Hi all! So in the last two weeks, I bit the bullet and I am now using AO for History, Lit, a few science reads, poetry, natural history. We use several SCM materials for riches/Fine Arts, too. The 3 younger kids are still using their MUS and a few bits of CM-inspired LA such as SCM’s A Copywork Reader, SW & ULW, and Queen’s Language Lessons. My three younger kids are doing Science in the Beginning, and my oldest still home is doing Apologia’s Bio. Here’s my issue.
My older two kids are giving me really poor effort. I put my oldest (14 yo DS) in AO year 7, my next (almost 12 yo DD) in year 6 (my two little boys almost 8 and almost 9.5 are together in Year 2). While some items in Yr 7 are challenging for my son, and one item in Yr 6 is a little challenging for my daughter, they seem well-placed. Overall, however, I am just seeing poor narrations and so little full effort. So when you have a child who reads a short segment of, say, history, and comes to tell you, “Uh so some guy was like the king of China and he wanted to take over Japan too. I can’t remember anything else,” what do you do? Now, I will admit, I did not scaffold on this one bc it was the first chap of STOW VOl 4 that she’s read. But she is so much more capable. We’ve been narrating most of her school life. She can do a much better job. And most of her narrations are like this. Or, she will ask to read one paragraph and then spout off a fact from it. I have let her do this for really dense non fiction material, but at her age, she should be able to read a bit more and then organize her thoughts, right? She is NOT new to narration.
My oldest is also super general, terse, and laconic in his narrations, too…both written and oral. I finally sat down and wrote a narration of a chapter he had recently read to show him a model. I tried to keep it on the simpler side, just to give him an idea.
If I have given models, given appropriate length/level reading…how do I encourage more detailed narrations? If the point is ONE reading and the child has done a very very scanty narration, what steps do you actually take? I think my kids sometimes bank on the one reading thing, knowing that I am not supposed to allow them to reread it and redo it.
Now, the other part of the equation. My almost 12 year old daughter. She is super hormonal right now, but she is brutally negative about everything. Everything. She has always complained about school, no matter what it is. She is more interested in being done than in learning, or having the work be neat or right. So she doesn’t usually dilly dally, but her stuff is usually fairly poor in quality. And we have been fighting this “effort” battle with her (and my oldest, too, actually) forEVER. Nothing has seemed to help. Not redoing portions or mistakes. Not doing it over again. Not discussion, nor consequences. My oldest has ADHD, so I know he’s a bit of a different ball of wax. But my daughter is not. What do you do when a child HATES to do anything that requires a bit of thought or effort, and is negative about everything? I am so weary of this battle. She actually wants simple independent workbook type school, so she can just slap down an answer and not have to read/think/narrate/own the material. Does anyone have any suggestions for helping me deal with her wearisome negative attitude? Im so tired of her tears and complaining and rudeness. Schoolwork without good, classic, challenging living books is not an option. I do give her Latin in workbook form and she does have the simplicity of SW and ULW.
PS: I have LDTR and we have talked at length about attentiveness. I am thinking that Mental Effort and Diligence will be next. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much in advance, friends.
Amy
