One of the first things people learn when they start hearing about Miss Mason’s philosophy of education is that Charlotte Mason advocated “narration”.
What is Narration?
It’s telling back what the child has just heard or read.
The way it goes is that you read a passage to your child once and then he tells you in his own words what the passage said.
This sounds too simple at first, but if you try narrating for yourself you’ll see that it really is a learned skill.
Think about it:
- Have you tried giving someone directions to a shop or a park or someone else’s house when you have been only once?
- Have you tried to tell someone the plot of a story you are reading?
- Have you tried to tell someone about a film you have watched?
- Can you do any of the above without missing out anything important and without getting in a muddle about it?
It’s not always easy to remember everything in the right order and sometimes you can miss out quite important parts of the story by mistake, can’t you? I often can’t even remember the names of the main characters in a story, so that I find myself referring to them as ‘the guy’ or ‘the girl’ or ‘the guy’s friend’. Does that sound familiar?
Why Bother With Narration?
Something happens in the brain when you start to tell back or repeat what you have just learned. You have to order things in your mind; you have to sort and file the thoughts and ideas. You have to ‘own’ the thoughts and ideas. You internalise the ideas. You are engaged and you have to think!
When Should I Start Narration?
When you first start narration with your child it’s good to remember to go slowly, and to set realistic expectations. But how slow is slow? And what is it realistic to expect from a child?
It helps to know that narration is a skill to be learned. Your child might not find it easy to begin with, and you are likely to meet with resistance from your child. But don’t worry if you do; I will give you a few tips to help you with that.
Watch out for narrations taking place naturally. For example, your child might describe a game he has been playing. Or she might be very excited about an event that happened at a relative’s house, and she wants to tell you all about it. Or she wants to describe a movie, programme or book that she really enjoyed.
When this happens, LET HER FLY! But be careful that you don’t push it. You don’t want her to clam up and refuse to tell you things in case you turn it into a ‘narration’ J
These spontaneous narrations will start developing as soon as your child can speak in intelligible sentences. You can look out for narrations of events all through toddlerhood and preschool. For example, your child might come home from the zoo and describe some of the events to Dad or Grandma; that’s narration. And by the time your child is rising six you will be asking for narrations on subjects of your choice.
How Do I Start Narration?
Start with a very short piece for oral narration. Miss Mason said that Aesop’s Fables are great for beginners. And I think that’s still a great choice. It will work well for children of five or six or so. And it’s a quick way to start with an older child.
When you start with Aesop’s Fables, you can read aloud one of the fables and then ask your child to tell you the story back. I always found that my child liked to try and guess the moral of the story too. You can find various copies of Aesop’s Fables in the library or in many book shops.
If you are teaching narration to an older child, you can start with Aesop’s Fables to get the idea, and then you can move on to paragraphs and a page or two of an age-appropriate book. And by the time your child is coming up to age ten you will be ready to move to written narrations.
You can read more about Narration and what Charlotte Mason thought about ideas in Lesson Five of Charlotte Mason Made Easy.
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