Yes, Michelle, that makes perfect sense. Thank you!  And, I agree with completely about the choice thing.  Since I have been more consistent this year with my expectations, in a rather run-of-the-mill, this-is-how-it-is type manner, my kids have really risen to the occasion and are turning in some absolutely wonderful work.  I am so pleased...and so are they!  Thanks again for all of your help. 

Well, once my kids got fairly good at written narrations, I had them do one a day, and so then I'd stick in a narration mission maybe once or twice a week?  I kept them on colored index cards, and when I looked over the day's lessons, I'd paperclip an index card to the book so they'd know to do it for that reading.  Does that make sense?  Now that the older ones are pretty competent at essays, I just assign regular essays, maybe two a week.  I have to confess I usually didn't give them a choice.  :-)  If my kids thought they had a choice in writing, they'd start thinking they could choose not to write--it's not their favorite thing.  So I'd look at the reading and think it would lend itself well to one of the types, and just put that one with that reading.  I did try to vary them so they didn't get the same ones all the time.

Yes, I see what you mean.  I'll probably just use them for fiction, as they seem so perfect for that type of reading.  So, how many missions do you feel would be reasonable to answer at each sitting? One?  More than one?  (...and I imagine you would give them their choice of which missions to answer, correct?) Also, how often would this writing take place...after each reading (which, personally, I don't have a problem with, as they are such wonderfully-varied ideas) or after every completed book?  Sorry for so many questions, but I am really excited about using these writing aids, as I think they'll be a great way to connect reading to writing in a much more thoughtful way!

Not a lot differently; I think history can be treated much the same--just use historical figures for characters and historical events for plot developments.  You can still use judgment-based questions.  Science reading might very well be different; I'm usually pretty happy there if I just get a good explanation of the passage.  There might be times you'd be reading about a scientist (character) or listing the sequences in a chemical reaction (events in order) or something like that.  There's not a lot of judgment to be made in describing sequences in a chemical reaction :-)  for example.  I do tend to assign most of these essay-skill-developing ideas to fiction and history/biography.  The physics textbook just isn't as amenable, lol.

Oh, I'm sorry, not a book list, I was referring to your list of suggestions for narration missions, back on Page 1 of this thread.  Sooo helpful, and with the potential for such thought-provoking responses!  I was just wondering how you would handle a narration from a non-fiction book.  Do you feel any of these suggestions would lend itself to non-fiction reading or would you handle that differently?

You're going to have to excuse my middle-aged mind here--I'm not sure I know what book list you are posting about here?

Michelle (Bookworm), these are great suggestions for fiction books.  Thanks so much for posting them!  What would you do for non-fiction reading?  Thanks.

Yes, that helps. I am going to read your book and try to compare and contrast to see what makes the most sense to me and my husband, taking our children into consideration. I just have not had a strong feeling that any of the explanations of these methods are "IT" for us. We have just been halfway doing things here and there with copywork, narration and dictation. I even went to the extreme of traditional workbooks for part of this year and am just not satisfied with anything at the moment.

Listening to Susan Wise Bauer's lectures on writing has been helpful to me. There are so many things that are similar to the CM method within the Classical method. The 3 stages of learning make sense to me also, but I'm just not so sure that my children will move into those stages at the times they are "supposed to".  I can now see the importance of these methods, but I have to decide how I want to do this without loosing my mind ;) Self confidence would be a good beginning, I guess :) 

Charlotte did not take credit for inventing copywork or dictation or narration. She just promoted a certain philosophy and approach to education that included those activities done in a specific way. 

As with any activity, you will find different people who have different ways of doing it, depending on (among other things) the way they've been taught and/or what their goal is. Other teachers during Charlotte's day promoted doing copywork or dictation a different way than she did. But Charlotte's methods/way of doing those activities all dovetail to support her overarching ideas of how children learn best and should be taught.

Does that help any? 

P.S.

Whew! Thanks for understanding my heart!

Sonya,

So, was Charlotte Mason the inventor of these concepts or did she just give her own spin on it all? Also, why are there so many different ways and opinions of how to do these things? Just curious....

P.S.

I will take a look at your book again and I know your purpose is to help and nothing more :) Thanks!

A good transition step can be to encourage your son to start giving his narration orally and you write or type what he is saying. When he gets near the end, step aside and have him finish writing it. As you progress, you can hand the writing over to him sooner until he is writing the whole thing.

@amanda, I hesitated to post this because I in no way want to seem like I'm pushing my own books. I hope you all know my heart well enough by now to know that is not my intent. I just wanted to mention that one of the reasons I put together Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing was to compile all of Charlotte's instructions and explanations of copywork, dictation, composition, narration, etc. into one place. That book tells exactly what Charlotte said about each of those areas -- the how-to, the why, and the when -- in her own words, but in bite-size chunks and easy-to-use arrangement. It's my attempt to answer those commonly asked questions.

Can I add to this as it seems similar - my 12 yr old then should be doing written narration correct?  How often?  And how do I get him started.  I have tried it 2 times and he just doesn't understand how to write it.  Though he can verbablly do it awesome.  I will try some of BW's advice.

I am with the original poster about writing, spelling, etc. I do see how important copywork, narration and dictation are, but am not sure how to best go about using these methods.

I have read basic ideas as to how these methods work written by CM followers, and I have listened to Susan Wise Bauer's writing lectures for grammar and middle grades. Then there is Ruth Beechick's ideas on using these methods.....so, confusion is just inevitable!!

My biggest issue is that within all the CM ideas I cannot find detailed instructions on how to do these things. Susan Wise Bauer gives detailed "reenactments" of how to do dictation or narration her way. However, I do not know that her way is the best way.....Also, if I am not confident in my own writing abilities, how do I confidently use CM methods to teach?

Any thoughts on this?

Thank you sooooooo much! These ideas are great and exactly what I was needing. To answer your questions about dictation, we were doing this. However, I was very concerned about her spelling abilities and allowed myself to be swayed away to another method. After much frustration and very little improvemen,t we are starting again with studied dictation. I am going to use Spelling Wisdom. I will begin to implement some of your ideas ASAP. I will let you know how it goes. ALso, you should really take the advice listed above and think of putting some sort of help guide together!!! Thanks again,

As always Bookworm, you are amazing I am also coping this information.  Thanks for sharing in such detail!

Misty