Narration, Narration, Narration

I have been under the weather lately as the tasks and demands of the school year are constant, my CCD class is in full swing with Advent and the New Roman Missal fast approaching, our choir is feverishly trying to learn the new music for the Holy Mass, and of course there is always life - laundry, cooking, training and disciplining the kids for heaven, helping with the family business, washing the dog, and on the list goes.  Serving others, however rewarding it is, can be very hard work.  But now I turn to homeschooling and the task of narration, which to young ones can also be very hard work.  But it doesn't have to be.

On one of the listservs I am on, has hosted quite a bit of posts and questions about narration in the CM style.  The same questions seem to come up. 

When to do it?

How to do it?

How to correct it?

How much is enough? 

So I thought that I would just take a moment to add a few thoughts.

In our home we tried starting narration orally while omitting writing.  This didn't work very well for us as my children wanted to begin writing very early, about age 6-7 years old.  I also tried making them wait to write, but that, too, was a waste of my time and energy and only lead to painful teaching periods.  So, I began written narration when my kids were ready irregardless of their age.  I recommend never squelching your child's desire to write.

When the kiddos wrote, I just let them write.  We ask our teen aged children to just write to get content down and then go back in a later draft, so why not just let the little ones do the same thing - write for content for the first while?  I did it for a whole year and the kids began writing even more and began noticing their own errors in their read-aloud sharing time. I didn't correct for grammar or spelling until they really understood the grammar concept first.  I began gently correcting more as more concepts were learned and vocabulary increased.

*As a side note, I never used a red pen, but rather green, orange, purple or something else that was fun and unexpected. 

Many moms are not sure about how much to require their children to narrate.  Just be fair to your child and you will have no problem.  We can't expect them to narrate every single subject daily until they are very comfortable writing and can do so when asked without any real hesitation.  Might I suggest writing daily, but in a specific variety of subjects.  I reserved two non-math/non-foreign language subjects to be really covered daily in the early years moving to about four to five subjects by grade 8.

How to narrate is actually the easiest for me share about as it just seemed a natural progression, however I must add that I have one gifted child who was already writing and typing her own full page narrations in Gr.3.  So rather than rewrite them out I will just share my series of three posts about CM style narration.

What Can We Do Once We Read a Book?

CM Series: Part I. Narration for Confident Readers and Writers
CM Series: Part II. - New Writers
CM Series: Part III. - Confident Learners Who Want to Be Creative

I hope my experiences will help you in your CM learning adventures in some small way.

Blessings,
Kalei

New Resource Set for The Fairy-Land of Science by Arabella Buckley

Bring God's Glory to life with a beautiful read and notebooking sheets.

Part of the appeal of the Charlotte Mason (CM) method of learning, for many homeschoolers, is the focus on the use of living books - literary works that call to the heart and mind of the reader so that they, and the truths they contain, are not forgotten. 

The Fairy-Land of Science by Arabella Buckley is just such an example of a living book.  It can be used as a read aloud for those 7-9 years old or as independent read for slightly older children. This book approaches science in a truly unique way calling to the whimsical side of childhood from the fact filled side of scientific truth.  Although she lovingly names and metaphorically refers to aspects of nature as "fairies," this book is not light nor fluffy.  It is a good solid read and sure to be a memorable reading experience when digested slowly. 

You can expect to cover the following topics:

*Sun beams/light

*Aerial ocean /atmosphere

*Water cycle

*Water and ice/forces that shape the land

*Voices of nature & how we use them/sound

*Parts of a Primrose/Plants and lifecycle of plants

*History of a Piece of Coal

*Bees in the Hive/Bees

*Bees and Flowers/Pollination

Today we share a 12 page set of notebooking sheets to help children note down or narrate about the wondrous things they learn about in the ten lectures in this book.  The set focuses on the elements, or fairies, presented in the book.  Using vintage style black and white graphics that could be coloured in, these sheets are easy on the printer and not distracting.  This set has many differently designed pages to make sure there is something for each age group to appreciate and use whether they prefer for draw, write or draw and write.  Our standard pages with four different line spacing options are also included for those who like to write a bit more than draw.  This can easily become a work that will be referred to over and over again.

