Narration
As you and your child begin—or return to—the practice, questions naturally arise. How can you listen without turning narration into a series of questions? What may help when a child struggles to find words? And where can you begin with an older child?
The resources below offer a place to begin and a path for learning more.
Begin here
The Art Within: A Mother’s Guide to Beginning Narration
A practical guide to beginning oral narration, recording a child’s words, and moving gradually toward written narration. It also offers help for beginning with an older child and reassurance that you can start from where you are.
Step into Narration with Aesop’s Fables
A free first lesson using “The Fox and the Grapes,” with a short introduction, a simple invitation to your child, and the story itself.
Telling Back: The Art of Narration
A downloadable introduction with suggestions for beginning narration and sample readings.
Read the teachers who practiced the method
These articles from The Parents’ Review bring practical experience from Charlotte Mason’s schools into the conversation.
- “Some Notes on Narration” by G. F. Husband considers narration, questioning, and the child’s own mental work.
- “Narration the Charlotte Mason Way” by H. W. Household clarifies the single reading and the importance of giving children time to narrate.
- “Knowledge and Narration” by Daisy Golding offers examples of narration in practice, including different forms of telling and written work.
- “The Method of Narration” by Stanley Boardman explores how to support a child’s effort without taking over.
- “Concerning Repeated Narration” by Elsie Kitching explains why narration is not simply repeating the same passage again.
Read Charlotte Mason
- Home Education, Volume 1 — free digital edition: Mason’s early guidance on the child’s natural art of telling and the beginning of formal narration.
- School Education, Volume 3 — read online: examples of children’s examination work, from oral narration to written work.
For a fuller study, Karen Glass’s Know and Tell: The Art of Narration is a natural next book. Found online.
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