Early Modern Spine? other questions, too

I really like Helene Guerber’s The Story of the Thirteen Colonies; I much prefer this to any other of the American history books available.

Yes, by all means, do narrations. Do maps. I am not a big fan of “write a report on” sort of things, but if your student is 10-12 or up, you can certainly begin doing some written narrations. And discuss. A lot! Do some fun alternate narration type activities once in a while. I really have fun when we do a sort of “wrap up” activity. We often each pick a topic or two we just covered and tell about it, show off a map, maybe make a recipe, etc. It can be fun and you can really see what your kids got out of that topic.

Don’t worry too much about narration being “sufficient” The really amazing thing about narration, the part of it that really works, is not what is told back, so much as the process that the student learns to go through in order to tell it back. THAT is what really cements things in a student’s mind. If you can narrate something well, you “own” it. Now, some kids are going to pick up on certain things, and some on others, and occasional gentle guidance, reminders, examples from you may be necessary. (I had one child who would not ever have noticed anything but battles and guns if I hadn’t, um, very gently pointed out other things that happened, lol) But it’s really surprising now, when he looks back on what he learned way back then, and what he still remembers.