How often to require narration in Year 1

Just starting out, I only have my kids do one per day. Since he is a little reluctant and still young I often go with a subject or topic they are more excited about and often change it up. So not history every day, but some times nature study (tell me about what you found?), one day science, or our family read aloud book.

I know many say to start with Aesops Fables but oddly my kids did not care for them at all. They seemed to get confused because the stories often had morals and they did not understand the story. They much preferred simple stories and similar to start. My youngest really likes to narrate his Pathway readers right now (he just finished year 1) and tells everyone what happened.

My understanding is by starting slowly it starts to become the new normal to narrate and just retell. My kids narrate almost everything to me now, in school and out of school (or it seems that way, haha), because it is such a habit to tell about what they are learning, watching, reading, playing…

You may find this article on beginning narration helpful. You may also find more helpful information in the full Narration Q&A series of articles found in our Learning Library.