Ambleside, and Charlotte Mason, have generated a lot of interest among a new generation of homeschoolers.  This Victorian educator revolutionized not only education, but the way children were treated in Victorian times.   Ambleside was the name of her school, where she perfected her ideas.

Her belief was that many short classes kept a student interested and learning better than a few long classes.  Children were taught only a few minutes per class before moving on to the next subject.  Narration and copywork were both a large part of this curriculum.  Many books were read, both aloud and silently.  These books had to pass a high standard and were considered interesting and informative to Ms. Mason. 

Homeschooling parents today are revisiting her ideas with both enthusiasm and success.  The beauty of this method is not only that it works but that it is inexpensive.

Copywork teaches children essential language skills while keeping them from picking up bad habits.  Simply put, the parent chooses a sentence or a paragraph from a favorite book.  The length of the selection will depend on the age and ability of the child.  The paragraph should not be too challenging, the point is not to challenge but to gently allow your child to learn language patterns.  The lesson should be kept very short, five or ten minutes at most.

It is easiest for most children if you type the passage up in a word program using a large text and then print it out for them to copy.  This way they do not get confused within the page that they are using.  The child will copy the selected passage carefully, paying close attention to:

• Handwriting
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Punctuation

If he comes across a word that he does not understand then the word should be found in the dictionary and defined.

Narration is simply the process of hearing a story and telling it back in your own words. At Ambleside narration was begun with very young children.  They were read a short selection or a poem and then asked to tell it back in their own words.  By doing so they make the story their own, and they learn how to process what they read.

As the child grows older he will narrate the stories back in written form rather than verbal.  He will naturally move from telling about the story to writing about the story in his own words to writing a thoughtful critique.

Dictation is for older students and is a combined form or narration and copywork. The parent will read a passage out load and the child will write down what he hears. He will add punctuation and be expected to have the words spelled correctly. Dictation is best started in the sixth or seventh grades.

Dictation works well to bring any problems with language skills to the surface. It will be obvious quite quickly whether or not the student understands capitalization rules, for example. A sample schedule for the week might look like this:

• Monday- Give the student the passage. He will look it over and check for anything that he does not understand
• Tuesday- He will carefully copy the selection.
• Wednesday-Dictate the selection to the student for practice.
• Thursday-The written dictation should be checked for mistakes. The student should look up grammar rules and understand why the mistakes were wrong. It should be rewritten correctly.
• Friday-Dictate the passage a final time.

There is much more to Charlotte Mason's method. It is delight driven learning at its best. Following are some websites that you may be interested in:

• Ambleside Online is a free resource with a complete schedule and curriculum for a Charlotte Mason education K through 12th. This is a fabulous resource.
• Make copy work easy. This site has several "Mason approved" selections that you can print and use for copywork.
• Aesop's Fables are recommended for young children by Charlotte Mason.
• Washington's Rules of Civility are classic.

There are many more respources on the Internet. Ambleside, Charlotte Mason method is a popular and viable choice for homeschoolers.