Retelling stories, Charlotte Mason narrations

One of Zoe and Ashley's favorite ways to "play school" is using Time4Learning.com. There is a character called, Ed Mouse, who says, "It's time for learning *and* fun!" when you enter your account. Zoe prefers to think of Ed as, "Meg," and politely tells the mouse, "Good morning teacher Meg Mouse!" It's all part of playing school.

When I first began homeschooling, I read A Charlotte Mason Education, and I would ask Zoe to retell me the story we were reading. They call this narration. Then after a while it became less of a request and more natural, like telling Daddy about the books we were reading at dinner time. Lately, after Zoe does story reading and comprehension on Time4Learning, she likes to turn the computer off and retell the stories to me and Ashley or her dolls. She sometimes pretends she's teaching too.

Then we had this great idea to use Photo Booth on our Mac to record Zoe's narrations. Both Zoe and Ashley get such a kick out of making a video and watching themselves. I'm planning on posting more and more of these as they continue to make them, both from Time4Learning stories and books we're reading. Zoe is really into Fancy Nancy books right now for her own reading, and we're still reading great literature together.

Love, Kelly