Understanding Narration: The Charlotte Mason Method

When my daughter was very small, I loved to read books to her. Every day we would sit down on the couch together and work our way through a pile of books.

There was one particular book that had repeated requests. It was her favorite: The Three Little Pigs.

She would sit and listen to it over and over again. Now, this was a rather lengthy book, and I put extra special effort into each character’s voice and even made an angry face when I was the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing.

One day, just for fun, and probably out of sheer boredom from reading this book so many times, I asked her to read the book to me. She was three at the time and had not learned how to read.

She opened the book, and to my surprise, she began reading it, word for word. For a moment I was sure that she had simply learned to read until I turned the page too quickly and she still kept “reading” the words.

That’s when I realized that she had memorized every word of this long book by heart. It was not until that moment that I began to understand the capabilities that children have when it comes to remembering the stories that they hear.

Children are natural-born storytellers. They can recall with precise detail what they have heard if it interests them. You can use it as a valuable tool in your homeschool if you understand how to do this.

What Is Narration?

Narration is just another form of storytelling. Since children love to tell about things that excite them, you can use this in homeschooling.

How many times has your child rushed into the room and excitedly began telling you all about something that happened to them or a show that they watched on TV? They can go on and on until your thinking trails off, and you have to be careful that you are still giving the correct responses.

“Really?”

“Wow! That’s awesome, Honey.”

I like to use methods of teaching that are tailored to the natural way children think and behave. Narration is just a form of expression for children. It allows them to learn in a way that they are already familiar with.

Problems with the Traditional Approach

Through the years, I have encountered problems with traditional learning approaches that held my children back. For instance, a child’s eye-hand coordination develops far later than their verbal abilities does. So, writing comes later than speaking.

I have asked my very young children to explain complicated concepts, and they were able to do so, although there is no way they would have the capability to write down the very same words. I don’t like delaying their learning just because their writing skills develop later when they have a clear understanding of the lessons.

Traditional approaches go something like this: The child is taught a lesson or concept. The child does a worksheet for practice of the concept. The child does a written test to check for retention of the concept.

What I don’t like about this approach is that it requires the child to think about two concepts that are not yet mastered; writing and the lesson of the day. Narration allows the child to fully focus on the lesson at hand until they have fully mastered writing, enabling them to learn more at an earlier age.

Narration Allows for Better Lesson Retention

With the traditional approach, the connections with the lesson are made for the child when they are given the questions to answer. Narration allows them to make their own connections. When a child connects with a lesson, it becomes their own and what is their own, they will remember.

When we read a lesson, say on Abraham Lincoln, one child may quickly catch on to the fact that he was considered honest and the other may find it interesting how hard he worked. These are the facts that they will each remember. These facts will also add value to their lives.

If I were to question them about each part of the lesson, it would take away from what they have already learned. If they were to tell me about the lesson, however, then I would be able to see that they did, indeed, learn what the lesson was trying to teach them.

There are two types of narration:

1. Oral
2. Written

Oral Narration

Children start out with oral and as their writing skills improve, they gradually move on to written at about fifth grade. I have my kids give an oral narration after about ten minutes of reading. Whether it’s history, science, character training, geography, or literature, we use narration for them. Usually, my children are able to give a narration about the lesson that suits their age. If they leave out a part that I consider very important, I might ask them if they remember about “so-and-so” part, but usually, this is not the case.

Written Narration

Children will gradually transition to written narrations at about the fifth grade. I will have them write short narrations of a sentence or two throughout the previous years working toward the goal of a complete paragraph by age ten. My fifth grader reads his own lessons of ten to fifteen-minute readings and then writes what he learned in a paragraph or four or five sentences. This is how he learns every day in several of his subjects.

We don’t have to do tests or reviews, I just ask him for a complete chapter narration at the end of the week. These are all kept in one notebook and make a great homeschool portfolio. This approach works really well all the way through high school. The written narrations then make excellent high school transcripts, too.

Narration has drastically changed the way I approach teaching and learning in our homeschool and I hope it can be something that you can enjoy in yours, as well.