Teaching Sight Words

How do you teach sight words, words that are not phonetic?

Charlotte Mason suggested having children look at the word on a card, flip it over, and then write it.

With my dyslexic children, we called sight words "red letter words." I wrote them in red marker on index cards. They would then trace them with their fingers, spelling them out loud. They would also "put the words on their shoulders." That is, they put their right hand on their left shoulder, said the word, then tapped down their arm as they spelled it out. Amazingly enough, this worked wonders in helping them remember their sight words. In fact, after my son learned to read well, he would still occasionally put his hand on his shoulder when trying to remember how to spell a sight word. It helped him pull it from his "mental filing cabinet."

However you go about it, you may be interested in these websites:
Author Jan Brett's Home Page - A Great Place for Ideas
Free Sight Word Helpers
Word Search Puzzles: Find Dolch Sight Words

Thanks to Beate, from the Literature Alive Yahoo Group, for bringing these to my attention! Beate's daughter is a late reader and uses the sight words cards to help build confidence. She writes in the air, traces on the carpet, etc.

Art Appreciation

Art is another subject where Charlotte Mason presented a living education. She taught art appreciation picture study by introducing children to the works of great artists one at a time using narration. Music appreciation was taught similarily, listening to the works of great composers one at a time.

I would love to fill my home with original masterpieces for the children to study, but it isn't possible. The art budget at our house doesn't even have room for cheap reproductions. But I have found an inexpensive way to introduce my children to great works of art.

Using your computer, you can download famous paintings and save them to your wallpaper. (See CGFA- A Virtual Art Museum for example.) Then every time your children sit down at the computer they are introduced to great art. Change the wallpaper every week. Or get wild and change it everyday. Feature the same artist (or era or subject matter) for several weeks in a row. Make sure to point out the name of the artist and the name of the picture.

Another idea is to print a painting on your color printer. Have the children cut out the picture and put it on a magnet sheet (from the craft store). Now you have fancy kitchen magnets. Every time the kids go to the fridge for a drink or snack, they are introduced to great art. Or have the printouts laminated - my littles like to carry them around like trading cards.

Kids love getting mail. Ask Grandma and Grandpa to send art postcards Ask out-of-town family members or friends to do the same. Not only will your children be introduced to great art, they are reminded of their loved ones.

Some exercises to do with your Internet or postcard art:
Play Concentration - you need two of each work to do this. Turn the cards upside down on a table and have the children take turns looking for matches, turning over just two cards at a time.
Groupings - have the children group together works of art by artist, era, or subject matter.
Recreate by Memory - show a child a masterpiece for a few minutes and then take it away. Then they are to try to draw the picture from memory using their crayons, colored pencils, or markers. (A twist on CM's narration.)
Develop Descriptive Abilities - Have your child choose a work of art, without showing you. They are then to describe the art in such a way that you can reproduce it on a piece of paper with only their verbal instructions. This is a favorite exercise at my house. Try it. I guarantee you'll get a laugh out of the first several tries!
Look for Symbolism Used in Art - I tried but could not find a dictionary of Christian art symbolism on the Internet, but you can look for books such as Signs and Symbols in Christian Art by George Wells Ferguson (Oxford University Press) at the library.

I'm sure that if you put your mind to it, you could come up with more ideas.

The children in Charlotte Mason's schools had Picture Study every term from age 6 upwards. Between the age of 6 and 15 a child had studied reproductions of pictures by some thirty of the world's famous artists. Why Picture Study? In order that children may be put in touch with the contribution that each famous artist has made to the world's store of all that is beautiful and worthwhile. Just as Literature introduces us to the thought of the greatest writers, so Picture Study opens the gates to the ideas of the famous artists.
-- Karen Andreola

For more on teaching art appreciation through real books see my book, For the Love of Literature: Teaching Core Subjects with Literature.

Math the Charlotte Mason Way

Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of children understanding math concepts before ever doing any kind of workbook-type exercises. She liked to use manipulatives in order to help the children think through the why and how of solving word problems. She wanted them to see how math applies to real life.


Miss Mason wrote, "Mathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the textbook and few subjects are worse taught; chiefly because teachers have seldom time to give the inspiring ideas ... which should quicken imagination."

She felt it important to teach the concrete before the abstract, no matter the child's grade level.

We've already discussed Miss Mason's desire to teach habits, well, that applies to math too. She felt that through daily mental effort, one step at a time, a child would learn the habit of concentration. She even tied in narration to math studies.

Many of the Charlotte Mason homeschoolers I know use Math-U-See as the program uses manipulatives and it is more gentle in its approach than something like Saxon.

I strongly recommend using Miss Mason's philosophy of Real Books when teaching math. Here are two excellent websites to get you strated:
MacBeth's Opinion
Living Math

Also see my book For the Love of Literature: Teaching Core Subjects with Literature.

Go for a Walk!

