Charlotte Mason Reading Lessons Part 1: An Overview

Reading. Ahhh… Isn’t this every homeschooling mom or homeschooling-mom-wannabe’s greatest fear: not being able to teach our children to read?

In this post, we want to share an overview of reading lessons as outlined by Charlotte Mason. We hope to elaborate on each phase in future posts, but we believe getting an overview is just as important so we understand that it’s a process that cannot be rushed. 

The Different Phases of Learning to Read

Here are the different phases of how a child learns to read, as explained by Miss Mason: 

1. Expressing interest 

Many a mother gets all excited to teach her child to read. But when the child is not ready, it can only result in much frustration for all parties involved. Instead, we can take our cue from Miss Mason’s own words: 

When should he begin? Whenever his box of letters begins to interest him. The baby of two will often be able to name half a dozen letters; and there is nothing against it so long as the finding and naming of letters is a game to him. But he must not be urged, required to show off, teased to find letters when his heart is set on other play. (vol 1 page 203) 

Did you see that? A two-year-old baby may well be able to identify some letters, but it’s not up to us to force him to do so, or to get him to “study” when he’s not interested. Perhaps a good thing to remember at this point is, “Every child is born a person.” 

2. Recognizing letters 

According to Miss Mason, most children learn the alphabet as a matter of course: 

As for his letters, the child usually teaches himself. He has his box of ivory letters and picks out p for pudding, b for blackbird, h for horse, big and little, and knows them both. (vol 1 page 203)

But for the Charlotte Mason method, we add an emphasis on observation: we encourage the child to look carefully at the letters, and we make these shapes in the air which he then names. This gives our children a closer relation to the letters and sounds. 

With this, we can see that Miss Mason does not treat reading and writing separately; instead, they are parts of the same whole. Take a look at how she describes it: 

But the learning of the alphabet should be made a means of cultivating the child’s observation: he should be made to see what he looks at. Make big B in the air, and let him name it; then let him make round O, and crooked S, and T for Tommy, and you name the letters as the little finger forms them with unsteady strokes in the air. To make the small letters thus from memory is a work of more art, and requires more careful observation on the child’s part. A tray of sand is useful at this stage. The child draws his finger boldly through the sand, and then puts a back to his D; and behold, his first essay in making a straight line and a curve. But the devices for making the learning of the ‘A B C’ interesting are endless. There is no occasion to hurry the child: let him learn one form at a time, and know it so well that he can pick out the d’s, say, big and little, in a page of large print. Let him say d for duck, dog, doll, thus: d-uck, d-og, prolonging the sound of the initial consonant, and at last sounding d alone, not dee, but d’, the mere sound of the consonant separated as far as possible from the following vowel. (vol 1 page 203) 

3. Word-building and phonics 

Miss Mason calls this activity “Word-making.” When we look at it, this seems to be the modern-day equivalent of teaching phonics: 

The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable ‘at’: tell him it is the word we use when we say ‘at home,’ ‘at school.’ Then put b to ‘at’––bat; c to ‘at’––cat; fat, hat, mat, sat, rat, and so on. First, let the child say what the word becomes with each initial consonant to ‘at,’ in order to make hat, pat, cat. Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows. Set the words in a row, and let him read them off. Do this with the short vowel sounds in combination with each of the consonants, and the child will learn to read off dozens of words of three letters, and will master the short-vowel sounds with initial and final consonants without effort. (vol 1 page 203) 

4. Early spelling

As mentioned above, Miss Mason does not distinguish between reading and spelling. In fact, reading lessons in the Charlotte Mason method involves what she calls “early spelling,” as described below: 

Accustom him from the first to shut his eyes and spell the word he has made. This is important. Reading is not spelling, nor is it necessary to spell in order to read well; but the good speller is the child whose eye is quick enough to take in the letters which compose it, in the act of reading off a word, and this is a habit to be acquired from the first: accustom him to see the letters in the word, and he will do without effort. (vol 1 page 203) 

5. Sight words

The CM method also deals systematically with sight words, using familiar pieces of poetry or prose. In Volume 1 of Home Education, Miss Mason takes the example of the familiar rhyme “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” as follows: 

The teacher must be content to proceed very slowly, securing the ground under her feet as she goes. Say––

     “Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
     How I wonder what you are,”

is the first lesson; just those two lines. Read the passage for the child, very slowly, sweetly, with just expression, so that it is pleasant to him to listen. Point to each word as you read. Then point to ‘twinkle,’ ‘wonder,’ ‘star,’ ‘what,’––and expect the child to pronounce each word in the verse taken promiscuously; then, when he shows that he knows each word by itself, and not before, let him read the two lines with clear enunciation and expression: insist from the first on clear, beautiful reading, and do not let the child fall into a dreary monotone, no more pleasant to himself than to his listener. Of course, by this time he is able to say the two lines; and let him say them clearly and beautifully. In his after lesson he will learn the rest of the little poem. (vol 1 page 205) 

Teaching Reading in the CM Method

Teaching reading doesn’t have to be complicated. We hope to elaborate on each of these phases in future posts, so stay tuned! 

In the meantime, feel free to head on over to our Shop Page for a FREE Letter Cards and Word Cards Printable, featuring Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.