A Gentle Grammar Lesson
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
In the first place, grammar, being a study of words and not of things, is by no means attractive to the child, nor should he be hurried into it. –Charlotte Mason
Most kids would certainly agree.
Charlotte Mason strongly opposed teaching grammar to children under ten. She felt that children were ready at that age to begin only short, gentle, grammar lessons. In the beginning, oral lessons of about 10-15 minutes were sufficient.
So how do I teach a ‘gentle’ grammar lesson?
Easily!
Charlotte Mason felt that rather than memorizing the parts of speech, grammar studies should begin with the ‘whole concept’ of a of a sentence. Understanding the ‘whole’ first makes it easier to understand the ‘parts.’ So you can see just how easy this method is to use, here is a short reprint of a first grammar lesson from Volume 1 of Charlotte Mason’s Original Home Schooling Series:
Words put together so as to make sense form what is called a sentence.
‘Barley oats chair really good and cherry’ is not a sentence, because it makes no(n)sense.
‘Tom has said his lesson’ is a sentence.
It is a sentence because it tells us something about Tom.
Every sentence speaks of someone or of something, and tells us something about that of which it speaks.
So a sentence has two parts:
(1) The thing we speak of;
(2) What we say about it.In our sentence we speak of ‘Tom.’
We say about him that he ‘has learned his lesson.’
The thing we speak of is often called the SUBJECT, which just means that which we talk about.
People sometimes say ‘the subject of conversation was so and so,’ which is another way of saying ‘the thing we were speaking about was so and so.’
To be learnt––
Words put together so as to make sense form a sentence.
A sentence has two parts: that which we speak of, and what we say about it.
That which we speak of is the SUBJECT.
Lesson I Exercises
1. Put the first part to these examples:
—has a long mane.
—is broken.
—cannot do his math.
—played for an hour;
etc., etc.2. Put the second part to—
That poor boy—.
My brother Tyler—.
The broken flowerpot—.
Bread and jelly—.
Mr. Brown’s tool-box—.
Following these exercises, Ms. Mason suggests that the student create new sentences by again replacing what has been left out. Then she reminds us to remember to call the first part of the sentence – what the sentence is about – the SUBJECT. After the student has finished creating all of his sentences, he is to go back and draw a line under the part of the sentence that is the subject.
It seems too easy, doesn’t it? But this method of learning is surprisingly effective, especially when a new skill is reviewed for the next few consecutive days.
Once children have had a chance to hear the lesson, short passages of copy work were often used to reinforce what was discussed. The perfect copy work for this lesson would be the “To be Learnt” section above:
Words put together so as to make sense form a sentence.
A sentence has two parts: that which we speak of, and what we say about it.
That which we speak of is the SUBJECT.
Using Startwrite for copy work
We recommend using the Startwrite Program software for copy work, especially if your student is a new writer or just learning cursive. Using Startwrite would allow you to give your child a perfect example to follow, in the type of handwriting you would like him to learn. Here is an example of something typed into Startwrite in the Manuscript handwriting style. When it is printed you see what is below along with blank guidelines underneath upon which your student will write.
This example would be good for a child just learning to write because she could use the dots to write the letters. In the program you could lighten the dots as your child learns her letters, add arrows to guide her in learning how to make the letters, choose another type of writing style (or even use cursive), or you could type the copy work in normally and have your student copy it on lines printed below.
If you would like to see more information about Startwrite you can check out a past post here or go directly to the Startwrite website here.
So does this sound as if it would be more palatable to you than all those grammar worksheets, perhaps?
Reinforcing the lesson
We recommend each child have a place in a notebook for grammar rules. Each time a new grammar rule is learned, it should be recorded as copy work and added to the notebook.
Not surprisingly, Ms. Mason advocated the copy work be chosen from superior literature such as the Bible or other living books. In the Epi Kardia Daily Lesson Plans we choose copy work from our history and science selections, allowing the activity to serve multiple functions. For example, in addition to grammar study, copy work can be used for handwriting and spelling practice, memorization, and to review history and science concepts.
So for the next day’s practice on this grammar concept, a history or a science book would be utilized.
If you think this would be an easier and more engaging way to learn grammar for your student you might want to give the Charlotte Mason method a try!
Coming up — we will post a week of grammar lessons using this methodology! To make sure you don’t miss it, subscribe to our mailing list on the top left of this page.
