We have never followed it completely, but I did use it as just one of many resources that influenced my book titles for both the book lists I use with my daughters as well as the curriculum that I wrote. Also, Ambleside Online (AO) openly acknowledges that their upper levels (Years 7-12) drew from Norms and Nobility.

I'm updating my original plans...she'll be using Year 7 from my curriculum but with some alterations. This year seemed to fit the best with the books we were planning on using anyway. I should have the guide for The Middle Ages complete by then too.

I'm working on it right now and I'm making it a priority along with the guide for The Middle Ages, for which someone else is waiting. :)

I wrote a blog post about living books and what they are to me here: Living Books: What Are They and Why Are They Important? Some science authors that we like: Donald Silver Gail Gibbons Arthur Dorros Franklin M. Branley Jean Craighead George Gordon Morrison Seymour Simon Alvin and Virginia Silverstein Ellen McHenry Robert Gardner David Macaulay Isaac Assimov Kathryn Lasky Arabella Buckley Margaret Williamson Holling C. Holling Jean Henri Fabre Rachel Carson Thornton Burgess

We include geography as we encounter it every year, but we do a focused study on states and capitals in Year Four. Because we cover a lot of US history in Year Three, we actually pick up a lot of it then, but I use Year Four to cement it. We also keep a pad of blank US outline maps, puzzle maps and a US map on the wall around too. Also, my girls have enjoyed the series "How the States Got Their Shapes"...I think that is the name of the show.

We used the Portable Renaissance Reader along with Renaissance and Reformation Times by Dorothy Mills when my older daughter was in 8th grade. We loved the combination and the short primary sources were a great way to introduce her to some slightly heavier reading. I liked the combination so much that I even bought the Portable Medieval Reader too. I'm currently writing the guides for both books by Dorothy Mills for the middle ages/renaissance and should be finished with both soon. The guides include selections from both readers. Just wanted to agree with you that the readers are a great collection of primary sources and a good stepping stone for upper middle school/lower high school students who are ready to bring their level up. They are probably too much for the OP's 6th grader, but might be good for tucking away for later. :) I don't see this mentioned often here, so it's nice to read about someone else who likes them.

Here are some more that we like that may work better...you may already have these on your list though... :) Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Saladin by Diane Stanley Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley The Cloudmakers by James Rumford Till Year's Good End by W. Nikola-lisa Muhammad by Demi Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World by James Rumford Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley Bard of Avon by Diane Stanley Famous Legends by Emeline G. Crommelin Book of Norse Myths by Ingri and Parin D'Aulaire Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold by Jame Rumford The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning Merlin and the Dragons by Jane Yolen Chanticleer and the Fox by Barbara Cooney Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from A Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (Or Roger L Green) Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb The Vikings by Elizabeth Janeway That Men Shall Be Free: The Story of the Magna Carta by Clifford Lindsey Alderman Here are some art related books too: Michelangelo by Diane Stanley Leonardo da Vinci by Diane Stanley Leonardo's Horse by Jean Fritz The Neptune Fountain: The Apprenticeship of a Renaissance Sculptor by Taylor Morrison The Fantastic Journey of Pieter Bruegel by Anders C. Shafer Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson The Illuminated Alphabet by Theodore Menten Gabriel and the Hour Book by Stein Antonio's Apprenticeship: Painting a Fresco in Renaissance Italy by Taylor Morrison Pippo the Fool by Tracey E. Fern The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E. L. Konigsburg From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg Cathedral: The Story of its Construction by David Macaulay (architecture) Castle by David Macaulay (architecture)

What age/level would you prefer? :) ETA: Sorry, I've just realized that this is on the Logic board... :) Here are some of our favorites: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo by J. R. R. Tolkien Beowulf by Burton Raffel or Heaney Canterbury Tales Retold by Geraldine McCaughrean Tales of the Crusades by Olivia Coolidge The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle +The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions by Howard Pyle Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel Terror of the Spanish Main by Albert Marrin The Utopia by Sir Thomas More In the Days of Queen Elizabeth by Eva March Tappan Walter Raleigh: Man of Two Worlds (Landmark) by Buckmaster Mary, Queen of Scots by Emily Hahn The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope Henry V by Shakespeare

My goal is to accomplish dictation 2x per week, but some weeks we only accomplished this once. :) I usually tried to balance this with handwriting (both of my girls used the Italics handwriting series) and copybook entries, which are also 2-3 times per week. This along with narrations, other languages and English grammar usually gave us enough in language arts. Also, by year 6 I switched the girls from a copybook to a more traditional commonplace book. So for us it looks like this: Years K-2: copywork (selected by me and I used programs like StartWrite to set it up in Italics font), handwriting and an introduction to dictation in Year 2 Years 3-5: copybook, handwriting and dictation 2x per week Years 6+: commonplace book (in neat handwriting...utilizing their Italics....ideally... :)), dictation 2x per week My older daughter's handwriting fell off...lol...but my younger one seems more likely to keep it...so outcomes may vary!! :) LOL!

