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Narration for literature vs. love of reading
- This topic has 6 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 5 months ago by
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What would you do?
We are new to narration as dd just turned 6 in June. We’re in week 3 of “first grade” and I have been having her narrate her Bible, history, science, and literature selections. This child LOVES to be read to, but now that I’ve been requiring narration, she actually groaned when I said it was time for literature. We are reading Little House in the Big Woods right now – and she had been so excited about it. Should I back off on the narrations? She said it’s difficult, and I know it is. I’ve been pausing at each paragraph for her. We also read aloud at night before bed and I don’t require narrations. Right now we’re reading Pollyanna and are really enjoying it together. It makes me sad that she does not look forward to literature time right now. BUT, narration is so KEY to CM…one of our goals for this year is to learn how to do narrations, so maybe the fact that she says it’s hard is a good thing because it means she is learning? I’d love some advice!
Thanks!
Erin 🙂Maybe you need to read more than a paragraph at a time. There needs to be a little meat for them to go on, ya know? She’s probably just getting into the story and then you’re stopping for a narration. Read for longer and see how she does – she might surprise you. 🙂
My thought was are you narrating ALL of those EVERY day? I would have her narrate in ONE of those, maybe two, each day. So on Monday and Thursday she may narrate her history book while Tuesday and Friday she narrates science, etc. Always accept narrations she volunteers (where she just starts talking about what you’ve been reading), but only require one or two narrations in a day at her age.
Also check out the narration page on SCM for ideas of alternatives to just oral narration – like drawing a picture!
Yes, if I had to pause all the time for narrating after every paragraph I’d balk too! If she seems to be understanding, then I’d back off and ask for narration of larger pieces. Until she gets used to this, it is OK to do what Tristan suggested and do one or two subjects a day for narration, rotating around. As she gains in narrating skill she will eventually be able to do many readings a day without breaking a sweat. But she’s just six. Another thing we often did was to ask the child to “think” a narration, to be given to Daddy later. For some reason, what was laborious sitting on the couch with me suddenly became fun when Daddy walked in the door. LOL
Oh Bookworm, that’s a great idea! My boys do well with narrations, but that would add an element of fun for them.
Thanks for the suggestions! We don’t do every subject every day – for example, I do history on a different day than I do science. BUT, she has been narrating every reading for that day, so at least Bible, Literature, and either History or Science. I will try to require less and see how she does. The reason I was stopping after each paragraph is when I read more, she said it was too much to remember…could it be this particular book that is the problem? I will try to read more again and see how she does with it. She hasn’t had as many problems with her other narrations. Maybe having her tell Daddy about her literature reading would help…thanks for the tips!
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