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How do you help children pay attention???
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I have a daughter who is 6 and in the 1st grade. I am having trouble with her paying attention during history (family read aloud time). When I ask her to narrate from the story, she just shrugs and says she forgets easily. However, she is perfectly capable of telling back a story that she is interested in, or acting out one of Aesop’s fables after one reading.
For history we are using “The Story of the Ancient World” by H.A. Guerber. The language is not “dumbed down” however it’s not out of her realm of understanding either. We read about 1 1/2 pages per day.
I think my problem comes from wanting to work with her on only reading through it once while not losing the other children. What suggestions do you have? How can I get her to pay full attention? What kind of discipline or action should I take when she doesn’t take responsibility for listening?
6 is pretty young for in-depth history. I would just let her listen, but not expect narration from history books at this point. (maybe let her color quietly a history color page) She will pick up the story here and there. The main goal is for her to enjoy learning, especially with being so young.
Blessings!
Maybe change the way you’re asking her to narrate? I ask my younger narrators “What was your favorite part of the story today?” or “What did King George do in the story today?”. I’ll also let them draw their favorite part and then they tell me about it and I write down their words at the bottom of the picture.
Also, maybe only read 1-2 paragraphs and have her narrate that. Then read the next 1-2 and narrate again if you wish.
I’m still figuring it out with each new child – they’re all a bit different!
I usually ask my 6yo a specific question I know she will be able to answer then a more open ended question like “what else do you remember?” or “why do you think he felt that way?”. A question without a right or wrong answer. I do this so she can gain confidence since her older sister narrates better than she does and I want her to feel like she has something to offer. I do let her answers be short or incomplete as long as I feel like she was listening or at least being respectful to the other listeners if the material is really above her head. If the material was more difficult, I ask her last so she has a bit of a spring board from what the others have said. If I do not feel she is being attentive, I remind her of the definition of being attentive (listening with your eyes, ears, and heart) and what each of those things mean (watching the speaker or the book, hearing the words being read, and thinking about what God wants us to learn about his world through this reading). Then we try again as I say, “I will only read this once and this time I expect you to listen attentively and be able to tell me something that interested you, okay?”
Oh, I soooo needed to read this post. Thank you for the excellent advice!! I feel awful, I now realize my expectations were simply too high and I have been so frustrated that my DD (7) is just not able to narrate well whatsoever. It has been baffling me since she can remember and recite after one hearing specifics about her favorite books and movies, and song lyrics really well (she’s got an amazing memory for this stuff) and then it comes to history and she says she absolutely loves the stories but can’t narrate worth beans. I really really needed to read this, thank you so much.
Thank you all for your advice. I have been reading the book “When Children Love to Learn” again, and found on page 32 an answer to my question (which you all knew as well). It talks about being careful to choose a book that captures your child’s interest and imagination and to consider the child as a whole person, where they are developmentally. I think that the book we are reading, although it has familiar stories, is written slightly above her vocabulary level and makes it hard for her to concentrate on the story. I am going to get her a book that is a little more on her level.
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