Learning to Read the Charlotte Mason Way Compiled and prepared by Sandra D. Yarbrough The following Reading Lessons have been pulled directly from Charlotte Mason’s book, Home Education, pp. 207-222. This is CM’s plan, I just changed her format from paragraph style into a step-by-step reading plan. Quotation marks are where I have quoted directly from CM’s Home Education. The other steps are CM’s I just translate translated d into a direction direction in in modern modern English. English. CM outlines outlines several several different different styles of of teaching teaching reading from pre-reading, to Cock Robin, to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I chose First Lessons with I Like Little Pussy because I thought it would suit my child, who had just turned 8 at the time, had pre-reading skills, knew his letters and letter sounds, some blends, and had been trying to learn to read using Phonics since Kindergarten with little success. You may want to choose a different poem or adapt this to your own style. I strongly suggest that you read pp. 199-222 before trying to teach CM’s methods.
Lesson Preparation STEP ONE: Print out the following portion of the poem “I Like Little Kitty”. The original poem in Home Education is called “I Like Little Pussy”. I chose to change it to Kitty because we don’t really use the word pussy to mean kitty anymore in the United States. But feel free to change it back to pussy if you’d like. like.
I like little kitty, Her coat is so warm, And if I don't hurt her She'll do me no harm; So I'll not pull her tail, Nor drive her away, But kitty and I Very gently will play.
STEP TWO: Print or Write these word cards on cardstock and cut apart or follow CM’s instructions to cut them out and past pastee “the “the shee sheets ts on comm common on draw drawin ingg-pa pape per” r” (p. (p. 211) 211).. You You may may not not use use all all of the the card cards. s. It will will depe depend nd on your your chil child. d.
I is don’t no her but will moat pike lo farm mail band Burt cull live live may flay cut bill kill
like little so warm hurt her harm So tail nor kitty And play oat stoat brittle bike tike arm harm marm bail nail pail land hand curt yurt lull dull beehive five belay day nay pay clay tray gut nut dill fill mill pill
kitty and she’ll I’ll drive I boat tittle spike charm fail sail sand for mull chive stay ray fray put gill sill
her if do not her very float skittle no barm hail vail wand bull alive give bay say gray rut hill till
coat I me pull away gently goat mike do alarm jail wail won't fu l l dive wives lay slay jay tut jill il l
STEP THREE: Gather your materials.
Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard (could also use large sheets of paper)
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk or Markers
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I like little kitty.
NOW YOU YOU ARE ARE READY READY TO BEGIN! BEGIN! Be sure you you read over over the Lesson Lesson and go go over it with yourself yourself ahead ahead of time! You want the lesson to go smoothly and be fun for your child and – I know from experience – it won’t be fun if you are stumbling around trying to read the lesson as you go! NOTE: NOTE: It was my experience experience that each lesson lesson was actuall actually y too long for my ds. ds. I ended ended up breaking breaking each lesson lesson down into smaller parts; another reason to practice with yourself first so you know how long each step will take. KEEP THE LESSONS SHORT – no more than one minute for every year of your child’s life. STOP THE LESSON WHILE THEY ARE STILL HAVING FUN. DO NOT PRESS ON BECAUSE YOU ARE EXCITED AND THEY ARE LEARNING.
Lesson One:
CM suggests this as day one of lessons. Practice with yourself first and if it takes more than 10-15 minutes, break it into several short lessons.
1. Assemble all of your materials. 2. Write the word on the board: kitty “in good clear 'print' hand” (p.212) 3. Say the word for ds 4. Have ds “look at the word until he is sure he will know it again”. My ds would close his eyes and say “visualize” to himself to memorize the word. He got really silly, but he had fun and he learned the words! 5. Cover the word on the board and have ds make 'kitty' “from memory with his own loose letters” (p.218). 6. Pour out the cut-up words for first two lines onto the table. 7. Ds finds ‘kitty’ from the word cards. 8. Show him the printed poem and have him find 'kitty', “but is not allowed yet to find out the run of the rhyme” (p.218). Repeat steps 1-7 for: coat, little, like, is, her, warm, I, so 8. When each new word word is learned, have ds put his word cards in a column to the side of his workspace. 9. I copy the words on the board in a column 10. Ds “reads up and down and cris-cras, the column on the the blackboard”. (p.218) 11. “He finds at our dictation, amongst his loose words, '[kitty]––is––warm,' places them in 'reading' order, one after the other, and then reads off the sentence. Joy, as of one who has found a new planet!”(pp.218-219) 12. Dictate more sentences,” 'her-little-coat-is-warm,' 'Pussy-is-so-little,' 'I-like-pussy,' 'Pussy-is-little-like-hercoat,' and so on through a dozen more little arrangements.” (p.219) Here are some sentences I created (feel free to create your own). Use only as many as you need to: Little-kitty-is-so-warm Kitty-is-warm Her-little-coat-is-warm Kitty-is-so-little I-like-kitty Little-kitty-is-so-warm I-like-her-coat Kitty-is-little-like-her-coat Kitty-is-warm-like-her-coat I-like-her-warm-coat If your ds/dd wishes to make their own sentences, let them. Just make sure they are correct sentences.
