My name is Renee. I am new to the Charlotte Mason blog forum.:-) My homeschool journey started 4 years ago when my first son was two. I thought I was nuts to have this ‘gut’ feeling that I didn’t want my child in institutionalized schooling. Fast forward 5 years and I have been homeschooling 2 years now. My very first book about homeschooling was given to me by a dear friend and it was a Charlotte Mason book. I am not even sure which one. But, I read it from cover to cover, LOVED it, and then said, “how in the world do I accomplish this?” I didn’t see how. I joined a group called Classical Conversations and have nothing but great things to say about our group. I felt I needed people along with me; to scared to do it alone. I did believe in the philosophy too. However, after months of ‘fighting’ with my now 6 year old about school…I felt something was terribly wrong. My once ‘in awe’ child, was disliking school. I had to change. Lo and behold, I am back where I started, with a little more confidence and a vision that is God driven. I am sold now, been reading EVERY CM thing I can get my hands on. Anyway, that is my very short introduction.:-) I am here, I have no idea what I am doing, but I am sure it is where God has lead our family. I have a son Cash (6), a daughter Billie (4), and a son Owen (2).
So, my question is… I have just started narrating with Cash. He is seemingly excellent at this. (in my newbie eyes) However, I am confused at most of the things I have read. Here is my example. We are finishing up a book about George Washington that we started presidents week. I took ‘ read only a few sentences at the beginning’ to heart. But, I would like to read for 10-15 minutes a day out of this book. Obviously, that is a lot of narration for a beginner and if we only do a couple sentences a day, I will be in this book for 3 months. I could probably easily read it to him in a couple weeks at a nice pace.
So, when you start narrating, do you only read a few lines a time and be done? Do you have them narrate the first few lines or paragraph (my son can narrate a paragraph…but, has harder time with poetry that is colorfully worded) and then read the rest of the time without narrating? Obviously, it is going to take time for him to narrate long passages….and I want to be able to read more than 1 minute. Does this make sense?
I have read many CM and AO articles/blogs on narration. I can not seem to find this question out. Am I doing this right?
Hi, Renee, and welcome! You’re right that you should start short. Read a paragraph or two, then ask for the narration. Then look at the clock. Do you have enough time to read and narrate another couple of paragraphs? If so, keep going. Continue to read-narrate-check the clock until the 15- or 20-minute lesson is done.
And keep an eye on your son’s progress. You will start with reading only a paragraph or two at a time, but you want to gradually nudge out the length as he is ready for more. The short readings are only a stepping stone to cultivating the habit of full attention and easing a newbie into the skill of oral narration.
Wow, Sonya, thank you! I couldn’t believe it was actually you that responded.:-) I will definitely read your Narration Q&A too. I am still learning to navigate this site.
Hi Renee! I thought I would respond because my kids are the same age. I smiled when I saw that you are reading George Washington because that is our current history book too (if it’s the one by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire). I’ve wondered about this too. It took us two months to get through one of our history books (Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin) which made me feel as though we might be going too slow. I listened to a great podcast yesterday that addresses narration from a six year old that you might find helpful.
My takeaway is that at this age, we are just building the skills of narration and a love for living books. Although our Benjamin West study took a long time, the short readings allowed my son a chance to really digest the book. We enjoyed the characters so much that we did a Benjamin West picture study after we finished the book. Going slow really made the characters come alive for us all.