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Books read and Narrations
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Hi again, Oh as I am digging into the planner and organizer I am finding more questions for you wonderful ladies. Here is my latest:
My girls love reading and are very good at it – I am scheduling books across the curriculum; some as family read alouds and some for independent reading. How many should they be narrating orally and how many written narrations should I expect? As they are twins we are doing the same books at this stage and so I will probably alternate the oral narrations. Is a chapter a day in all their daily books really enough? Do they narrate from all of them, or just a few a week? I do not want it to become a total chore and then become something they loathe. I also intend to let them do copywork as they are not really familiar with that process, and I am just trying to decide how much is too much or even not enough – it is obviously my insecurity showing – but as the girls have no experience of CM and are in the high school years I am keen to do the best I can and not let them down. How do you experienced High School moms figure out how much to do, and if it is enough to put on a transcript to go to college? Am I just being silly?
I expect my children to narrate all their readings, either orally or written. When my children begin doing written narrations, I require one a week, then I move it up until we get to one a day at least. I can’t remember exactly how old your girls are or if they have narrated before, but start orally, then move to written, increasing up as far as you think you need to, but they will still orally narrate everything else. I have my sons move around on their written narrations, otherwise they’d always expect to do the very same book, usually their science or nature book, and they’d never do written narrations on their literature books.
OK. I don’t know if a chapter a day in their books is enough. It depends on the book and on them. I aim to have them reading for about thirty minutes at a time in high school years. I expect them to read about that time, if that is one chapter, two chapters, or a third of a chapter, I don’t care. I’m more interested in the time they spend.
Do you have some books or materials on doing transcripts? Many moms just give straight credits for a book done (say your Algebra 1 book–that’s one math credit) OR there are formulas to use for a credit hour of other types of materials. I know about how long I expect the children to read on, say, history, and then add in at least one history narration per week, and so I can just guesstimate about how many hours I spend on history per week, and then per year, and so I can keep track that way. Do you have a book or two on homeschooling high school and college prep and transcripts? If not I can recommend a couple of helpful ones for you. I don’t know that I am experienced yet, 🙂 but I am just following the basic guidelines in these books, and that, coupled with my memory of my high school and college years, seems to be getting us by with only an occasional panic attack. 🙂 Also my state requires testing each year so I know my kids are doing OK age-wise.
Michelle D
Again thanks Michelle, I appreciate the input. My plan was also to have the girls read for a certain amount of time, and whatever chapters they have read to that point I would annotate (hence the reason for the previous ?)so I will do that and then I will mark whatever they have read.
Our girls are 16 but due to Hurricane Katrina and missing most of one year of school, due to losing our home and all the moves – we are redoing a year – I am not at all bothered by that or by graduating later than other kids – it is more important to me, that they are secure and confident in their education, than rushing to finish it. The hurricane caused us all to have tremendous stress and then my mother in the UK died – as such we spent one year moving about trying to get settled and then even the following year we were still dealing with some issues from the storm and the untimely death of my mother, (which meant we had to spend three months in the UK getting her affairs settled) who due to the storm I had not seen for some time back home in England. Our girls found the death of my mother a very traumatic thing for them, as they were exceptionally close to her – they lived in England for 10 years and in Germany for 4 years so that was home to them and still is to a large extent. Sorry to be giving the details here, however it does put things somewhat in context. We are now well and truly ready to get back on track and I feel CM is the best way to go, we all need the peace and beauty that CM brings after the last few years. I was in a CM school myself in England when I was in Primary School, but not in high school – so I know how to do the stuff for the young ones, but high school is a bit different. I have a Cafi Cohen book about High School and A transcript ebook, I can’t remember who wrote that. What books do you recommend? I have Karen Andreola and Catherine Levison’s books as well. They have done some copy work and I had them do a written narration after reading The Tempest, which they did a fabulous job on – the oral narrations they have not really done, so I imagine I should work on that now as well. Anyway, thanks again Michelle. Lindy
Oh, you all have been through a lot! Sending hugs your way. I just wanted to tell you, that your family sounds wonderful, and what a great experience for you to have been able to bein a CM school even if it was just for younger years, and what a great opportunity for your daughters to have lived in so many places.
You sound like you have some good resources available to you too! My favorite resources for high school so far are Janice Campbell’s book (it is an e-book, so maybe it’s the one you have) called Transcripts Made Easy, and then the book Homeschooling High School by Jeanne Gowen Dennis. I know I felt much better and more confident after reading those two things. We’ll see if I still feel confident this year in the midst of biology dissections and geometry proofs. 🙂
Giving details is great (as long as you are comfortable!) I really love the feeling of knowing the people we talk to here on the boards, and feeling like I can pray for you.
If your girls can do a great job narrating The Tempest you are good to go! LOL We began reading The Tempest this past week and, um, the narrations left a bit to be desired. We are going to back up and read the Lamb’s version again and perhaps try to track down a video version, as the boys seemed a bit lost. 🙂
Good Morning Michelle – thanks for the prayers, we have grown a lot these past years, in faith and in ourselves through all the trials – I guess that is why we have them. I decided at that point that I am not going to sweat their graduation date – I am just going to move along and make sure they have all they need in all areas of their lives, rather than try and rush and finish. I have Janice Campbell’s ebook, that is the one I was trying to think of, and I have the other one somewhere too – I must fish it out and read it again. Anything that boosts confidence has to be good. I am very comfortable with Shakespeare (not that I understand all of it) but I grew up in Stratford on Avon in England, the home of the Bard, and as such I grew up with the Shakespeare Theater, the plays and his birthplace etc, etc, – that has helped me some with encouraging the girls and of course they spent a lot of time in Stratford as well – so are familar with his history and life. The Lamb’s book is wonderful as an intro and that is where I started with the girls and I also have some of the plays on DVD performed by the Shakespeare Theater, which helps them understand it better. How old are your boys? I bet a good video version would help enormously. It is so nice to have this group and people like yourself to keep us on track and somewhat out of panic mode – oh and I guess by your title you are a book lover, me too. I have run out of bookshelves, I have never met a book I do not like!! Lindy
Oh, what a terrific place to grow up!!!
My boys are 14, 12, and 8, but we don’t get much out of the 8yo yet in Shakespeare. Every so often he has a “flash” and surprises us. LOL We’ve done a number of plays we haven’t had much trouble with, but they are definitely not “into” Tempest yet. 🙂
Yes, I am out of bookshelves, out of places to put more bookshelves, everything is double-shelved, I have boxes everywhere, and we are drowning in them, but it’s so hard to let some go! LOL
Michelle D
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