Lesson Two: Today’s lesson is a spelling lesson. You will want to read CM’s description on p.219 before you begin this lesson. For each word that he has never heard before, or doesn’t know the meaning of, CM suggests “a little talk about [that word]” p.219 As he makes each word with his letters, write them in a column on the board. Note that there are two more items in the materials list for this lesson – a notebook and counters. If you don’t know what a word is in the list, look it up before you begin the lesson so that the lesson is not interrupted. This lesson looks short, but it turned out to be long for us. Again, practice ahead of time so you’ll know how far you can get in 10-15 minutes and break the lesson down accordingly. Stop while your ds/dd is still having fun. Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I Like Little Kitty poem.
A notebook to record words
Counters (any small manipulative will work) 1. Have ds/dd ds/dd make “the word word 'coat' with with his letters, letters, from from memory if if he can; if not, not, with the pattern pattern word.”(p.219) “Say 'coat' slowly; give the sound of the c.” (p219) 2. 'Take away c, and what have we left?' A little help will get 'oat' from him.(p.219) 3. “How would would you make make 'boat' 'boat' (say the the word very very slowly, slowly, bringing bringing out the the sound of of b).” (p.219) 4. How would would you you make float? (say it it slowly, slowly, bringing bringing out out the sound sound of fl) 5. How How woul would d you you make make goat goat?? 6. How How woul would d you you make make moat moat??
Take away the first letter(s), leaving oat in place and just have ds/dd add the new letters.
7. How would would you you make stoat? (a stoat stoat is a weasel with a black-tipped black-tipped tail) tail) If he offers a word like ‘note’ that sound the same but is spelled differently “say, 'No, note is spelt with other letters'; but what other letters we do not tell him now. Thus he comes to learn incidentally and very gradually that different groups of letters may stand for the same sounds. But we do not ask him to generalise; we only let him have the fact that n-oat does not spell the symbol we express by 'note.'”p.219220) 8. “He has made a group of words words with with his letters, letters, and there there they are on the the black-board black-board in a column, column, thus c-oat m-oat g-oat fl-oat st-oat b-oat ” (p.220)
9. “He reads reads the column column up and down and cris-cras; cris-cras; every every word has has a meaning meaning and carries carries an idea.” idea.” p.220 10. Turn out the 9 loose word word cards that he learned. learned. 11. Dictate new sentences while he arranges his word cards to match. “ ‘I-like-her-goat’; ‘her-little-stoat-iswarm,’ and so on, making the new words with loose letters.” p.220 12. “Unknown Words” – Dictate ‘kitty is in the boat’. If ds/dd knows the the new words, spell them with your letters. Put counters for the words you don’t know; they may soon come in our lessons.”(p.220) 13. “Like Combinations Combinations have Different Different Sounds” – Deal with remaining remaining words as we did with coat. l-ittle yields brittle, tittle, skittle l-ike yields mike, pike, bike, tike, spike s-o yields no, do (the musical do), lo (if he offers toe, hoe, poe, bow, low, mow, etc, give the same explanation you gave for ‘note’. w-arm yields arm, harm, charm, barm, alarm, farm “Tommy perceives that such a pronunciation is wrong and vulgar, and sees that all these words are sounded like 'arm,' but not one of them like 'warm'––that is, he sees that the same group of letters need not always have the same sound. But we do not ask him to make a note of this new piece of knowledge; we let it grow into him gradually, after many experiences.” (p.221) 14. “By this time he has eighteen eighteen new words on the blackboard of which to make sentences sentences with the nine loose words of [kitty]. Her skittle is little, her charm is brittle, her arm is warm, and so on” (p.221) All sentences must make sense. No nonsense sentences should be allowed. Don’t fuss about it, just say that isn’t a sentence and go on to make correct sentences. But do let your ds/dd have fund making up new sentences. At this point, I give them the word cards for all the words he/she has learned so far. He/she can make any sentence they want. If they don’t have a word card for a word they want to use, they can spell the word with their letters or use a counter to fill the space. 15. Write Write all of your ds/dd’s new words in his new “‘notebook’ “‘notebook’ in print hand, so that he can take stock of his possessions possessions in in the way of words.” words.” (p.221). (p.221). For the next few weeks, I would periodically bring out his notebook and show him all his new possessions possessions – all all those glorious glorious words! He really really responded responded to them them when when I told him him gleefully gleefully that that he OWNS these words – they are HIS own possession!
