This first post will focus heavily on transcription (also known as copywork), how handwriting overlaps with it, how spelling can be derived from it and the copybook. I will follow with separate articles for the commonplace book and dictation. Transcription is what Charlotte Mason referred to when speaking of the act of “making a written copy of” (Merriam-Webster) or “a written or printed version of something” (Oxford Dictionaries); it is what we today refer to as copywork. In

Narration has another side to it that is often neglected. While we are always quick to note that narration involves the act of reading and then narrating after the selection has been read, we often forget that listening and speaking are a part of this act as well. It is true that narration builds skills in paying attention, taking in new information and then sorting through this information as it is retold. But, a vital part of all of these smaller parts of this larger act ca