Click HERE to download this set and see our collection of science notebooking sheets.

Click HERE to see our entire collection of notebooking sheets.

Click The Fairy-Land of Science (Yesterday's Classics) to purchase and add this book to your home library now.

 

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

New Gentle Nature Journal From A New Friend

Welcome to Kimberly of Life in the Little Nest and the beautiful nature journal she has to share with us all.

We are so excited to announce that Kimberly Lottman of Life in the Little Nest has just become a friend of Thatresourcesite.com.  Kimberly is a homeschooling mom of two from Virginia and is a big Charlotte Mason fan; so it is only fitting that the first resource she chose to share with us was a beautiful 33p nature journal based on the sweet work, Wildlife in Woods and Field by Arabella Buckley.  We love Arabella Buckley in our little homeschool.  She was a gifted writer of the late 1800s who is the perfect match for many CM style learners.  As expected, her works are in the public domain.

This nature journal matches beautifully with the Buckley title and includes a table of contents and notes to help learners get the most out of the journal.  Arranged by chapters, each section includes an illustration page as well as What I Learned page.  You will also find quotations from Buckley's text and classic black and white illustrations.  Older learners will find this a true gem as a narration companion.

Click HERE to go to Kimberly's new Friend page to download this resource and learn more about her and her little nest. :)

We are so happy that Kimberly has joined our little group of Friends.  If you would like to find out more about becoming a friend and sharing your own resources with others, visit our Friends page now.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

CM Series: What Can We Do Once We Read A Book? - Part I.

Part I. - Narration for Confident Readers and Writers

I was recently asked a very simple question that all of us CMers (Charlotte Mason style learners) have heard posed at meetings, co-ops and playdates:  "What do you actually do once you read a book?"  I too asked this question about six years ago when we first discovered the Charlotte Mason learning style and theory.  The whole "narration" idea can be very challenging for some families who may face a myriad of challenges such as a having reluctant reader or writer, raising children with ADD or other learning challenges, having multiple children at different reading levels or perhaps even facing the old dilemma of skepticism about the efficacy of the CM theory itself.

I thought that I would address what you could actually do to show proof of incremental learning from the slow digestion of a written work.  For the next few posts I will highlight different CM inspired resources from our resource collections to answer this question.  I try to remind myself  that everyday someone new begins to homeschool and has questions and fears about doing so.  Without fail, if I forget someone will always contact me and that reminds me of the purpose of our online ministry - to help and support those who want to happily homeschool their children with the Lord at the centre.  So let's begin with a very simple and traditional method of narration for learners who already possess solid skills of reading and writing.

We try to provide a host of different activities and resources which meet and meld reading and recalling in a fun and creative way.  One of the first ways that has been traditionally used for older learners capable of reading and writing independently is recalling written works by individual chapters.  To meet this need we created our Big Books for Narration this past year.  These books give a space to narrate with words as well as a space for children to be creative and narrate with drawings as well.  If you have a younger learner who is advanced in their learning skills, they may find this a fun and great tool too.  This is why you may find titles available from a variety of levels because this tool can appeal to younger readers and writers as well as older ones.

Some ask why drawing should be incorporated if it is supposed that we are focusing on narrating or telling back the details of the work.  We should never forget that images and art are also a great way to narrate about the plot, setting and characters.  Don't believe me?  Why not try out our art game designed to teach about the Seven Sacraments using the art work of Rogier Van der Weyden.  The artwork and details contained in the three panels tell about the time period, the administration of the Sacraments through the ages, the church through the ages, the sorrow of the Crucifixion and so much more.  It is such a rich lesson to have with your children or CCD class.  I have used it quite successfully in my own CCD classes.  Try it.  You'll either surprise yourself with how much you know about the sacraments or realize that bit more time for reading of the Catechism should probably be scheduled into your daily routine.