Lesson Three: “These lines afford hardly any material for a spelling lesson, so in our next lesson we go on with the second verse.” (p.221) Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I Like Little Kitty poem
A notebook to record words
Counters (any small manipulative will work) 1. Wr Writ itee the the wor word d on the the boar board: d: harm 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Look Look until until you you are sure sure you you will will know know it it again. again. Make Make ‘harm’ ‘harm’ from from memor memory y with with loose loose letters letters Pour out loose loose words words for for these these two two lines lines only. only. He fin finds ds ‘har ‘harm’ m’.. Show him the the printed poem poem and he finds the the word ‘harm’, ‘harm’, but do not allow allow reading reading of the poem right right now.
7. Repea epeatt 1-6 1-6 for: for: and,
she’ll, hurt, I, i f, me, do, don’t, her, no
8. As each each new word word is learned, learned, he/she makes a column column with with the word word cards cards 9. I copy copy the the words words onto onto the board board in a column. column. 10. He/She reads the words forwards, backwards, criss-cras until he knows all of them. 11. Turn out his loose letters, letters, counters counters and the rest of his word cards that he has learned. 12. Dictate sentences sentences using these eleven words plus the words he has already already learned. He can use his word cards, loose letters and counters. He/she can create their own sentences, but he must follow these rules: He can use his loose letters IF he/she knows how to spell the word. If he/she does not KNOW the spelling, have him/her use counters. Charlotte Mason felt that children should never see a word misspelled. If they attempt to spell a word with their loose letters and it is incorrect, dismantle the word and either help her spell it correctly or have her use a counter. Here are some sentences I created. Feel free to create your own. She’ll float in the boat. Her bike is little. I like her goat. Her farm has a goat and a moat. Mike and Kitty do charm me. She’ll do no harm if I charm her. The moat is warm. I like her farm. Her moat is warm. 13. Write Write all of his new words from today in his notebook in good clear print hand. hand.
Lesson Four: Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I Like Little Kitty poem
A notebook to record words
Counters (any small manipulative will work) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Writee the Writ the wor word d on the the boar board: d: tail Look Look until until you you are sure sure you you will will know know it it again. again. Make Make ‘tail’ ‘tail’ from from memo memory ry with with loose loose lett letters ers Pour out loose loose words words for for these these two two lines lines only. only. He fin finds ds ‘tai ‘taill’. Show him the the printed poem poem and he finds the the word ‘tail’, ‘tail’, but do not allow allow reading of the the poem right right now.
7. Repea epeatt 1-6 1-6 for: for: pull,
so, drive, not, I’ll, no r, away, her
8. As each each new word word is learned, learned, he/she makes a column column with with the word word cards cards 9. I copy copy the the words words onto onto the board board in a column. column. 10. He/She reads the words forwards, backwards, criss-cras until he knows all of them. 11. Turn out his loose letters, letters, counters counters and the rest of his word cards that he has learned. 12. Dictate sentences sentences using these eleven words plus the words he has already already learned. He can use his word cards, loose letters and counters. He/she can create their own sentences, but he must follow these rules: He can use his loose letters IF he/she knows how to spell the word. If he/she does not KNOW the spelling, have him/her use counters. Charlotte Mason felt that children should never see a word misspelled. If they attempt to spell a word with their loose letters and it is incorrect, dismantle the word and either help her spell it correctly or have her use a counter. Miss Mason would suggest a counter for now. Here are some sentences I created. Feel free to create your own. She’ll pull her boat to the moat. I drive her boat. No, she’ll she’ll not hurt hurt Mike. Mike. I’ll not harm her goat. She’ll like her bike. Kitty and Mike like her farm. She’ll go to the farm. 13. Write Write all of her new words from today in her notebook in good clear print hand.
