1st grade writting

Holly, you are not missing anything.

My 2 cents…the acedemic world rushes children into learning things that are more easily learned at later ages.

For a better grasp on CM Language Arts, I highly recommend the SCM handbook (link below). On page 15 (see the sample) there is a chart that lays out LA for you. Grammer doesn’t start until 4th grade. The reason for that is because Charlotte wanted children to hear years of good literature before they started dissecting sentences. Grammer comes more easily to older children and I feel it is just plain unnecessary in first grade. I think you may be thinking of the Classical approach to homeschool. If you love all of the things that you have heard so far about CM, I would like to gently encourage you to trust her on this one, too.

http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/hearing-and-reading-telling-and-writing-a-charlotte-mason-language-arts-handbook/

My daughter is in first grade. This is our language arts line up: 

1. Delightful Handwriting (copywork) 

2. Delightful Reading lessons

3. Learning narration using Aesop’s Fables which will morph into narration of other subjects like bible, history, etc. 

4. Family read alouds of rich literature without requiring narration

5. Recitation practice twice a week. (We are learning The Apostle’s Creed first.)

6. Poetry read aloud each week. (our favorite)

I hope this makes you feel better. 🙂 The only way to understand CM methods is to read her words themselves. Try using the Learning Library  here on this website to gain an understanding. Sonya has done the most incredible job of making CM simple for anyone to learn and implement.

Read this article: 

http://simplycharlottemason.com/blog/teaching-grammar-subject-by-subject-part-13/

Butterflylake, I will not require narration of anything other than Aesop for our first term.  I selected very short fables and then gradually increased the length as the term progresses. I will use this link for ideas so that she doesn’t do just oral narration:

http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/narration/

During/after our first term, I will evaluate how well she is doing and decide as we go along if she is ready to add in subjects. Just after we finish our first term, I will be attending my first SCM conference in LA so I am hoping to learn more about narration there and then proceed properly. 

Some people start with Aesop and then progress pretty quickly into all subjects. I will just play it by ear to be quite honest. There is plenty of time to develop narration skills. We will go slow. 

I don’t know that I have ever heard of CM wanting the adult to model narration for the child….but maybe someone else can speak about that? If I had to guess, I would think she wanted to let the child alone and let them form their own ideas about what they want to say. Just watch and observe the narration flower blossom over time. 🙂

There are so many cute ideas for narration that I would think it would be acceptable to do a radio show for dad, or put on a play for dad….just make sure you tell her child ahead of time that his narration will be when dad gets home and not immediately after the reading. Be careful of making your children feel pressured to “perform” for dad. I wish I knew where to find the CM quote that addresses this, but I just don’t have the time to search for it at the moment.