Big books are fun to make, easy to use and very affordable.  Sheets can be printed out for the entire work at once or chapter by chapter as needed.  Readers simply fill in the chapters with details from their reading.  They can then draw an representative picture of the plot, characters or setting.  We usually try to include a page or two of extra elements for additional thought including copywork, additional questions or clues to look for in the work, notes or even additional ideas they may have.  Finished sheets are folded in half, stacked  and bound on the left hand side using any number styles including:  brads, closure rings, comb bind spines, hand sewing, using a mini 3-ring binder, a duo-tang cut in half, twist ties, twine, beautiful ribbon . . . anything you can think of, really. They make great proofs of learning for formal learning needs as well as neat keepsakes for warm and fuzzy sharing with others like older siblings or grandparents.



Samples of binding techniques - (left) comb bind spine, (top) mini 3-ring binder, (right) closure rings.

We are always expanding our titles as we finish them in our own little homeschool, so we look forward to sharing more works with you as they become web-ready. 

Click HERE to see our current collection of Big Books for Narration.

In our next post I will chat about narration activities for new or less confident writers. 

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

Are you a new to or interested in the Charlotte Mason Method?  Looking for good books that teach about Charlotte Mason and her teaching methods?  Here are my four personal favourite CM resources from my own library.  I have returned to these works time and again over the years.

Christmas Themed Writing Resources to Encourage Your Learner

Writing art narration cards help build writing, drawing, penmanship and language arts skills all at the same time.

This style of resource is fast becoming a favorite in our home and it seems many of your homes as well.  Built on the ideas of the Charlotte Mason (CM) method of learning, these little sheets turn into art cards while promoting creative writing using picture prompts.  A portion of a picture is provided.  Children finish off the picture using their art skills and just about any medium they prefer - pencils, crayons, markers.  They then write about the action in the picture they created or some other aspect about the picture - setting details, plot, character details.  This activity can also be done in reverse order as well.  You could ask the learner to write a paragraph about the graphic provided and then have them finish the picture based on what they have written. 

Completed pictures can be shared amongst siblings or learners.  They could play games like guess what`s going on in the picture or try and guess what a good title may be for the card based on the writing or illustrations or both.  If your child does a set of cards, they can be stacked and bound on the left using brads, rings, a folder, comb bind spine, or even hand sewn with red or green yarn using holes from a hand punch.  It`s all about the skill building, fun and fellowship that can be gotten from a few sheets of paper.

We hope that this helps with your schooling and skill building in some way.

Click HERE to see our entire collection of Narration Art Cards including two separate Christmas sets.  One smaller set features black and white more vintage style images and the other brand new set of 25 sheets features colour images.

Today`s Reflective Thought - Being a Good Ambassador for our Lord

Many wonder why we would do such a thing as make resources and give them away, no strings attached, to other homeschooling families, catechists, educators, and teachers.  To explain, we simply share this daily antiphon for the Magnificat with you:

Behold, the King will come, the Lord of the earth,

and He will remove from us the yoke of our captivity.

I always explain to our children and those in my CCD classes that once we are marked with the sign of Christ, we become like His special ambassadors.  When we put on a chain with a crucifix or cross, we publicly mark ourselves as Christians and Catholics whether we are in church, in learning time, or in the line at the grocery store - we represent our Lord.  As ambassadors for our Lord, it is our job to help carry out His mission. 

The antiphon above reminds us that our Lord comes to remove the burden of sins, trials and hardships from our shoulders as He offers to put them onto His own.  Following as closely as we can to our Lord, we try to take the burden of finding good homeschooling resources off of your shoulders and put it upon on our own.  As part of our online ministry, we try to create resources that can help those who are Catholic or Christian but also call to the hearts of those who do not yet know our Lord.  We offer kind support to newbies, those worn out from homeschooling, as well as those who love homeschooling.  We don`t offer a full curriculum - not yet, anyways..lol.. - but it`s nice to know my Master`s degree in education isn`t going to waste even as I meet virtually and physically with homeschoolers looking for help, advice, or just a listening ear.

