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.

Have you ever wished that you could customize worksheets for phonics or other skills easily and quickly, as you need them? How wonderful would it be to have those worksheets in the same handwriting style that you’re teaching your children, allowing you to teach a skill and have your children practice handwriting at the same time? We’ve found a reasonably priced program that allows you do all of the above and more. You can download Startwrite directly from the internet to begin using immediately!

Startwrite works similar to a word processor making it very user friendly. Some of the features that we found attractive include:

• Fonts, in a variety of sizes, that are actually handwriting styles: manuscript, manuscript-simple, modern manuscript, italic and cursive.
• Handwriting helps such as guideline lines, again in various sizes and colors; dotted, dashed and solid letters; starting dots and directional arrows.
• Clip art to make pages interesting and unique.
• You can design relevant copy work and handwriting materials to integrate subjects and books.
• You print out the portrait or landscape worksheets on your own paper instead of having to buy handwriting book and copy work books that aren’t as relevant to your history and science topics.
• Spell check allows you to make sure your worksheets are accurate.

Initially, we viewed this software as a great resource for phonics. In fact, we used Startwrite to create all of the phonics worksheets in our Kindergarten curriculum. Eventually, we realized that there were so many other opportunities to use this software! Some ideas we have utilized, other than phonics, are as follows:

1. Copy work – with my son, I pulled sentences and paragraphs out of the living books we were reading (for history, fine arts and science). I looked for material that emphasized a specific event or accomplishment, a concept or a language arts skill that my son needed to learn. I printed it out in the handwriting font he was learning. Early on, I simply used the lightest font or dotted letters so that he could trace the words. As he grew, I used the regular handwriting font and printed out lined blank paper so he could copy onto the same size lines as he was reading.
2. Creating books – by printing out the pages half lined and half blank, you can have your child write on one part of the page and illustrate on the other half. You could put photos on the other half and have your child write about each. For a very young child, you could type up what he tells you and let him trace the writing. One idea we did that I really loved was taking poetry selections and making our own anthology to give away at Christmas.
3. Letter writing and other models – I still have a thank you letter from one of my dear friend’s children that was created on Startwrite. Any type of written model may be created with this program from a basic friendly letter to addressing an envelope to learning to write the heading on an assignment. We used this software to model how I wanted vocabulary set up. By having my son trace the first few words and definitions, it instilled how vocabulary should be completed when writing on his own.
4. Worksheets for any subject – You can create all kinds of worksheets for any subject using creative and fun clip art to assess your child’s learning. This program is so flexible that it even includes Spanish letters and math fonts!

While there are many tools and resources for homeschooling, we feel strongly that Startwrite has the attributes of a resource that every homeschool mom needs because it: saves money (no more workbooks to buy!)

• saves time (you can quickly and expertly put together the specific materials you need when you need them)
• integrates subjects (working smart rather than hard)
• makes learning relevant (you choose the skills that your child needs to learn).

It’s not often that you read one of our blogs and we’re endorsing specific products. However, with this program we felt that too many moms had never heard of it and were missing out on its value.  Incidentally, we never endorse something we don’t own and use ourselves.

If you currently use Startwrite or decide to try it after reading this blog, please comment and let us know what you think. We’d love hear about any creative ways that moms use the program. If you have a Startwrite worksheet that you liked to share with other moms, email it as an attachment to info@epikardia.com and we’ll forward all worksheets to our mailing list of Epi Kardia moms.

I hope this product review was helpful and that you’ll find the program as useful as we have. May all of your homes be Christ-filled and joyful!

In Him,

Beth