Early Years Guide: Pre-narration skills

There are many mothers out there who have decided to try homeschooling and are looking to use the CM method. Having been one myself, I know how hard it was to sit on my hands and not to force/coerce my kids to sit down at the table and start doing copywork before they were ready.

In fact-- ooops--- I may have done just that.
It's HARD!! I know it is. We read with excitement all the wonderful things our kids will be doing. We see our friends and fellow homeschoolers posting about it on facebook. We want to dive in. Yesterday.

But I do believe Charlotte was right to say that we should wait.
There is just so much going on in there to process and so much of it must come naturally and peacefully if it is to blossom in them at all,  and so to before six to require a narration is just asking for trouble.

Now, we all know there are lots of things TO focus on during Year 0, whether we decide to spend a lot of time doing nature study, painting, or helping around the house. Ideally we are fully integrating the child into our grown up days while leaving them lots of room and space to grow in quietly and peacefully, preferably outdoors. And we aren't just letting them loose-- we are intentionally parenting them into those guiding rails we hope to set them free to follow later.

For those of us who have had one or two learners go through the Early Years period of a CM education and have regrets about how it went because we feel we didn't trust Charlotte as much as we should have, it's maybe doubly important to surround ourselves with reminders that this next time will be different-- better--- and more peaceful and joyful both for the child and for the parents.

On my end, when I hear all these mothers around me frequently flying into a panic over their pre-K curriculum, I am often so relieved not to be a part of the hive-mind. But even still, I  feel certain that every couple of weeks I need to re-read Charlotte's statements about the importance of waiting, lest I be tempted to just plop my three year old down and hand her a worksheet..... or a copy of Plutarch.

Wait... she already does that by herself.
Narration, for example, is one of those areas I really struggle. It seems to me to be something that I need to groom and build into the children and not something that will naturally bubble over one day. And yet today I was reminded of the beauty of the act of narration and the reasons why a child's narration is a perfect "test" of her ability to grasp the text or the world around her and compose it in a pleasing manner.

Whereas my seven year old, who is wrapping up AOY1 and who I hustled into "doing school" beginning promptly on her second birthday (doubting Charlotte every step of the way, mind you), truly struggles to narrate not because she doesn't WANT to do it naturally but because I ASK her to do so, my three year old excels. And so does my five year old, who loves to retell every story we tell him with great gusto, using such exact and precise language I've often wondered if he somehow memorized the text after hearing it once.

Today, we were sitting at the table and my three year old began recounting a story she had told us the night before. As she continued, I realized this was something she was developing a HABIT of doing.... every time the occasion presented itself, she had begun to tell us stories. I remembered that my older two children had gone through a similar phase.

I have been constantly amazed watching her grow and develop, noticing with joy all the telltale "signs" that she is onto the new skill. I recalled with great fondness the hours we used to all spend at the dinner table when they were tiny, telling stories-- whatever stories we wanted-- each in turn. Some of the little ones would talk the whole hour if I let them, with very few prompts other than "I see!" and "and then what happened?"

Now, this is story telling, not narrating (usually) but I call it pre-narration because it seems to be the stage in the early years that prepares the fertile ground for narrative abilities. In the moment, I had a lightbulb go off: THIS IS SCHOOL.

For a Charlotte Mason family, this act of letting a young child "tell" a story as she will is preparing her to later tell back her schoolbooks. But it's so natural and so painless and so enjoyable for both child and parent and onlooker! Yes, it's all those things.... and more!

Because as a parent, or as a sibling, it can be cute for a while to listen to these stories they want to tell over and over again. But it takes REAL kindness to sit and listen to a three year old with rapt attention for twenty minutes. It takes selflessness and courage, too.

It teaches those habits to your older children-- the habits of patience, of kindness, and of perseverance. Of attention! And so around the dinner table we go for another round, with the realization that though this is technically "school" it is really just me and my children, delighting in one another and building narrative skills.

And once again, Charlotte was right.

Below, here is my three year old telling us the tiger tale.



And here is a sweet little French girl doing the same thing that your own kids will love watching and listening to in preparation for their own French lessons later. Happy pre-narrating!