The preface to The Dictation Spelling Book I states this: "The two books constituting the series are intended to cover the spelling work of four or five years, beginning with the fourth year." I think it can be started around 4th/5th grade, but this would depend on the readiness of each child individually, and can take you through 8th or 9th grade. :)

I save the pdf of it and then print it from my pc. We really like them too! :)

I'm not sure if anyone here would be interested in these, but I use The Dictation Spelling Book for our dictation. I would love to set the time aside to pull our own dictation from our books, but I've yet to accomplish that. :) There are two levels, but you really should not start the first level until mid-upper elementary, depending on the skills of your student. The second level would follow the first. I like the books because the book is ready-to-go but yet uses classic literature and poetry and increases with difficulty over the course of the sequence. My younger daughter is just finishing up the first book and will be starting the second one in the fall. The Dictation Spelling Book I The Dictation Spelling Book II Also, I do not choose the copywork that my children use past 3rd/4th grade. I switch them to a copybook and let them choose their selections on their own. I give them a composition book with the top half of the book blank and the bottom half lined. I let them choose from any of their school books to copy a sentence or two (and more as they progress) from any of them. I keep an eye over their selections so that they choose from a variety of books (geography, different books for reading and literature, poetry, history, science, etc.) and I require them to make at least 2-3 entries per week, depending on the child's skill needs. Once they've copied their selection, they can then illustrate it. Switching to the above books for dictation and letting my children choose their copywork when they reach mid-elementary level or so frees me from having to labor over both of these lessons. We also use an assignment sheet at about this level, giving my children assignments that can be worked on if I'm working with their sibling at the moment. This keeps everyone working productively, and not on "busy" work, throughout each day.

I wouldn't use either of these books with a first grader. Mary Pope Osborne did a 6 volume series (no worries...these are smaller chapter books) titled Tales from the Odyssey. These would be a much more appropriate retelling for a first grader, to me. And yes, if she is still not interested in the Osborne series, I would definitely feel free to skip them for a year or two. Greek Myths really covers enough for that age.

We really like the series by Dorothy Mills as well. We also use the books by G. Foster too.

Hmmm, I would have thought that these choices would have been just right for her age. If you are wanting to eliminate a couple and would like suggestions for replacements, I would look at a retelling of the Odyssey with The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff and a retelling of the Aeneid with In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively.

My older daughter just graduated this past May from high school and was dual-enrolled her last semester as a senior at our local state/community college. One of her classes was one of two required English classes, this particular one focused on composition exclusively. She'll be taking the 2nd class, which includes composition but has literature as well, in the fall. She made an "A" in her composition class and made an "A" or high "B" on all of her papers. She was homeschooled from the very beginning and took no online classes or outside classes, except for this particular final semester. We have followed the CM methods since she was in 2nd grade. However, I wasn't always confident in my own abilities to teach writing and she did some work in classical writing curricula...mainly those which focus on the progymnasmata. So, she did Writing Tales 2 and parts of Classical Writing's Homer and Maxim. She also continued with grammar instruction throughout and read The Elements of Style, independently. Dd wrote and gave orally narrations all throughout, kept a commonplace book, studied English grammar, has one credit in Latin and two credits in French and had dictation for many years. I'm sharing all of this to give as complete a picture as possible. :) I think part of the problem with CM and composition is that much of what methods were used are so unclear. I know that it reads that she delayed explicit teaching of composition until the students were 15 or so, but I think that part of the unknown is what exactly was taught in the years before. Many of the written narration assignments tended to include a lot of precursor work to essay writing. In fact, many have compared a number of these assignments as similar to progymnasmata work. This is one area that I've tried to develop in the guides that I've been writing. I've expanded on what I think was included in a the CM education, but really, I would think that if she were alive today she would have too. We must expand on it. She developed her methods and curricula to develop the minds of students of her time period. We must expand to develop the minds of our time period. I think you can follow the "heart" of Charlotte Mason's ideas and overall approach and yet still make adjustments as best fits our own time period and our own family/personal lives. I don't think that no instruction was given, I just think that it looked differently from what we see and expect today. CM students were writing essays by Year 10, but the years before that were spent writing narrations in response to literature, current events, drama, poetry and more. Many of the assignments of today in both high school and college are reader response type assignments. Narrations are very similar to this. But, again, I did add to these written assignments by asking my dd to write narrations based on speeches and primary sources, to write historical background papers, to write character sketches and to write papers based on science journal articles. I think that all of this led us quite easily to a place where putting together an essay was not an issue. I did explicitly teach her in text documentation and how to write bibliographies and works cited pages. I also used the 5-paragraph essay section from Classical Writing's Maxim. I was very familiar with the 5 paragraph essay and set up the guidelines for writing this format when she wrote her more edited and finished papers for me. Also, her English composition class was never set up in the typical 5 paragraph essay style. She was expected to meet expectations and to meet a specific word count, but was never limited to 5 paragraphs. Her professor's focus was more concentrated on whether her paragraphs supported her thesis and whether the sentences within the paragraphs supported the topic of that paragraph. Truly, much of this evolves over time. It is so hard to see how well this all comes together if your first child has not yet been through this. I feel so much more confident now about what I'm teaching and when and in what way now that I have one who has moved on to college. One of the reasons she did so well in her class was because she had a good writing "voice". She knew how to use words to communicate effectively and this came from a lifetime of narrations. She's been telling what she thinks and what she knows about something she's just read or learned for years now. I think that the structural elements are easy to teach. It's the comfort with writing and words that is so much harder to teach. Many of her classmates struggled not because they didn't know how to cite a source properly or how to arrange a paper into paragraphs, but more because they didn't know what to "say" and they didn't know how to "say" it in a style that was interesting and effective. They struggled with how to convey their thoughts and ideas and often had trouble with even what their thoughts were about a topic. I believe some also struggled with how to support a thesis, so this would be one area that would need time to be spent.

