Comments on: Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason: Part 4–Writing, Spelling and Grammar

By: Floria Elsensohn

Floria Elsensohn — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:11:53 +0000

Highly energetic article, I loved that bit. Will there be a part 2?

By: misty

misty — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:50:58 +0000

Can you recommend a good natural shampoo for dry curly hair?

By: Mary at Civilla's Cyber Cafe

Mary at Civilla's Cyber Cafe — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:59:07 +0000

Also, we were required to write with fountain pens — the kind with the little ink cartridges. Ball point pens were considered low class and were confiscated, broken in half by the nun, and thrown in the trash. Pencils were permitted only to make a margin on the right side of our paper, using a ruler as a guide. Other than that, nothing could be done in pencil. Keeping my brother and me supplied with cartridges for our fountain pens got expensive, and occasionally the boys would flick their pens at one another like a weapon and many was the time my brother came home spattered with blue ink! Thank goodness it washed out (it was called “washable blue” ink — the only color and type allowed).

By: Steph

Steph — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:28:38 +0000

We did penmanship, too – I remember being kept in the coatroom during play time because I couldn’t make the cursive capital G. I cried and cried but I have beautiful handwriting.

By: Mary at Civilla's Cyber Cafe

Mary at Civilla's Cyber Cafe — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:13:33 +0000

Oh, I remember learning “penmanship” in Catholic school. Penmanship lessons took place every day at 1:pm after lunch recess. A good way to calm down. I LOVED penmanship…unfortunately, I never got very good at it, much to my dismay, as it was my favorite subject. My handwriting is still, unfortunately, almost undecipherable.

The nuns had this wire chalk-holder that held 5 or 6 pieces of chalk at a time so as to be able to draw lines on the blackboard, using a yardstick under the bottom piece so as to make all of the lines straight. Then in addition to making the letters in our workbooks, we had to write them on the board in between the lines for everybody to see. My letters got progressively smaller and started to go downhill, and I’d have to try again.

To the nuns’ dismay, I could NOT, and still can’t, make a capital “E” — not correctly, anyway. “Oh, and your last NAME begins with the letter ‘E’!” they’d cry in dismay. My hand spazzes out on that letter.

Oh, well, at least I KNOW what proper handwriting should look like.

Those nuns gave us working-class kids a prep-school education.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:08:50 +0000

My kids are in public school until DH will agree with me to pull them out. Their handwriting and grammar skills are atrocious. I give them copywork daily – famous quotes or Scripture – afterschool. They enjoy it because they are learning something new as they read the quote, and I notice their handwriting is improving. This is not something that is taught anymore in regular schools.