Carlotte Mason advocated daily walks, even in bad weather. One walk a week was a nature walk, where the children would collect leaves or other specimens, and draw in their nature journals. The rest of the walks were for just for fun. They'd enjoy the exercise and fresh air.

So get out today and go for a walk with the kids! It's fun, it's educational, and it's free!

Speaking of Nature Studies

My October column, Nature Science, is up over at Catholic Mom and fits in nicely with this CM series of posts.

As this conversation between my six-year-old son and my 66-year-old father continued to unfold, I couldn’t help but smile and think, “This is homeschooling at its best.” My son’s enthusiasm for birds did not come from a science textbook, it came from the study of nature science in a relaxed home setting. Due to the birth of their new baby brother, Joe and his siblings had just spent eight weeks immersing themselves in the study of nature.

Geography

I planned on spending a week on this Charlotte Mason primer, but it looks like I'll be going into a third week. There are so many topics to discuss.

Charlotte Mason believed that geography, like many other subjects, is best taught through living books. She would supplement with short map drills (remember: short lessons).

One way to tie geography into living books is to have your child pinpoint on a map the location of the book's plot. This is really fun with books that take place in many locations, such as Around the World in Eighty Days. You could spend a week or so drawing and studying geographical features. Perhaps get down and dirty to build relief maps. Like the Book of Centuries, there's nothing like a multi-sensory exercises to get a lesson to stick in a child's brain.

Geography is easily tied into history studies. Just as surrounding events affect people's actions, so does geography. For example, think Waterloo. Napoleon lost at Waterloo because of geography -- his French army could not withstand the harsh Russian landscape and weather.

Map work can also be tied into science. It's not just enough to know where the Alps are located, but how were they formed, what are they made of, what is the weather like?

Bible Study

Charlotte Mason encouraged reading the Bible daily. She assigned large portions to be memorized and recited each school year.

This is easily imitated in our homeschools for little to no money. We have friends who have done this in an interesting way. Every family member, Mom and Dad included, memorizes their birthday chapter in Proverbs. The entire chapter! (If you were born on the 4th, Chapter 4 would be your birthday chapter -- there are 31 chapters.) It's really fun to watch our friends recite their chapters at homeschool gatherings. They don't do boring, monotone recitations, but get quite animated. Plus, they've found themselves memorizing the other Proverbs chapters almost by ismosis, because they hear their parents and siblings practicing throughout the house.

Of course, Scripture needs to be put into context and not simply memorized. This can be done as children grow older. Just as primary school children memorize their ABC's before actually reading.

An interesting aside -- St. Thomas Aquinas memorized the entire Bible while he was locked away in a castle tower for a couple of years by his parents!

Short Lessons

Charlotte Mason advocated short lessons for a young child. Lessons would then become progressively longer as the child matures. Elementary-age children's lessons would be no longer than fifteen or twenty minutes on one particular subject before moving on to the next thing.

With my ADD children, lessons were sometimes even shorter. Ten minutes when they're little and then gradually longer as they get older. Sometimes, a few minutes on the swingset or building LEGO's were inserted in between lessons. (I'd have to use a timer, lest I forget to call them back in to work!)

The idea is to gently encourage the habit of full attention over time, while exposing them to a variety of subjects and activities.

The Training of Habits

Charlotte Mason believed children could be taught to govern themselves. She encouraged the training of habits beginning in babyhood saying, "Habit is ten natures."

A mother should pick a bad habit that "vexes" her and then concentrate on replacing it with a good habit. Miss Mason recommended working on a specific habit over the course of 4 to 6 weeks, working on only one habit at a time.

Mason believed habits such as paying attention, perfect execution, obedience, honesty, even temperment, neatness, kindness, respect, recall, punctuality, gentleness, and cleanliness can be trained into a child.

Combining Living Books and Book of Centuries

As Alicia pointed out in the comments, you can also add graphics of book covers to your timeline or Book of Centuries. Alicia, in fact, does this in her homeschool and I've seen the results up close and personal. It's a terrific idea that combines the beauty of living books and a visual history lesson.

You can scan book covers, go to the publisher's website, or visit a search engine such as Google and click on the image search. Then print out the graphic and paste it to the timeline. Very cool!

Book of Centuries

Charlotte Mason had her students keep a Book of Centuries. This is basically an historical timeline kept in a notebook or three-ring binder. The child writes about an historical event on each page. You could also include titles of books read, pictures, names, dates, and so on.

I like to use a three-ring binder so pages can be easily moved or inserted. This keeps the pages in our Book of Centuries in chronological order. Another idea is to put your Book of Centuries’ pages into three-hole punched, plastic sheet protectors.

I have free downloadable timeline sheets and instructions to help you put together your homemade Book of Centuries at my website. Just click on the button that says Downloads and then scroll down to Timeline Book Template and Instructions.

