How does a Charlotte Mason curriculum handle language arts, including phonics, handwriting, copywork, grammar and composition?
Ambleside Online’s language arts consists of reading instruction, transcription (copywork), narration, dictation and grammar. Creative writing consists of physically forming the letters, composing thoughts and, finally, tranferring those thoughts to paper. Charlotte Mason’s methods teach each of these steps separately – physically forming letters (copywork), composing thoughts (narrating) and transferring those thoughts to paper (written narration). In grammar there’s only a small body of knowledge to learn–it doesn’t need to take years and years to learn it, and it doesn’t need to start in first grade. Students will pick up grammar concepts without years and years of formal training if they read books. Trust the process! By the end of elementary school, students only really need to know two rules: (1) Capitalize sentences and proper nouns. (2) End sentences with punctuation (a period, question mark, or exclamation point). It’s also useful (but not vitally necessary) to be familiar wi
Ambleside Online’s language arts consists of reading instruction, transcription (copywork), narration, dictation and grammar. Creative writing consists of physically forming the letters, composing thoughts and, finally, tranferring those thoughts to paper. Charlotte Mason’s methods teach each of these steps separately – physically forming letters (copywork), composing thoughts (narrating) and transferring those thoughts to paper (written narration). In grammar there’s only a small body of knowledge to learn–it doesn’t need to take years and years to learn it, and it doesn’t need to start in first grade. Students will pick up grammar concepts without years and years of formal training if they read books. Trust the process! By the end of elementary school, students only really need to know two rules: (1) Capitalize sentences and proper nouns. (2) End sentences with punctuation (a period, question mark, or exclamation point). It’s also useful (but not vitally necessary) to be familiar wi
