Imagine that from the time you were little, you've been playing with a baseball.

You've learned how to throw it, how to catch it, and how to hit it with a bat.

You've also figured out the basic rules of playing the game of baseball, how players

take turns hitting the ball and running around the bases to earn points.

But there's a whole lot more to baseball than just that. There

are names for the different players and the positions they play. You could say, uh, the guy

who stands between second and third base. But it's quicker and easier to say, the shortstop.

And when you say that term, everybody in baseball knows which player you're talking

about. There are labels for types of activity on the field, too. For example, a double play or

a sacrifice fly. And there are many more terms that baseball fans and players use to save time and effort during a game.

The more you understand those terms, the better you understand baseball.

Well, in a similar way, the study of grammar is simply learning the terms and labels for language. We could say the word that describes a person or

a place or a thing, but it's quicker and easier to say the adjective. The more your student

understands those terms, the better he will understand language and grow in the art of using language well.

Let's see how Charlotte Mason approached the study of grammar.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer.

From the time your children

were young, they have been listening to language. As you have talked with them, they've

become more and more familiar with how the language sounds and how the words work together

to convey ideas. As your child grows, he begins to try to use language for himself.

Well, at first, it's just nonsense syllables, but in time his mind puts together the pieces

and fine-tunes his knowledge at an astonishing pace, and by the time he's four or five, he can probably communicate his thoughts pretty clearly.

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