Lesson Five: Spelling Lesson Today’s lesson is a spelling lesson. Review CM’s description on p.219 before you begin this lesson. For each word that he has never heard before, or doesn’t know the meaning of, CM suggests “a little talk about [that word]” p.219. This This is a LONG LONG lesson. lesson. Be sure sure to practice practice ahead ahead of time time so you you can divide divide it into into short lessons. lessons. You could could divide each new word into a separate lesson. So after he/she does all the ‘t-ail’ words, turn out his word cards, dictate sentences and write the words in her notebook. Next day, work on ‘and’. Next day, work on ‘don’t’, ‘hurt’ and ‘nor’ together. Next day, ‘pull’. Next day ‘drive’. Next day ‘away’. Always stop BEFORE your child is tired and while he is still having fun. . Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I Like Little Kitty poem
A notebook to record words
Counters (any small manipulative will work) 1. Have ds/dd ds/dd make the word word ‘tail’, ‘tail’, from memory memory or, if he can’t can’t remember, remember, write write it on the board board for him. him. 2. Say tail tail slowl slowly, y, giving giving speci special al emphas emphasis is on the the ‘t’ ‘t’ 3. Say, “Take “Take away away t and what what do we we have?” have?” (answer (answer:: ‘ail’). ‘ail’). 4. How How wou would ld you you mak make: e: b-ail f-ail
Take away the first letter(s), leaving ‘ail’ in place and just have ds/dd add the new letters.
h-ail j-ail m-ail n-ail p-ail s-ail v-ail w-ail If he offers a word like ‘kale’ or ‘dale’ that sound the same but is spelled differently “say, 'No, [kale] is spelt with other letters'; but what other letters we do not tell him now. Thus he comes to learn incidentally and very gradually that different groups of letters may stand for the same sounds. But we do not ask him to
generalise; we only let him have the fact that [k-ail] does not spell the symbol we express by [kale].'”p.219-220). Note: I adapted the quote to fit our word in this stanza.
5. “He has made made a group of words words with with his letters, letters, and there there they are on the the black-board black-board in a column, column, thus” (p220) (p220)
bail fail hail j a i l mail nail pail sail vail wail 6. 7. 8. 9.
He/She reads reads the words forward forwards, s, backwards, backwards, criss-cr criss-cras as until he knows all of them them Turn Turn out all all of the the loose loose word word cards cards that that he has lear learned ned Dictate Dictate new sentences sentences while while he arranges arranges his word cards to match. match. Deal Deal with with remaini remaining ng words words as as we did did with with tail. tail. (different pronunciation but don’t explain or dwell on it) and = band land wand hand sand don’t =
won’t
h urt
burt
=
curt
yurt
If she offers a word like ‘pert’ or ‘dirt’ or ‘flirt’ that sound the same but is spelled differently “say, 'No, [dirt] is spelt with other letters'; but what other letters we do not tell him now. Thus he comes to learn incidentally and very gradually that different groups of letters may stand for the same sounds. But we do not ask him to generalise; we only let him have the fact that [d-urt] does not spell the symbol we express by [dirt].'”p.219220). Note: I adapted the quote to fit our word in this stanza. (different pronunciations but nor = for don’t explain or dwell on it) p u l l
=
bull dull
full lull
cull mull
drive
=
alive five b e e h i v e
dive chive wives
live (long i) live (short i) give
away
=
belay day stay lay
may n ay p ay ray
say way stray play
slay flay clay tray
fray gray bay jay
10. Dictate a few sentence sentencess using the new words and words words he has learned in previous lessons. lessons. By this point, my ds had the hang of it and wanted to create his own sentences. But here are a couple of examples: Her tail is warm. Her charm is her tail. 11. Write Write her new words words in her notebook. notebook.
Lesson Six: In this lesson, you are basically repeating Lesson Three, but with the words of the last stanza. Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I Like Little Kitty poem.
A notebook to record words
Counters (any small manipulative will work) 1. Wr Writ itee the the wor word d on the the boar board: d: kitty 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Look Look until until you you are sure sure you you will will know know it it again. again. Make Make ‘kitty ‘kitty’’ from from memor memory y with with loose loose letters letters Pour out loose loose words words for for these these two two lines lines only. only. He find findss ‘kit ‘kitty ty’. ’. Show him the the printed poem poem and he finds the the word ‘kitty’, ‘kitty’, but do not allow allow reading reading of the poem right right now.
7. Repea epeatt 1-6 1-6 for: for: gently,
but, play, will, very, and, I
8. As each each new word word is learned, learned, he/she makes a column column with with the word word cards cards 9. I copy copy the the words words onto onto the board board in a column. column. 10. He/She reads the words forwards, backwards, criss-cras until she knows all of them. 11. Turn out his loose letters, letters, counters counters and the rest of his word cards that he has learned. 12. Dictate sentences sentences using these eight words plus the words she has already already learned. She can use her word cards, loose letters and counters. She can create her own sentences, but she must follow these rules: She can use her loose letters IF she knows how to spell the word. If she does not KNOW the spelling, have her use counters. Charlotte Mason felt that children should never see a word misspelled. If they attempt to spell a word with their loose letters and it is incorrect, dismantle the word and either help them spell it correctly or have them use a counter.
Here are some sentences I created. Feel free to create your own. She’ll float gently in the boat. She’ll play gently. I will play very gently. 13. Write Write all of his new words from today in his notebook in good clear print hand. hand.
Lesson Seven: Today’s lesson is a spelling lesson and the final reading lesson. . Materials:
Large White/Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
Dry Erase Markers or Chalk
Little Kitty/Pussy poem
TWO or THREE sets of 3-D letters (plastic letters, or wooden/felt/sandpaper cut out letters, or letter blocks – whatever you have). I used plastic refrigerator magnet letters. You will need more than one set of letters.
Cut out Word Cards from I Like Little Kitty.
A notebook to record words
Counters (any small manipulative will work)
Have ds/dd make the word ‘but’, from memory or, if he can’t remember, write it on the board for him. Say ‘but’ slowly, giving special emphasis on the ‘b’ ‘b’ Say, “Take away b and what do we have?” (answer: ‘ail’). How would you make: c-ut
Take away the first letter(s), leaving ‘ut’ in place and just have ds/dd add the new letters.
g-ut n-ut p-ut r-ut t-ut
(different pronunciation but don’t explain or dwell on it)
If he offers a word like ‘mutt’ or ‘foot’ that sound the same but is spelled differently “say, 'No, [foot] is spelt with other letters'; but what other letters we do not tell him now. Thus he comes to learn incidentally and very gradually that different groups of letters may stand for the same sounds. But we do not ask him to generalise; we only let him have the fact that [f-ut] does not spell the symbol we express by [foot].'”p.219220). Note: I adapted the quote to fit our word in this stanza. “He has made a group of words with his letters, and there they are on the black-board in a column, thus” (p220)
cut gut nut put rut tut
He/She reads the words forwards, backwards, criss-cras until he knows all of them 7. Next Next wor work k with with ‘wi ‘will ll’. ’. The The other other word wordss eithe eitherr do not not lend lend them themse selv lves es to to a spel spelli ling ng les lesso son n or hav havee already been spelled in an earlier lesson. will
8.
=
b-ill
g-ill
k-ill
J-ill
s-ill
d-ill
h-ill
p-ill
m-ill
t-ill
f-ill
Writ Wr itee the these se word wordss on the the boa board rd as your your chil child d lea learn rnss the them. m.
9. Dictat Dictatee new sentence sentencess while while he arrange arrangess his word word cards cards to to match. match. She can can creat createe her her own own sente sentence nces, s, but but she must follow these rules: She can use her loose letters IF she knows how to spell the word. If she does not KNOW the spelling, have her use counters. Charlotte Mason felt that children should never see a word misspelled. If they attempt to spell a word with their loose letters and it is incorrect, dismantle the word and either help them spell it correctly or have them use a counter. 10. 10.
Writ Wr itee all all of the the wor words ds your your chil child d has has lear learned ned in in Less Lessons ons 1-7 1-7 on the the boar board. d.
11. 11.
He/S He/She he rea reads ds the words words forw forwar ards ds,, bac backwa kward rds, s, criss criss-cr -cras as..
12. Now, Now, for the day day we we have have been been waiti waiting ng for for – at last last we get to to read read the the entire entire vers versee of the poem poem!! Pull Pull out your copy of the poem and give it to your child to read. If they have trouble with any of the words, you can make a mental note to review that word another day with loose letters and visualizing. For now, CELEBRATE! It is a wonderful thing to hear him read this poem! I left the words on the whiteboard for a couple of weeks and placed it by the back door. As we went in and out, we would read a word or two on the board. Or every other day or so I would point randomly at some of the words and have him read them to me. At this point, we began reading McGuffey’s Eclectic Primer. The fun thing is that at the end of this book, they have a version of the I Like Little Kitty poem. It’s a great way to review and remind your child how far they have come. You can find McGuffey’s for free at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14642 .
Please note: McGuffey’s is my own recommendation and not that of Ambleside Online or Charlotte Mason. My ds8 responded very well to this primer, but you may find other readers that suit your child better.
.
