books and narration

nancyg,

While I’m not fully understanding exactly what you’re asking (it’s late and I’m tired, ha!), I’ll take a stab at it. The first question that comes to mind is, how long has your daughter been narrating? If narration is a recent (and for us that would mean learning to narrate over a year or more) thing, perhaps she just needs more practice. It sounds like you’re stopping enough along the way so that she doesn’t lose attention or focus, so good job on that. Narration is a skill that takes lots of practice. Some other questions I thought of:

• Have you tried other ways of asking her to narrate besides asking a direct question (ie. “What happened when Jessie came across the sea?”)? For example, you could have her draw a picture of some details she remembers. Or use a white board and write some key words or names from the story on it. Charlotte called these “hooks” to hang the narration on, and this is the method most commonly used in our house. Sometimes mixing things up in how you’re asking for the narration can be a great way to help make the narrations better.
• Is she only narrating history, or do you have her narrate several subjects? Because narration takes practice, it’s wise to have a child of 9 narrate several times a day. For example, you could begin with history and Bible, and have her narrate that. Then you could go on to poetry and picture study, and then read a chapter from your literature selection and she could narrate that. Then have math and copywork, and then perhaps she could read aloud to you from a book of her choice and narrate when she’s finished. 
• Is your dd interested in the book? Many times our own children just do not “click” with a book, even a highly recommended one. If you think she isn’t interested, perhaps you could try another resource on the same subject and see if that results in better narrations. Not all books work for all families, or even all children in the same family. 

If you and your dd are old pros at narrating, maybe she was just hesitant to share with the friend about what she’s learning in school. I have noticed that my children do not enjoy sharing with curious friends, family, or even grandparents about what they’re learning. Every once in a while, I’ll ask them if they’d like to recite a poem or sing a hymn that we’ve learned, and they tend to get embarassed. I never force the issue though. Perhaps your dd just isn’t comfortable sharing with someone outside the home about what she’s reading or learning. I realize it kind of makes you feel like you look bad in front of the friend, but if she’s giving good narrations at home, I wouldn’t worry a bit what she says or recalls when others ask. I think our children know when people are just fishing to see if they really are learning anything by being homeschooled!

Anyway, I know that was long, and I hope I helped in some way. 

Blessings,

Lindsey

Although a non-fiction is certainly acceptable, it would be even better to have the facts mixed in with a good story, if possible…especially for a younger child. For example, we are studying Ancient Egypt and I picked an Egyptian Diary book (recommended on this site) It is fiction but shows how life was lived through different stories shown in the diary pages. It just helps those facts stick when there is an interesting story to go with it.

Hope that helps!