If you have questions about narration, we have answers! Here are our best answers from years of blog posts, web pages, and conversations in one book—plus new material—to give you a handy, practical reference. See full description
Narration is a can’t-do-without method in your Charlotte Mason home school. You can use it for many school subjects in a variety of ways, tweak it to meet different needs, apply it in different situations, and effectively accommodate different levels of learning.
Narration is such a powerful and flexible tool that it often raises questions. So we’ve collected our best answers from years of blog posts, web pages, and conversations in this one book. We’ve organized them all together—plus added new material—to give you a handy, practical reference.
If you have questions about narration, you’ll find helpful answers in
the simple overview, 5 Steps to Successful Narration;
the complete series on Narration Q & A, covering more than 65 questions;
more than 15 follow-up bonus questions and answers not previously posted on our blog;
sample narrations and narration questions, alternative narration ideas, rubrics for evaluating written narrations;
three popular posts from our archives with more narration tips: Do Not Bury Yourself in the Book, Relating and Rambling, and Narration with Auditory and Speech Issues;
and a brand new chapter, A Whole World of Thought.
Comments on the material in this book
“Excellent!”—Angela
“This is SO helpful!”—Catie
“What a treasure of information.”—Alicia
“Thank you so much for this series, today’s questions and answer finally clicked as what I was looking for and trying to accomplish in narration.”—Amber
“I have to say how incredibly helpful this series on narration has been.”—Robyn
“Thanks so much for all the good info.”—Mallory
“These tips are just what I was looking for to make our narration time more robust. Thank you.”—Beloved
“Incredibly helpful as I teach my four children together, but stretch each as appropriate.”—Kat
“Thank you, SCM, for providing such wonderful encouragement and instruction.”—Becca
As a homeschooling mom, I have always had a CM bent, even long before I even knew what it was. But, it has been a gradual process for me to move our homeschool to a solid CM method. It wasn’t until last year, with a change in our curriculum, that brought it fully about.
That curriculum change included things like copywork, dictation, and, of course, narration. We’d not done narration before, but we just jumped right in, basically blindly trusting the process.
I can’t say that we haven’t seen wonderful results from the addition of narration to our lessons, but I realized that I didn’t *really* get all the whys & wherefores. I got some.. but not all.
Then, too, I noticed the struggle my daughter was having – specifically, she struggles with written narration. Don’t get me wrong, here… she can absolutely write a very detailed narration, often a full page. But she struggles to break it down to shorter, summary-style length, when asked.
And, then, there’s just been times that the narration work hasn’t seemed to “work”.
And so grew my suspicion that I needed to learn more about The Art of Narration.
I have read blog posts about it, but I just can’t sit with my nose in a device all day. Ahem, well, I *could*, actually, but I don’t have time for that. So, I was excited when I found this book. I would prefer my children grow up seeing Mommy’s nose in BOOKS. ?
I am not finished with it, yet, but I just want to give it a grand review, already. All this time that I have been putting together this narration puzzle, I have been doing so without a picture as my guide, and absolutely missing a few of the pieces. In just a few short chapters, I have already learned so much, and I am feeling encouraged and excited to see our narrations improve in the coming year.
Sonya, thank you for putting this book together! Fellow moms, I highly recommend this book. It has not only answered my questions, but has answered questions I didn’t even know to ask. It’s just a super resource that belongs on the “Mommy’s Shelf” (or, shelves… wink) of everyone using narration in their homeschool.
Rated 5 out of 5
Ashley –
I cannot recommend this book enough. There’s not enough time for me to explain all the benefits I have had so far and I haven’t even finished the book. But it truly is a handy practical resource for moms learning narration as a beginner but also growing in your narrating skills through the years! Easy to navigate, incredibly helpful! As a homeschooling family that is gently transitioning into the charlotte mason methods, i needed this resource. Any transition can be overwhelming but this takes the stress out of learning narration. The format is so so practical, it is answering real questions from people like you and me. Can’t get more to the point than that. Also, one hesitation i had was, “when will i find time to read and learn while i am already busy homeschooling?!” This is easy reading in the sense that you can cover a chapter, or aspect, in 5-10 min. A bathroom reader some would say. For me, it’s something i read when i have a few minutes. It’s definitely doable! Don’t hesitate to support simply charlotte mason. You will reap! Thank you Sonya.
Katherine Drake –
As a homeschooling mom, I have always had a CM bent, even long before I even knew what it was. But, it has been a gradual process for me to move our homeschool to a solid CM method. It wasn’t until last year, with a change in our curriculum, that brought it fully about.
That curriculum change included things like copywork, dictation, and, of course, narration. We’d not done narration before, but we just jumped right in, basically blindly trusting the process.
I can’t say that we haven’t seen wonderful results from the addition of narration to our lessons, but I realized that I didn’t *really* get all the whys & wherefores. I got some.. but not all.
Then, too, I noticed the struggle my daughter was having – specifically, she struggles with written narration. Don’t get me wrong, here… she can absolutely write a very detailed narration, often a full page. But she struggles to break it down to shorter, summary-style length, when asked.
And, then, there’s just been times that the narration work hasn’t seemed to “work”.
And so grew my suspicion that I needed to learn more about The Art of Narration.
I have read blog posts about it, but I just can’t sit with my nose in a device all day. Ahem, well, I *could*, actually, but I don’t have time for that. So, I was excited when I found this book. I would prefer my children grow up seeing Mommy’s nose in BOOKS. ?
I am not finished with it, yet, but I just want to give it a grand review, already. All this time that I have been putting together this narration puzzle, I have been doing so without a picture as my guide, and absolutely missing a few of the pieces. In just a few short chapters, I have already learned so much, and I am feeling encouraged and excited to see our narrations improve in the coming year.
Sonya, thank you for putting this book together! Fellow moms, I highly recommend this book. It has not only answered my questions, but has answered questions I didn’t even know to ask. It’s just a super resource that belongs on the “Mommy’s Shelf” (or, shelves… wink) of everyone using narration in their homeschool.
Ashley –
I cannot recommend this book enough. There’s not enough time for me to explain all the benefits I have had so far and I haven’t even finished the book. But it truly is a handy practical resource for moms learning narration as a beginner but also growing in your narrating skills through the years! Easy to navigate, incredibly helpful! As a homeschooling family that is gently transitioning into the charlotte mason methods, i needed this resource. Any transition can be overwhelming but this takes the stress out of learning narration. The format is so so practical, it is answering real questions from people like you and me. Can’t get more to the point than that. Also, one hesitation i had was, “when will i find time to read and learn while i am already busy homeschooling?!” This is easy reading in the sense that you can cover a chapter, or aspect, in 5-10 min. A bathroom reader some would say. For me, it’s something i read when i have a few minutes. It’s definitely doable! Don’t hesitate to support simply charlotte mason. You will reap! Thank you Sonya.