As you don your chains with crosses and crucifixes to leave your home and mark yourself as a follower and believer, I challenge you to remember that you are an ambassador for our Lord.  Keep this awesome thought in mind, YOU may be the ONLY representative for our Lord that someone who doesn`t know Him may meet. WOW!!  What an awesome job we have.  This is why we do what we do.  We want to be the best ambassador for our Lord that we can be, even for someone who doesn`t know Him yet. :)

Please keep us and our ministry in your prayers!!

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

Feel free to contact me through our website HERE.



Notebooking Sheet for the Elements and Printable Periodic Table Posters

Notebooking Sheet and Posters help older learners explore the Elements and the Periodic Table

Chemistry and Physics have never really been my friends.  In fact, I never really enjoyed science until I was learning about Charlotte Mason's method and realized that science really was God's glory in action.  We now think of it from that perspective in our little homeschool and that makes us want to explore science in a more fun and natural way.  One of the ways to approach science is with notebooking.  Simply noting down what jumps out to you in your comprehension of information that has been read, heard, watched, observed, or studied in some other way.  Today we offer a special notebooking sheet designed by one of our daughters.  She wanted things just this way and so I copied her design and created this printable and a few little posters sheets for reference.

This notebooking sheet is fairly detailed and definitely geared for a bit older learners.  These sheets could be done one for each element but that is a huge undertaking.  A more realistic way to use it for elements are very abundant in our world.  Considering that 98.5% of the earth is made up of only 8 elements, we may all really want to consider exploring these elements a bit more in depth.  I learned this little statistical ditty in my reading of our CM selection, The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin D. Wiker. :) 

The posters are perfect for reference on a wall or to glue into a F3 folder, notebook, tablet, or other learning project.  If you are like us and using the book, The Elements by Theodore Gray, your learner could colour in the black and white version of the periodic table to match the one in the book.  Just a colourful thought. :)

We hope that these resources help you in your exploration of God's Glory in action.

Click Here to download the Element notebooking sheet.

Click Here to download the Periodic Table posters.

Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team

New Science Big Book of Narration to Study the Periodic Table

New Big Book of Narration makes the study of the periodic table more meaningful.

Today we feature a resource for slightly older learners.  We are starting a unit on elements and the periodic table this week and we thought that we would share our science resources with you.  We will be using narration as part of the Charlotte Mason method of learning for our core activities.  The books we will be using are The Mystery of the Period Table by Benjamin D. Wiker, a Catholic professor and very solid science writer and The Elements - A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray.  The first book is on many CMers reading list and lends itself very nicely to narration.  The second is a wonderful and captivating book about the elements as many of us have probably never seen them.  You can read more about it HERE and see the few sample pages that really drew us to buy and use this book.  WOW!!  As we begin this science theme in our own homeschool, we share our core narration resource, the My Big Book of Narration for The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin Wiker with you today.

This new CM narration resource features a bit more space for narration in unique ways.  The usual space for drawing a picture and writing a few pages is included, but we have also provided spaces for Terms to Know, Neat Facts I Remember, and Questions or Thoughts That I Have.  These spaces really allow children to think about not only recalling detailed information but whole concepts that are being presented as well. 

To use this resource, simply print out the pages in order, fold them in half and bind on the left using a binding of choice including long duo-tangs, a comb-bind spine, rings, a small three ringed binder or any other way you may choose.  You can see our assembly instructions and collection of Big Books for Narration HERE.


Click Here to download this new narration resource now.

