A cornerstone of the Charlotte Mason Method of Education is narration - which, in its simplest form, is telling back in your own words what you have read or heard or seen. Initially, narration is spontaneous ("Mommy! You won't believe what I just saw!"), but then a parent or teacher requires the child to narrate orally. Eventually, though oral narration continues, written narration begins. Written narration can be "tell back what you remember," or it can come in very creative forms. Here are some of our children's narrations - enjoy them!
After reading William Wordsworth's poetry every day for a trimester, I gave Bethany the assignment to narrate his poetry in sonnet form. Here is her submission.
Tribute to Wordsworth
by Bethany Breckenridge, age 13
With grace beyond compare, your poems are
Full of so much thought, and contemplation,
Family, death, and reconciliation.
Of tribute to nature; of thoughts afar,
Of daffodils and gazing at a star.
Of things to cherish, to love and to shun,
Of deep and dark things, and of salvation
From this world, oh, this world of things that mar.
They are filled with other things, too: of some
Serene thoughts and childhood memories.
They are not at all filled with life's drudgeries,
As other poets' are over the years.
Full of magnificence you have become
And have a way of easing all my fears!
.
We studied the Psalms as Poetry, and Bethany's Creative Narration assignment was to narrate the Psalms in acrostic form, using parallelism as we had studied.
Creative Narration of Louisa May Alcott's "Jo's Boys"
"Plumfield Papers"
by Bethany Breckenridge, age 14
Hello Plumfield Family!
It has been so long since we've been all together, that I thought that I'd send you all a letter to give you an update!
All of you, my children, have grown up well, and have done very well in school and are all prospering nicely. Ah, but I will start with my girls.
Bess is married, and has pursued her artistic career to great lengths. She is becoming more and more talented as the years go on, I think.
Josie has also prospered in her chosen art, and she and the stage seem to work as one. She has done many a performance, but still comes back home to do some of our old skits. She is also married.
Nan still hasn't married, and I don't think she ever shall. She is dedicated to her call as a doctor and after completing college and medical school she has, along with her profession, become active with the Women's Suffrage movement. I heartily encourage her to keep going, and doing what she has always dreamed of.
Daisy and Nat are married! After finishing his studying in Europe, and after his time with the orchestra was done, Nat came back for his faithful Daisy, who had waited for him all these years.
Dan, like Nan, has never married, but continues to roam the wilderness over. He is very dedicated to his work with the Indians, so much so in fact that I think that he must be one himself! After his fall in the mine, our hero returned home to Plumfield where Bess and Josie nursed him back to health, but he is back to his beloved west.
Tommy is now married to Miss Dora West, and has given up the "practice" of medicine to work with his father. We all rejoice over this, for Nan has lost her mosquito, and Tom has calmed down a bit!
Demi finally did become a partner in the publishing business, and has his name up there on the door as he has always dreamed. He has married Alice, and they are very happy together.
Emil is also married, to his captain's daughter, Mary. He himself is now captain, for after saving the captain and his family - along with the crew - from the shipwreck.
Franz has married a sweet young German named Ludmilla. They are getting along very well together, though I can't write more as I have not heard from them in quite some time.
My Rob has become a professor, and went through school with honors. He teaches at the Laurence College, lives close to home.
I must say though, that the one who has astonished me most through out the years is Teddy. Ted has become a clergyman - and a rather famous one, too! How that astonished me you will never know, but I am so eternally proud of him! No - of all of you.
I miss you all, and pray that we will all be together again soon - maybe for Christmas? Oh well, let me hear from you soon, and I'll keep you all updated.
Love always,
Mother Bahr
We started our son Nathan doing oral narration, using "Aesop's Fables." Nathan had just turned 7 when we started - and little sister Hannah (3 1/2 at the time) piped in occasionally!
AESOP'S FABLES NARRATIONS
by Nathan Breckenridge (with Hannah Breckenridge where noted)
The Fox and the Grapes
Nathan: "The fox wanted to get some grapes and the grapes were high on a vine, but he could not get them."
Hannah: "So he walked away."
Nathan: "He said, 'Those grapes are sour.' "
The Donkey in the Lion's Skin
"A donkey dressed up like a lion. So there was a fox, and he said, 'Ah, my friend.' "
(This is the one time he was allowed to play with Legos - and he realized later he had "too many distractions"!)
The Hunter and the Woodsman
(after this on, I had to explain to Hannah that this was not a chapter book - and that the animals in each one were different than the ones before!)
Nathan: "There was a hunter, and he went into the woods, looking for tracks of a lion. But there was the woodman and he said, 'I'll show you. I'll bring you to him.' " Now Hannah.
Hannah: "It wasn't the lion himself, it was the animal dressed up like a lion."
Nathan: "No, that was yesterday. He said, 'Nooooooo thank you.' He only wanted to look for the tracks, so he could wipe them away so people would not get scared." [that last part is his own conclusion! <g>]
The Falconer and the Partridge
"The falconer wanted to catch birds and he caught a partridge- I was about to say an ostrich! And he said, 'No, I'm not going to let you go.' But the partridge said, 'I'll go get other partridges and get them into your net.' And he said, 'No, I'm never going to let you go.' "
The Man and the Lion
"There was this man and this lion and there was this statue and a man on a statue strangling a lion. If the lion knew how to build a statue, the man would be right under the lion's paw - dead!"
The Hare and the Hound
"The hare was asleep under a bush and the hound gave chase. So the hare ran away from the hound. And when the hare was running the hound did not know where the hare was going. The hare got lost.
So when the hound saw a shepherd and the shepherd said, 'Are you a hunter?' and the hound said, 'No, I was only trying to get my supper.' "
The Stag at the Pool
[in this one, there is the word "entangled"; in Nathan's narration, it is obvious he understand that as "untangled," and narrated accordingly.]
Nathan: "There was this stag and he wanted to go to a pool. He was at a pool. And this lion springed out, but his feet were running. And then his horns got caught in the branches. His antlers got tangled, and when he was pulling, it was coming untangled. But the lion got him."
Hannah: "The deer was drinking. Nothing else."
Jupiter and the Bee
[to show some are *very* short!]
"There was this Jupiter and this bee. The bee gave Jupiter honey and when it stings people, bees die."
Dog in the Manger
[the last sentence is purely editorial comment! <g>]
"There was a dog and he was going for a nap, and this oxen worked very, very hard. And he was going to get his dinner but when he came closer, the dog snapped at him.
And then he kept getting closer and closer and the oxen was going to try and get the hay for his dinner.
Then, that's all.
And the dog should have slept on the grass."
The Crow and the Pitcher
[this one made a huge impact - I even found them later re-enacting it with pennies in a cup of water - but I got there in time to tell not to drink the water!]
Hannah: "He was almost dying. He came to a pitcher that once been filled with water."
Nathan: "There was this crow and he was dying with thrist and the pitcher used to be filled to the top, but now it wasn't."
Hannah: "I did that part!"
Nathan: "And then he put pebbles in the pitcher, and it rose only a tiny bit and a tiny bit more. When he put a hundred pebbles in, it got to the top of the pitcher. Then he drank it."
Whose love extendeth throughout the ages. 