repeatedly tell Punkin that "at" said "at", and discourage her from sounding it out each time. It took some practice, but she eventually started to get it.


After we had practice with Punkin telling me what the newly built word said, we shifted gears a little.

"...then let him add the right consonant to 'at', in order to make hat, pat, cat".

So, then we lined up all of the consonants again in their column on the left side of the table with "at" in the center. This time, I told Punkin to choose the consonant (I did not say 'consonant', though, I just said 'letter'), that would make the word "bat". She moved the 'b' to the 'at', and I asked her to tell me what the word said. She told me it said, "bat". Oh, happy day :) I encouraged her with a hug and said something like, "Look, honey! You're building words!". We went through the rest of the words the same way. I said a word, Punkin chose the letter that was needed to make the word, and then she told me what the new word was.


"Set the words in a row, and let him read them off".

I goofed a little here and put the words in a column instead of a row, but Punkin read them all. The lesson was beginning to get a little long - longer than I had planned - and she was beginning to make weird mistakes. You know what Miss Mason so tactfully says... when the children begin to "get stupid", it's time to put the lesson away ;) So, we promptly stopped. Even though Punkin wanted to keep going.

We should have also had time for a little oral spelling of the words, but that will have to wait for the next word-building lesson. I did not time the lesson today, but I'll try to remember to keep better track of how long tomorrow's lesson takes. I'm aiming for no more than 10 minutes.

We're encouraged :) Thanks for reading!


Update: I made new letter cards and they are available on our Understanding Charlotte yahoo group in the files section. Joining is quick and easy :) Just click here!


And, the post about our second word-building lesson is right here :)