Narration is at the core of Charlotte Mason’s approach to education. The child reads and is able to talk about what he has read. When working with a child who is as dyslexic as my daughter narration shows they have read and understood what is said. Sometimes, this can prove difficult.
However this morning Iona, having spent some time reading on her own came to tell me all about the book she is reading. For her birthday I bought her ‘Airman’ by Eion Colfer-at her request. She has decided to put Poldark aside to read this and then go back to the Poldark books to which I have added ‘Bella’ the last of the series which Graham wrote not long before he died.
Iona explained the story and how she saw similarities between it and the ‘Count of Monte Christo’. She talked about the history in the book and the boy Conor’s understanding of flight. She explained about his friendship with princess Isabella and how there is a plot against her father. Although she could see the historical research that had gone into the book it was difficult to place it properly-so Iona went off to the computer and began to look things up! Now that is a homeschool moment!
She discovered that the Saltees had been a place for pirates at one time-something she has studied in depth and that they did indeed have a ‘prince’. A man called Michael O’Neil had bought the big island in 1943 and had himself crowned ‘prince of the Saltees’. Don’t think it went down too well with the locals.
Colfer mentions that the Saltees had been handed over the ‘royal family’ by Henry II of England and it is indeed true that Henry handed the county of Wexford to Strongbow in 1147.
You can read a review of the book HERE which also picks up on the Monte Christo aspects-but I think this is Colfer playing on the history of Wexford and the Saltees and the name of Hervey de Montemorency.
I feel this was a Charlotte moment as Iona went off on a little rabbit trail looking for the background to her book.
arration is at the heart of a good Charlotte Mason approach to learning. By the time a child has reached the age of 7 and is ready for school (in the gentle world of PNEU) he should be getting fairly adept at narration having heard the poem or passage only once. You see, this skill is rooted in Miss Mason’s discipline of habits – the habit of listening.
It occurred to me today as I packed away all the worksheets and workbooks, that we are drifting away from the living books approach and heading down the “it looks more like learning” approach of, dare I say, “school at home.” I am unconvinced that piles of completed worksheets are any indicator that the children are learning.
Thinking Love, No Twaddle 