Mom tears on narration w/ 7 year old..help!

Let it go for now.  At 7, you will loop back around to that history probably twice before he graduates.  Let him enjoy the stories, have a lighthearted conversation about it afterwards if he’s interested, let him express it in his own way and on his own terms.  In the past my kids have drawn pictures, made Lego sculptures, made videos, and done skits on what they’ve read about.  At age 7, allow it to happen naturally.  You are right – at this age, you don’t want him to begin to dislike history.

Well for starters hes only 7, so don’t be so hard on yourself 🙂 7 year old boys are naturally wiggly, easily-distracted critters. Try giving him something to fidget with while you read – play doh, modelling wax, a coloring page. Many children actually process better when engaged in activity.

Also, a paragraph of this content is too much. Have him narrate after just one or two sentences. Hes 7 – he doesn’t need to learn the whole of history at this age. He’ll repeat it again when he’s older – history in these early years is about introduction, not mastery.

Also, narration doesn’t always have to be oral narration – let him draw a picture, model something, build a scene out of Lego, act it out, paint a picture etc…

My daughters, ages 10 and 7 are struggling with the book “Sailing Alone Around the World.” I quite enjoy it but it’s been pretty difficult for them. I was just about to ask a question about suggestion for OTHER books about world travel that might be less challenging. I read Renee’s message and thought she could benefit from the answers, too. Do any of you have other titles we could read along with our geography/Bible days? Not twaddle!  🙂 Just something a little more at their level. We can save “Sailing” for the next time we hit this era.

Thanks! And, Renee, you’re not alone! I was going to suggest all the things the other ladies did so I have nothing profound to offer you except deep breaths and a bit of ice cream…

If I were designing an American History program for a child of that age, I would incorporate the following:

*SCM’s Stories of America
*SCM’s Visits to North America
*Living biographies (D’Aulaire and Jean Fritz are good authors for that age)
*Possibly supplement with some audio books (Jim Weiss has several American History ones)
*For down days/rainy days/screen time, Liberty’s Kids is a good series
*map drills of the 50 states

Beyond that, you may add some literature read-alouds that illustrate various time periods in American History (the Little House series, the Little Britches series, The Sign of the Beaver, Mark Twain, etc.)

Ooh, as I’m typing this I’m thinking how fun this could be!  I hope this helps some.   🙂

Renee,

I’ve found some great suggestions for books on different eras of U.S. History on this blog:

http://www.triumphantlearning.com/history-cycle/

We are studying Westward Expansion (1800s) this year and are loving it! It is especially fun how it ties into Colorado history and all the mining museums around here.

HTH,

Anna

WOW! Thanks, ladies. I’m sitting here reading all of this wishing my pumpkins were awake so we could start school!! Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. I’m taking notes and scanning Amazon and getting more and more motivated and excited! That picture book of “Sailing” is already on its way (thank you used books from Amazon Prime). Anyway, thanks! Renee, praying for you this morning that Father will give you some pep in your step and energy and a lot of love for history. You can do this!!

Oh! Just thought of this, Renee. Might help you. When I read to the girls I have my laptop handy and when we talk about Miles Standish, I look up his picture and show them or we stop in the middle to find Mass. on the map and talk about how it looks a little bit like a boot the way Italy does. Or I showed them a painting of the first Thanksgiving, etc. My eldest doesn’t need it as much but my youngest (also 7 like your son) really loves just staring at the image while I keep reading. No idea if CM would approve of this but I’m doing it.

I am so thankful for this post as this situation is exactly where I am with my 8yr old daughter.

Karen, your options are exactly what we ended up doing. The recommended books for Grade 1-Grade 3 are so wonderful so we just stick with those and mostly skip SOA. I do use SOA for topic ideas along side the Truth Quest Guides to read more about a person or topic that interests us.   I have 5 yr old daughter also, so it works perfectly to drop the SOA book. We are still kinda into picture books anyway….I don’t want this tender part of our school years to pass by so quickly. Sigh……..

We tend to LOVE science around here…so….history sometimes takes a back seat to history. 🙂

Happy History-ing to everyone.