Journaling

Charlotte Mason would give her students, aged ten and up, free time each week to write whatever pleased them in their journals. While dictation and copywork are corrected by the teacher, journals are meant to be free expression. In my homeschool, I combine journaling with nature studies. The children journal about discoveries found in our woods – animals, plants, tracks, and so on. I've found nice journals cheap at the dollar store. You could also pick up extra spiral notebooks super cheap at back-to-school sales.

Nature Studies

Though Charlotte Mason loved order, she gave her students plenty of time for free play. She put a lot of importance on getting children into the out-of-doors. She wrote:

He must live hours daily in the open air . . . must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant. He must be accustomed to ask why – Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is a leaf-bud sticky? And do not hurry to answer his question for him; let him think his difficulties out so far as his small experience will carry him.

When the weather is pleasant, you’ll likely find one or more of my children reading books in the backyard. When they’re not reading, you’ll find them playing or exploring, even when the weather is quite unpleasant. This is important to a child’s complete education, perhaps as much as their book work.

To explore is to learn to observe and make hypotheses about the world God created for them. It helps create a sense of wonder, a sense of awe. Free play, not organized play but spontaneous play, promotes creativity, discovery, and inter-personal relationships.

Hey, you can't get more thrifty than, "Kids! Go outside and play!" And make sure you're out there with them! Emotions are contagious. If you love exploring and discovering, then they will too. If you stay inside, that's where the kids will want to be too.

Copywork

Copywork is similar to dictation. However, instead of the text being verbally dictated it is silently read by the student. Give a child a paragraph from a favorite book and have them copy it directly from the book. Then check their work for penmanship, punctuation, capitalization, etc. This helps develop an eye for good writing. It also helps develop the habit of being detail-oriented. The child will learn to pay close attention to the minute details.

I find the DK Eyewitness books are great for copywork. Okay, they're not great literature but, hey, they do the job I need. They provide fun, yet factual snippets, which my younger children love. I let them choose a favorite topic and then we pick out an interesting paragraph.

To keep on your budget, the Eyewitness books are easily found at the library.

Dictation

In dictation, a short written piece is read out loud to the child, who then writes it word for word on his paper. He should attempt to use proper spelling and punctuation.

I simply choose a sentence or more (depending on the child’s development), read it aloud slowly, and wait for the child to write it in their notebook. We then go over the written work together, with me gently making corrections. It’s a very short, yet easy, exercise to implement. It teaches the habit of paying attention, as well as sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and so on.

You could use pieces of great literature or nonfiction books on favorite topics. All found at the library or simply pulled off your own bookshelf.

Narration

The first year I homeschooled, I followed Laura Berquist’s advice in Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and used narration in teaching my young children Bible history. I would read a Bible story aloud and the children would retell the story in their own words. They would then draw a corresponding picture in their art sketchbooks. I continued to use this method in the proceeding years. The idea was to make sure my children understood the pivotal points of the story. Also, by verbalizing what they hear, children are using multiple senses to retain lessons learned through the story.

When one of my children required speech therapy, she was extensively tested to make sure there weren’t other developmental issues. She scored off the charts for reading comprehension. The teacher who administered the test was amazed this child could not only retell a story, but could recall the smallest detail. When I told the teacher of our narration lessons, she said it was the reason for my child’s extraordinary performance. Narration was something I did just three days a week for a short period of time, yet it produced outstanding results. And it's very low cost.

Living Books

Charlotte Mason (CM) enthusiasts often speak of twaddle. “Twaddle” is practically a derogatory word in CM circles. Twaddle is the opposite of a living book. It means to be dumbed-down, or a waste of time. Some might describe twaddle as “brain candy.” It’s a fleeting pleasure, but with little to no lasting, meaningful themes.

Generally speaking, textbooks and fill-in-the-blanks workbooks (there are always exceptions of course) are categorized as twaddle because they’re usually formulaic rather than thought provoking. They take the life out of the story and bring it down to the bare bones, the bare facts.

Living books on the other hand are just that – living. They awaken a child's imagination through their God-given curiosity, and sense of wonder, in a manner that is savored and enjoyed. Living books are not condescending in their tone and take education out of the classroom, making it a part of everyday life.

How is teaching through living books thrifty? You can use your library! Workbooks need to be purchased as they are consumables. Textbooks are sometimes available through public libraries, but rarely and they can't be checked out for an entire school year.

I've written on using your library on this blog before and will continue to do so in the future. If you're not using your public library to its fullest potential, start HERE.

(For more on this topic also see my book, For the Love of Literature: Teaching Core Subjects with Literature.)

The Thriftiness of Charlotte Mason

A Charlotte Mason education is indeed very thrifty. Nature studies, copywork, dictation, training of habits, etc., can all be done for little to no money. Over the next week, I'll post on all these great CM ideas and how you can implement them in your home while saving on the budget.