Name: Teach Them Diligently (Branson)
Start: 2025-05-15T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-17T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Branson, MO

Tagged: dislike, exams, History, recall

This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 15 years ago by missceegee.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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March 30, 2010 at 7:26 pm
missceegee
Participant
We’ve been studying ancient Rome and Matt – Acts with module 3 books and we’re having our term 2 exam week. I am finding that my 9 yo dd has much poorer responses than I would like. She gives good narrations immediately after a reading, but seems to lose the details after a few weeks. She can remember them given some help, but it’s not going as well as I would like. I will admit that I am rather disappointed thus far with her recall of the material. She says that she doesn’t really care for history, but she has enjoyed it as we’ve gone along. Does anyone have any suggestions for helping her to enjoy it more and to retain more? One thing that I know I need to do is be more consistent with our BOC. I was thinking of having her make a notebooking page for each chapter of FMoR as a way to cement the info.
Thanks in advance for suggestions. I’m loving the history and wish I had been taught this way, but I need to help dd see that, too.
Christie
March 30, 2010 at 8:37 pm
teachermom
Participant
Christie, you already mentioned the two thoughts that I had come to mind immediately…the BOC and some sort of notebooking remembrance of what was read. I am in the process of trying out notebooking pages that I’m making to go along with chapters from Child’s History of the World. I am alternating making a copywork passage from a reading that is sort of a reminder of the main point of the reading or of a character quality of a person we read about with a page with a picture of what/who we read about that she can write about or narrate orally while I record her words. My dd doesn’t care to draw much right now so I am using google images to search for a simple and appropriate picture to go along with the topic read to be on the page somewhere.
I know I’ve read on Jimmie’s blog (http://www.jimmiescollage.com) about how much her daughter enjoys lapbooking or making mini books on topics as they study different things, and this thought just came to mind as a suggestion if your daughter would like do complete something like lapbooking. She had a post specifically about this as a form of narration. I can’t find it on her new site at the moment, but I googled it and found it on her old site which is still up: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie/494785/
I will be interested to hear what others suggest as we are going to start CM style exams next year. I’d also be interested to hear what you decide to try and if it helps after your next term..
-Kim
March 31, 2010 at 11:57 am
Misty
Participant
Thanks for this question. As I have 2 that do the same thing. Daily they narrate well but Terms.. it’s like where did the information go? Can I ask what BOC is? Maybe I just can’t place the thought…
Would love to hear more also. I like the lapbook thought and have printed some from this site and I like the note a day idea to keep thoughts on paper. More idea’s would be welcome. Thanks for the post. Misty
March 31, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Richele Baburina
Participant
Christie,
I’m wondering if it could be as simple as rephrasing the exam question.
For example, my sister once gave her son the question: “Imagine you are with …(protaganist from “The Land that I Lost”, describe a day together.” His answer was “But I would not be with him.”
She then simply said, “Tell me all you know about Vietnam.” and got a beautiful narration rich in detail.
Later she overheard her son telling his father that he could not imagine being a white boy in Vietnam at 13, stating he probably wouldn’t leave his hut due to all the dangers present that he had not been raised around.
We’re in exam week here as well. I asked my seven-year-old to tell me his favorite part from “The Borrowers.” His narrations had been lively through this book so I was expecting the same at exam time. One sentence, Christie. Here’s what he said:
“The part that I liked best was when Mrs. May smelled the hot pot.”
I shut my mouth and then had him roll the narration cube. He then gave me quite a narration as he compared his life with Pod – one of the Borrowers. I then had to really consider internally just what I want and expect from him. I saw that truthfully I wanted a glorious two-page narration that would stun the superintendent when she looked at his portfolio. I kid you not. Yuck.
When I was in a better place I asked my son what it was about smelling the hot pot that he liked so much. He told me that when Mrs. May smelled the hot pot he realized that everything was going to be okay and he felt so good to finally know that the Borrowers were alive and well.
In the Kunhardt’s new book, Lincoln, Life-Size, I was really struck by this account of the Gettysburg Address:
On the day after delivering his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln received a letter from Edward Everett, the main speaker of the day. “I should be glad,” Everett wrote, “if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
Dr. Everett spoke forty pages.
Best,
Richele
March 31, 2010 at 2:11 pm
missceegee
Participant
Thanks, everyone, for the great ideas.
Our difficulty is mainly with our history readings – Famous Men of Rome and the like. She gives pretty good literature narrations, even weeks after the fact.
Misty, BOC is short for Book of Centuries.
Richele, thank you for your son’s example. I find it oddly encouraging that I’m not alone in this! I asked the question, “Tell me all that you remember about battles that included Romans and elephants.” and got a similar response with zero details. I love your Abraham Lincoln example. I will remember it going forward – lengthy & wordy isn’t necessarily better.
Kim, I realized as I was typing the question, that I have been inconsistent with our BOC this year (we’ve made maybe 5 entries) which replaced the wall timeline we did consistently each week for 2 years previous. I think for term 3, we’ll be more consistent with our BOC and I will have her make a notebook page of her own (copywork, drawing, etc.) for each person or event we read about in history. She said that really helped her remember last year and she still remembers those people/events better than what we’ve studied this year.
Blessings,
Christie