Charlotte Mason and When to Start Narration, Reading, and Copywork

Although Charlotte Mason admired François Gouin, especially his understanding of natural language acquisition, and his influence is evident in her approach, she adapted his ideas to fit her broader, literature-rich, child-respecting vision of education.

But this does not mean that she started with “living books” in a foreign language. Rather, she wanted learners to go through the natural language acquisition process and then move into her educational philosophy in the new language.

Miss Mason wrote, “The child should never see French words in print until he has learned to say them with as much ease and readiness as if they were English” (Vol. 1, p. 301).

She’s clearly saying that a foundation of talking and listening precedes reading. You start to get a sense that there is a timing to when specific actions should happen to build fluency—which is similar to skills built in English.

TalkBox.Mom explains this timing with the fluency pyramid, illustrating the different stages of fluency. There are four layers, and each is built after the previous layer is built.

The foundational layer of fluency is talking and listening. In the beginning of this stage of one’s first language, the child listens and mimics. It’s the same in a foreign language. Miss Mason writes, “..children should learn French orally, by listening to and repeating French words and phrases…” (Vol. 1, p. 80).

It’s important to note that Miss Mason is not endorsing learning individual words without context for how to use them in a full phrase. For her, it’s a given that the words are put into phrases as they are learned—including natural phrasing a native speaker would use and idioms. 

She writes, “Of course, his teacher, will take care that, in giving words, she gives idioms also, and that as he learns new words, they are put into sentences and kept in use from day to day” (Vol. 1, p. 301).

For Charlotte Mason, words are learned in phrases that are used day to day—just like in TalkBox.Mom’s proven roadmap.

The core of natural language acquisition is that the language is used. That the child says the phrases, quote, “with as much ease and readiness as if they were English,” end quote  (Vol. 1, p. 301). It needs to feel like a second language. 

This is living speech. Individual words would kill living speech.

Once the foundation of talking and listening is laid, you’ll remember from the natural language progression that TalkBox.Mom also mentions telling stories. In the Charlotte Mason world, you’ll know an enhanced focus on this ability as narration. 

For English studies with Charlotte Mason, narration happens around age 6 or Form 1 as formal lessons begin. For a foreign language, you might begin narration 1-2 years into your studies as a speaker is experiencing that ease and readiness, which is much faster than 6 years. 

That’s because it’s not necessary that we need to wait 6 years but that at the age of 6 we reach what Charlotte Mason calls the “age of reason,” allowing children to develop the skill of narration.

In TalkBox.Mom’s Fluency Pyramid, the next layer of fluency is Reading and Copywork. 

For Charlotte Mason, Reading and Copywork also start at age 6. Copywork is more than handwriting practice. It’s a multifaceted habit-building tool that develops handwriting skills, spelling and punctuation, grammar awareness, attention to detail, and an appreciation for beautiful language.

Children copy carefully chosen passages from living books, poems, Scripture, or other worthy sources—never random sentences.

This fluency layer is built on top of the listening and talking layer. In fact, research shows that typical children need to have heard words 46 million times to be ready for school and also 20,000 hours of listening in infancy and early childhood as a basis for reading.

You want that when your child sounds out “d-o-g” the image of a dog comes to their mind. That is fluency. It’s the same thing with a foreign language.

Of course, when you’re reading, you will run into words in English that your child has not heard yet; however, you’re able to define or describe them in English. 

This is a helpful sign to know that your child is ready for reading and copywork in a second language. If your child is able to understand the definition of a word in another language or have it described in that language, your child is ready for the reading and copywork stage in another language.

Of course, in the listening and talking stage, the child can have books read to them by a native speaker so that they can hear and mimic the native accent. This was absolutely paramount to Charlotte Mason, she stated, “It is very important that he should acquire a pure accent from the first” (Vol. 1, p. 301-302).

We’re absolutely familiar with how reading affects pronunciation when reading in your first language. The most often times a native speaker mispronounces a word in their own language is because they learned to read it before they learned to say it.

The next layer of fluency on TalkBox.Mom’s Fluency Pyramid is dictation and transcribing. Dictation is not about random spelling tests.  From Charlotte Mason, you know that it’s a carefully prepared exercise that helps a child internalize spelling, punctuation, grammar, attention to detail, and beautiful writing style. Charlotte Mason called it a method of “preparing the eye to take in a whole image of a word, or sentence, and reproduce it correctly.”

This stage happens at around age 10 or Form II for Charlotte Mason, setting the child up for success and not frustration as they naturally build on the copywork and reading stage.

Charlotte Mason believed students should develop a feel for language through reading, narration and coppywork—not dissecting sentences. 

Students in their first language or a foreign language can then study formal grammar with a focus on applied grammar. Like in Form III with Charlotte Mason, you begin to review and solidify parts of speech and their functions. 

At this point with foreign language, the language is an additional language to feast through. As you grow in teh language, so does the depth and responsibility of the child’s work. 

Each Form builds on the last, with increasing independence, critical thinking, and written work in the language—reading primary source texts, writing essays and written narration, engaging with philosophy, logic, advanced science, economics, and continuing the study of nature and poetry. Charlotte Mason envisioned education as a feast of ideas and now that can be done in an additional language.

But don’t get overwhelmed. It all starts with the foundational layer and TalkBox.Mom makes that easy, giving you all the tools and support you need to start using another language with your family the same day you start the program.

Heidi Greening said, “After three years with a private tutor for our whole family, two mission trips to France for our oldest son, and a French degree in college for me, we’ve learned more functional French in the last two months with TalkBox.Mom than we ever learned in all that time.”

And now you know why she was able to make so much progress so quickly compared to studying grammar and vocabulary words. And if you’d love that for your family, go to talkbox.mom/free to try it for yourself.