We hope this helps you in your science learning and we look forward to sharing more resources to accompany this unit very soon.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

New How Do I Serve? Art Narration Cards

New art narration sheets help children discern the value of servitude

When we were little children we often dreamed of what we were going to be when we grew up.  Depending on where you lived and your cultural background, you had a whole slew of ideas that probably changed as you grew older.  Most children are directed to be in careers that provide good incomes, comfort in life, and in some cases, prestige.  But as children of the Lord we know that we are put here to know, love, and serve Him and each other.  Period.  He doesn't specify our careers or how we are to serve except to say as He does in Matthew 25:34-46 that whatever we do for the least of our brothers that which we do for Him.  Today we offer resources that help children think about how each person serves one another through their chosen occupation.

These sheets directly correspond to the How do I Serve? Oversized Monthly Calendar which we shared yesterday.  As you discuss the daily occupation graphic from the calendar you can ask children about the importance of the occupation to the community at large and how that is connected to servitude of the Lord and others.  These sheets are colourful and simple to use for just about any age.  Simply print out the sheet, fill in and finish the picture using the graphic provided as a starting point.  When completed, have the children write about how the person is serving, what is going on in their picture, or reiterate a portion of your family discussion.  Fold in half and glue when completed.  Learners can then share with each other their finished cards.  You could bind all cards on the left with brads, half a file folder, key ring, or a spine of some sort to create a book of their writing and artwork for the month.  These are great for Charlotte Mason style learners beginning to use narration or those who need to show proof of learning in the form of writing samples.

There are three sets in this collection totally 31 different sheets.  We hope these sheets help stimulate some excellent Christian discussions.  Don't forget to look up the Bible verse mentioned above (Matthew 25:34-46) and read it together as a family.  :)

Click Here to download set 1 of How Do I Serve Art Narration Sheets - 10p.

Click Here to download set 2 of How Do I Serve Art Narration Sheets - 10p.

Click Here to download set 3 of How Do I Serve Art Narration Sheets - 11p.

If you enjoyed this activity you can see similar resources and samples HERE.

Blessings,

That Resource Team

More Resources to Help Learn About St. Jerome

Go-Along resources to celebrate St. Jerome's Feast Day on Sept. 30th

We love St. Jerome.  And as we previously shared a wonderful Little Liturgical Year  for September resource featuring St. Jerome from Michelle Scott, we thought we might highlight a few other resources that you can use as go-alongs to learn about this great saint who all Christians owe a debt of gratitude.

Use our Notebooking Sheets to find a set of 12 sheets in various line spacing options for St. Jerome - including spaces to draw as well.  You might also like our plain saint bio template fit for any saint instead.  You may also find sets for some of your other favourite family saints there too.  There is something for everyone.

If your learner is more tactile and a hands-on type learner, then you might choose to make a Learning Card about this saint (or other favourite saints) to add to your collection or to start a collection if you haven't done so already.  Our kids love these cards.  This set includes two saints celebrating feast days this month, St. Jerome on the 30th of September and St. Vincent de Paul on the 27th day of this month.

You can focus a bit on writing and copywork skills with our Saint Quote Copywork sheets.  These sheets are available in cursive or print trace styles although a few other saints can be found in non-trace styles as well.  You will find one of the most famous quotes from St. Jerome available to help celebrate his feast day.

If you are doing a lapbook or other paper project and are looking for a mini-book on St. Jerome, then look no further.  We have a My Book Mini-book on St. Jerome as well as tons of other saints.  These are all prompted for easier narrations. 

If you are inspired by St. Jerome as a Doctor of Catholic Church, you may want to try our My Book Mini-book unit study All About the Saints of the Catholic Church.  This project uses our mini-books to study about many well known and some lesser known saints of the Catholic Faith including books that focus on the Doctors of the Church.  A full list of the Doctors and instructions are included.

Enjoy!!

Blessings,

That Resource Team

Life of Christ Notebooking Sheets Pt.II - All Sets Available in English and in Spanish!!