I think this was my favorite part of the article: So, instead of asking for a judgment, I usually start class asking my students to tell me something they connected to within the reading. And that can be anything: a beautiful line, a funny scene, a meaningful passage, something weird or something that was confusing. And it's a beautiful thing watching them grow in this process as the year progresses. They start off telling me something funny or something beautiful and the more comfortable they become, they will start getting vulnerable and telling me about passages that gave them insight into themselves. And that's not to say that there isn't any analysis. There absolutely is. But it grows out of their experience. I get most excited when my students say, this passage was weird. I don't know what it means, but I think it's important. I love when they say that. That's the starting point. I don't know what this means, but I think it's important. Then you can start thinking about it and analyzing it. But only after you have experienced the whole. -Angelina Stafford "What Does it Mean to Read Something Closely" This is what shows up in a CM style education. The commonplace book allows the student to copy a quote which inspires or perplexes or delights...thereby matching that "beautiful line, funny scene, meaningful passage... ".This is where narrations which give a child the freedom to personally connect with what was read and respond to that connection that matches "...something they connected to within the reading" . And I grow so weary of those who don't believe that literary analysis can exist with a CM education and the narration approach and particularly with those who purport it. It does exist, but as quoted above "...it grows out of their experience".

My girls read it, but I think it is typical of Landmark books, which is non-fiction that reads like fiction. Perhaps some of it is fictionalized or dramatized, I'm not sure. So, it may not count as a novel then. We liked The Witch of Blackbird Pond a great deal too, but I didn't suggest it because it exceeded your page count wish. :)

I thought that I'd share this link of a conversational, question-and--answer style article from Circe about literature. Often those in CM circles express Mason's ideas about how the teacher should never come between the student and the book. I agree with this, but I think that CM meant it more the way this article expresses it and not in the way some interpret it. What Does it Mean to Read Something Closely? I do so miss when Angelina posted here frequently. :) I always learned so much from her.

I'm so sorry... :grouphug: :grouphug:

Both of my girls liked The Witchcraft of Salem Village...Landmark book by Shirley Jackson....160 pages.

This is a fantastic idea! Thank you for doing this!!

I can also share some narrations as they grew over time, if anyone would like me to add them to the ones Sadie might provide. :)

We handle transitioning from oral to written narrations by having the child write his/her narrations in a composition notebook. I choose one to two very specific points of concentration and include the proofreading/editing marks for only those areas. For example, with a child who needs to remember to begin every sentence with a capital letter and end it with a punctuation mark, I would mark only this until the time where it was corrected or was well under way towards being corrected. At this point, I would choose one or two other areas on which to focus, allowing this to repeat/continue over time. I particularly like to use the notebook approach, because I like to also be sure to write encouraging/complementary comments in it for each narration too. For example, I often write a few words such as "great use of this word" in the margin if my dds had chosen an interesting word and used it correctly. I also might write something at the end of the narration, such as "I really enjoyed your description of the great hall in this narration". I usually keep the edit marks to a minimum and might write a note such as, "Don't forget...words that end in 'y' might need the 'y' changed to an 'I' and 'es' added when made plural". Sometimes, I write a question at the end such as "Why do you think ________did __________?" if I felt that this aspect of the narration needed to be expanded upon more. I don't expect a rewritten narration. I just ask the questions to keep them thinking. I might ask for the editing marks to be corrected on a different day. So, I might just add to her assignment sheet a note for her to correct any errors in any previous narrations. Once they type well and have reached middle school, I choose some written assignments to be essays. These will be worked on longer, edited and typed. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but.... :) I wrote a blog post on this topic, if you'd like to read it too... Transitioning from Oral to Written Narrations

This is our main list: Literature-David Copperfield, The Trojan War, The Wanderings of Odysseus, Bulfinch's Mythology, Robinson Crusoe, North and South and Pride and Prejudice Poetry-narrative selections from Longfellow, poet studies with Frost, Dickinson and Tennyson, including Idylls of the King Shakespeare and Drama-Merchant of Venice, Macbeth I'll probably put together a list for free independent reading with some of these most likely: Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss The Good Master by Kate Seredy Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott Persuasion by Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Emma by Jane Austen Rebecca of Sunnyfield Farm by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter