This is a continuation of a LONG series of reflections on how Charlotte Mason lives in our home.
You can read the first post here.
Knowledge of Man Part 2
This is part 2 in a reflection of how Charlotte Mason impacts our schooling of History, Literature, Citizenship (Economics), Composition, Spelling, Foreign Languages.
What does Citizenship (Morals and Economics) look like?
I find that a child understands Ethics and Morals the greatest beginning around age 6. Before that they might use words such as "that's not fair", but it's really at ages 6-9 that they want the world to be equal in their eyes. And it's also during these shocking years that they realize things just can never be even or equal. During Form I (6-9), we use stories of fables and fairy tales to begin to understand human nature. Sometimes we use biographies of people within the historical time period we are studying.
In Form II and beyond, we use stories of people who lived more often than fairy tales and myths/fables. We appreciate Dickens and Plutarch's lives for these. It is in these studies of human lives that we can see virtue and vice revealed. We also find that reading the Bible stories gives us plenty of food for discussion and thought.
For Form III and beyond, I have found Ourselves as a great read. I'm using the first part of the book for Jr. High and the second part for high school.
What does Composition consist of?
In the Form I, composition is all oral. It's the narration which rides off of the tongue when the child knows so much.
For my daughters they have been able to begin writing their narrations around age 9. For my son, he is still creating written thought at age 10. His fluent reading developed slower, so his composition is also taking a little more time...
Form III and IV (ages 12-14) encourages all kinds of writing. I ask for a written narration everyday. Each day allows a different kind of composition. For the days we have studied prose/poetry, I encourage writing in the style of what they have studied. Typically there are essays written about what they enjoy the most.
Other types of composition that we also employ include writing letters to pen pals, reporting for local newspapers, working as the secretary of our 4H club, blogging, writing emails, etc. For Form V and VI, I will require some play writing as well as some poems.
In the Form I, composition is all oral. It's the narration which rides off of the tongue when the child knows so much.
For my daughters they have been able to begin writing their narrations around age 9. For my son, he is still creating written thought at age 10. His fluent reading developed slower, so his composition is also taking a little more time...
Form III and IV (ages 12-14) encourages all kinds of writing. I ask for a written narration everyday. Each day allows a different kind of composition. For the days we have studied prose/poetry, I encourage writing in the style of what they have studied. Typically there are essays written about what they enjoy the most.
Other types of composition that we also employ include writing letters to pen pals, reporting for local newspapers, working as the secretary of our 4H club, blogging, writing emails, etc. For Form V and VI, I will require some play writing as well as some poems.
What Foreign Languages are covered in this house?
Latin.
Spanish.
How do we teach it? When my children learned English, they learned it by oral immersion. I think this is the best way to learn a new language. How can we begin to teach another language when we don't speak it in this house? We do a lot of audio languages in this house. I have many different kinds of Spanish CD's. We listen to something every week. I also have us listen to Latin. Song School latin. It's a very slow incremental process. I found that a tutor that would only speak Spanish to my children worked great. This unfortunately is very difficult to keep up over years...But I keep trying. In the simple things that we do at home, I found that my children were past the first year of high school Spanish.
Form V and VI, I have encouraged my daughter to work through the Henle Latin book. She can't speak Latin much, but she understands and is able to translate it well. We do sing Latin at home and at church. I have considered this Latin program, but have no experience with it. We have used some of Visual Latin. The teacher is kind of quirky, but my daughter has enjoyed it.
How do I teach Spelling?
I don't! I have found that when my kids are reading great literature and lots of it they begin to visually memorize how words are written. This takes some time, but by the time they are doing composition on a regular basis they are also spelling a majority of the words correctly. I think this is one of the hidden blessings of a liberal education...you don't have to spend every week "studying" for spelling tests and the agony of giving them. This just becomes a nature habit of seeing a word and then spelling it correctly when you use it later on.
I think copy work also provides benefit for spelling and composition. I continue to require copy work even in the upper years. The copy work mirrors what they are reading or perhaps is a tad harder than what they can read...It's my pick what they copy. I do like copy work that is from the Bible from time to time.
How do we teach it? When my children learned English, they learned it by oral immersion. I think this is the best way to learn a new language. How can we begin to teach another language when we don't speak it in this house? We do a lot of audio languages in this house. I have many different kinds of Spanish CD's. We listen to something every week. I also have us listen to Latin. Song School latin. It's a very slow incremental process. I found that a tutor that would only speak Spanish to my children worked great. This unfortunately is very difficult to keep up over years...But I keep trying. In the simple things that we do at home, I found that my children were past the first year of high school Spanish.
Form V and VI, I have encouraged my daughter to work through the Henle Latin book. She can't speak Latin much, but she understands and is able to translate it well. We do sing Latin at home and at church. I have considered this Latin program, but have no experience with it. We have used some of Visual Latin. The teacher is kind of quirky, but my daughter has enjoyed it.
How do I teach Spelling?
I don't! I have found that when my kids are reading great literature and lots of it they begin to visually memorize how words are written. This takes some time, but by the time they are doing composition on a regular basis they are also spelling a majority of the words correctly. I think this is one of the hidden blessings of a liberal education...you don't have to spend every week "studying" for spelling tests and the agony of giving them. This just becomes a nature habit of seeing a word and then spelling it correctly when you use it later on.
I think copy work also provides benefit for spelling and composition. I continue to require copy work even in the upper years. The copy work mirrors what they are reading or perhaps is a tad harder than what they can read...It's my pick what they copy. I do like copy work that is from the Bible from time to time.