All the Life of Jesus Christ Timeline notebooking sheets are up and ready to go in both English and Spanish!

By the grace of God, I had a patch of time last evening to work a bit on more notebooking sheets to go with the Life of Jesus Christ Timeline.  My youngest changed her mind an decided to use the notebooking sheets instead requesting the mini-books so that gave me a bit more work time.  Perhaps at some point I will get to them.  Our house rule is generally that we make resources for our own needs and then share them with others.  Occasionally someone will request something and we try to help out if we can.  Thus was the case with the Spanish resources.  Xhonane over at Familia Catolica  offered to translate the resources and then I reworked them.  Thus we now have the timeline, timeline pieces and now notebooking sheets to go along with the Life of Jesus Christ Timeline in both English and Spanish.  Thanks, Xhonane.  You will find the Spanish links in red.

Our ministry is about helping homeschooling families worldwide teach about the Catholic faith in a direct answer to the late Pope John Paul II's call for parents to be the first teachers of their children.  As we are just a homeschooling family ourselves running our website in our spare time and out of our own pocket, we appreciate the prayers, positive feedback, and donations of any kind that people share with us. 

If you find that you like our resources or find them useful, why not help other homeschoolers find them as well?  It's easy to help us spread the word:  share us on listservs, blogs, Facebook or Twitter.  Consider adding one of our website buttons or blog buttons to your site.  Won't you please help us get the word out?  :)


Click Here to visit our Bible Notebooking Page.


Blessings,


Kalei - That Resource Team

Life of Jesus Christ Notebooking Sheets - Part I.

Notebooking Sheets to Go along with the Life of Jesus Christ Timeline

Everyone in our house was excited about the Life of Jesus Time Line.  After we assembled and started using our timeline, We began reading and narrating the Knecht book at the breakfast table for the sake our littlest.  Our oldest needed more meat in the readings and so we began finding the passages in the Douay Rheims, which is our favourite version of the Bible - Yeah, St. Jerome!!  This gave way in a very natural progression to the question, "Mom, do we have any notebooking sheets to go with this?" Needless to say, we didn't have any, but we do now. :)

You can find now find notebooking sets that go with the Life of Jesus Christ Timeline project.  Each set is now offered as just one file with 12 page options per file to accommodate writers from K-12.  This also keeps the web page cleaner, as long as the files are not too big to download at once.  (Big files strain our bandwidth and yours too.)   We have almost half of them done right now in English (thus Part I. in the post title).  We are still working on the rest of the set but we thought we had better post what we have so far so that folks could get started.  There are a few extra event sheets on the web page that are not in the timeline project itself because we had already used them previously for our studies.  You will find that the pictures on the notebooking sets match the timeline pictures to help you keep organized. 

We hope to have the rest of the sets done over the next week.  We are planning to try and make a Spanish counterpart at some point as well but I know I won't be able to get to that right away yet. 

BTW - I don't need to tell you that the youngest asked me after seeing the notebooking sheets, "Mom, do you have My Mini-books too?"  Yikes!!  So I guess those will also be on the way as well shortly.

Please continue to pray for us in our ministry efforts to serve more families worldwide.

Click Here to visit our Bible Notebooking pages


Blessings,

That Resource Team

Life of Christ Timeline for Children

**Update** See our revised edition of our Life of Christ Timeline as well as our brand new

Life of Christ Timeline for Preschoolers. Available on our Resource DVD.

 Timeline on the Life of our Lord, Jesus helps learners get to know our Saviour

As we alluded to the other day, we have finished a project that has been on my mind for over a year now.  This special resource is perfect for any Catholic learner, young or old and is the perfect compliment to New Testament Bible study or Catechism or CCD classes.  It is a simple hands-on pictorial timeline for children.  Created as a go-along resource to Child's Bible History by Rev. F.J.Knecht, D.D. (TAN Books), this new resource has been a big hit with our children.  Although you don't need to use the book to appreciate this resource, it really is such a nice concise read with very easy narration points.  There are 39 different events listed.

Assembly of this timeline is easy.  Print out all files using standard size 8.5"x11" paper.  You can use either heavy bond or regular bond paper.  Cut out timeline pieces, arrange as given in the instruction sheet.  Cut apart timeline cards.  Affix three to a line in the order that they occurred.  A space has been left at the bottom of each of the cards to write in a Bible passage from the Gospels.  This is a perfect bible activity for any aged learner.  Our first grader is very proficient in finding passages in the Bible and I teach this skill in my CCD class for Gr.2+ Sacramental prep.

Sample timeline cards

Many times children or even those new to the faith find it hard to piece together all of the events of our Lord's life.  I wanted a way to help them work through the Bible, learn about Jesus, as well as follow the Mass liturgies in a fun and hands-on way.  I think that this resource will definitely help.

I hope you find this resource helpful in your home or CCD class. :)

View more and download The Life of Christ Timeline


Blessings,


Kalei - That Resource Team

New Mother Goose Mini-book Unit Study

Mini-book unit study makes learning about prose OR poetry so much more fun

It finally happened, we created a My Book Mini-book Unit study on the works of Mother Goose as presented in Mother Goose in Prose by Frank L. Baum.  We began reading this collection of stories aloud during the lunch hour.  Originally, we created the Big Book of Narration for this work for our older, poetry hating, daughter..lol.  Our oldest began to fall in love with poetry as she learned about good moral behaviour and our youngest wanted to narrate something about the works too.  So, we created this Mother Goose unit study as part of our eclectic, Charlotte Mason style learning approach.

This unit study is fun because it allows children to express and tell back the details of the stories which they felt were most important.  This zipped file contains an instruction sheet, all of the 22 My Book Mini-books, the matching My Book Keepsake Pages as well as colourful matching cover.  The books are not prompted so that younger children may draw more than they write and older learners may write more than they draw.  Also if you do not have the book mentioned above by Frank L. Baum, you can simply use the rhymes as the catalyst for writing narrations or as little copywork books.

If you like this CM inspired style of narrative learning, you may want to try one of our other My Book Unit Studies on various topics including the saints, the human body and more.


Click HERE to download this and other My Book Mini-book Unit studies now.


Blessings,

That Resource Team

New Big Books for Narration Including Planning Sheets

Recall, Create, and Learn

As we slowly transition and update the resources from our blog to our website, we are excited to say that we have just updated our website to include our new collection of Big Book of Narration.  There are currently nine titles to choose from including such authors as Robert Louis Stevenson, Thornton Burgess, Hugh Lofting, and more.

Along with the narration books we have also tried to include a planning or progress sheet for almost each title.  This has proven helpful for our children.  They can check off chapters that they have read, narrated or completed and see and track their progress.  There is a space at the top for a reading schedule to be written in (i.e. read one chapter a week, read one chapter twice a week, read a chapter once every two weeks).  Whether you read and narrate or just read and orally discuss chapters, there is a space to accommodate you.  Just check the boxes that apply. 

We have included the sheets in an effort to help create more independent but organized learning.  This is working marvelously for us and we hope it can help you too somehow.  Stop by and take a peek.  Please feel free to share this link with other homeschoolers who use literature based learning, who follow a Classical Style, or who subscribe to the Charlotte Mason method of learning.

Many more titles are in the works and will be posted as we finish up books in our little homeschool and move onto more reads ourselves.


Click Here to visit our Big Book of Narration page now. 


Blessings,

That Resource Team

New Resources for Parables From Nature

A science nature read for moral training, fun, and learning

Oh, to learn about God's Glory in action though nature and reading at the same time!  It can be done quite neatly and easily. 

Today we offer the Big Book for Narration of Parables From Nature by Margaret Scott Gatty. This 4 part (series) book is on almost every Charlotte Mason reading list there is as it was directly suggested by Charlotte Mason.  Although Charlotte herself has this book listed as a read aloud for very young children such as grade 1, we have found it much better used as a jump-off to independent science study for grades 4-8.  This book is not the easiest to get through, but the stories are very well written and are filled with science as well as the Christian faith.

We offer the Big Book for Narration for each of the series in this book.  The Big Book offers our standard spot to narrate and draw a picture but additionally it offers two other pages which as the learner to pick out the spiritual theme/lesson from the book as well as a few concepts that present themselves from science.  This public domain text can be found online at most all of the usual online e-text sources.

As an added feature, we are also offering a parent check-off sheet to help plan your reading schedule, keep track of narrations completed, science themes, and any expanded learning done - this could include rabbit trails or slight learning diversions. :)  To help keep mums keep organized, there is also a space for noting the corresponding pages in the wonderful book Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, another core book that should be in every Charlotte Mason household for reference as well as lesson use.

We hope you find these resources helpful and useful.

Click Here to download Series I of Parables From Nature by Margaret S. Gatty
Click Here to download Series II of Parables From Nature by Margaret S. Gatty
Click Here to download Series III of Parables From Nature by Margaret S. Gatty
Click Here to download Series IV of Parables From Nature by Margaret S. Gatty

Click Here to download our Check-off Record Sheet for Parables From Nature by Margaret S. Gatty

Blessings,

That Resource Team

The Adventures of Grandfather Frog by Thornton W. Burgess

Read and remember the Adventures of Grandfather Frog

Having grown up in Hawaii, I missed the simple things of God's glory that many others took for granted - ponds and meadows, woodland creatures, and seasons.  It's true I learned a great deal about the ocean environment, volcanoes, and tropical plants and animals, but I'll never forget the first time I saw a Garter Snake in our backyard, the leaves turning bright red on the Maple trees, or the afternoon a baby raccoon fell out of a 30ft pine tree nearly landing our oldest daughter's head by about 10 inches.  No these are not things I grew up with.  Having lived in two distinct environments has made me appreciate God Glory so much more.

This brings us to Thornton W. Burgess books.  They teach so much about nature in such a lovely way.  He incorporates rich truths about our world and gives great examples of virtuous and those still seeking virtuous behaviour through animal characters.  In today's resources we meet Grandfather Frog.  He is patient but very stubborn.  Oh the adventures he has in a simple little country side pond.

We offer two resources for this public domain work today.  The first is a readable version and the other is a Charlotte Mason style narration tool.

The PIY Version of The Adventures of Grandfather Frog by Thornton W. Burgess
These books are nice because the print has been enlarged for little hands, they look and feel like real books when bound neatly, the original pictures are still included and they are simple and fairly cheap to make.  To do this, simply print the file out as is in landscape mode, fold the pages in half keeping them in page order, select a cover, and bind on the left.  Feel free to search our other posts for a step by step on how to create this resource or visit here to see our entire collection of PIY books.

The Adventures of Grandfather Frog Big Book for Narration

This resource is the narration go-along for this story.  It gives a space to draw a picture as well as narrate a bit about the story chapter by chapter.  Since we like to make each Big Book special in some way, this book offers the opportunity for your child to create a character appendix of animals who make a solid appearance in this book.  This is fun - they draw out the character, tell a bit about them with the prompted page.  This is sure to be a hit. 

To use this resource, simply print this out as is in landscape mode, fold the pages in half keeping them in chapter order, fill out, and bind on the left with rings, brads, binder, folder, trimmed duo-tang, or comb spine.

We look forward to putting this book and other resources to go with it on its own book study page shortly.  Johnny Crow has just been added there.

We hope you enjoy these resources as they help to illustrate and teach about God's Glory in the natural world.


Click Here to download the PIY version of The Adventures of Grandfather Frog 
Click Here to download the Big Book for Narration for The Adventures of Grandfather Frog by Thornton W. Burgess.


Blessings,

Kalei - That Resource Team