One of the beauties of narration is that we can customize the length of a reading before we ask for the narration.

For some students, it might be easy to listen to a whole chapter before narrating.

For others, it might be a challenge to listen to just one paragraph.

But Charlotte Mason recognized that wide spectrum and encouraged us to break apart longer readings

into shorter segments as needed.

We definitely want to start shorter when a student is new to narration, but how quickly

that student progresses to longer passages can vary widely depending on the individual.

And that's okay. The object is not to plow through the material and check it off as completed.

The object is to give your student living ideas at her pace and let her assimilate what she is ready for.

So let's talk about how to break apart a longer reading into shorter segments that make

sense. Here are some principles and practical tips for you. Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer. All right, here's one

principle to start with. When you are dividing a longer passage into shorter segments, don't stop just anywhere. The points at which you pause your reading

can affect how well your student will mentally be able to piece it together when you get

to the end of the passage. You want to include a complete thought or idea in each segment. So if you're reading the story of creation

from Genesis 1, for example, a logical place to pause would be at the end of the description

for each day of creation. If your student can take in more than one day's description at

a time, you could read two days'

descriptions before you pause. What you don't want to do is read one and a half, stopping

abruptly part way through day two's description. And the same concept goes for passages

that contain conversations. You don't want to stop in the middle of a conversation

usually. Now, perhaps you're reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and you come to Chapter 3,

How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow. There's a lot of dialogue in that chapter, and you'll want

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