History woes???

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  • July 20, 2016 at 1:31 pm
    beccawalker2000
    Participant

    Ok, so I have and will continue to use SCM Middle Ages for the start of this year, but I’ve noticed through last year that my children, who are newer to narrating, are not retaining much of the information we read about. They can’t remember details or even the fun stories that they oohed and aahed over as we were reading.

    I did read the post on the blog about how to handle children not doing well on term exams and that gave me some ideas, but I really want to be sure that they are learning and loving history, especially my oldest (12 yo ds). Their dad is a HUGE history buff, so this is especially important to our family.

    I guess I’m looking for encouragement or ideas. I like the looks of other curriculum (MOH, TOG, and now, BiblioPlan) but they have all been our of our budget whenever I have looked at them closely.

    And while we enjoyed our SCM history, I want to really be sure that my children are getting it and retaining it. And all this may just be a newbie CMer and normal mom doubts. LOL

    I appreciate any input! <3

    July 20, 2016 at 2:20 pm
    Melanie32
    Participant

    My biggest advice is to help them improve their narration skills. The more detailed the narration, the greater the understanding, and the more they will retain.

    As Charlotte Mason said, A child cannot tell what he doesn’t know.

    My daughter’s narrations skills improved dramatically around 12. She began to give very detailed narrations and could remember the details months later. I think some of this comes with age. 🙂

     

    July 20, 2016 at 3:05 pm
    Tristan
    Participant

    What about building a visual timeline of sorts in a binder? Each day or week add to it what happened in the readings. A simple way to do this is notebooking.  Younger kids draw a picture each day or however often you wish about the current story. They tell you about the picture (narrate) and you write their words. Put it in a binder.  Older kids can just narrate orally and you write it or they can write it themselves.  Each child’s page goes in their own binder and becomes a book they can look through to remember where you’ve been and what you’ve read about.  (This could even be scheduled in their week once a week – or just happen a bit more organically).

    Each day before a new reading are you reminding them what came before? This can be you telling or them telling.  So either:

    1. Does anyone remember what was happening in Robin Hood yesterday?

    or

    2. Now yesterday we left off with Robin Hood entered in the archery tournament. Let’s find out what happens next… (and start reading today’s part).

    July 20, 2016 at 3:13 pm
    beccawalker2000
    Participant

    I missed my part of narration, the part of reminding them before each reading, so that was one of the main clues I took from the post about how to move forward from failed exams. I’m going to be more intentional about that this year.
    The idea of notebooking is also good, and my 7 and 9 year old sons will probably take to that really well.
    And yes, we will continue to work on narrating skills. I need to read more about it myself as a refresher before we start up again. 🙂

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