reading aloud literature

Hello,

You sound frustrated, but let me assure you you are doing a wonderful job! CM methods have a bit of a learning curve. 🙂

I would mention that I try to pace books according to my children’s ability. I usually have a couple of books that my kids are narrating out of: lit, history, and science, but they only read and narrate as much as they are able.

My third grader is reading from a few books,but he only reads a few paragraphs at a time and then narrates. My fifth grader will tend to read chapters in lit and smaller sections in history and science–same thing for my fourth grader.

Another thing I would mention is that the books for “school”, namely the ones that requrire narration, should be off set by books read for pleasure. Not all of the SCM book suggestions need to be narrated. Some are more fun and not stopping to narrate all the time would help keep the pace up and moral high. 🙂

My kids take as long as they need to get through a narrated book because I know they really have internalized the material. Quality over quantity you know. 🙂 If you do not get through all of the books that is ok. You may want to bump the book suggestions down a level for your third grader. The beauty of living books is how they are enjoyable across the board.

As far as reading aloud, I don’t think that is necessary if the child is an independent reader. You could listen a few times a week, but every reading isn’t necessary. If you older child can read on her own I would let her do that. I read aloud to my two younger kids once a day and only require narrations on a very tiny portion of what I read. First grade is just the threshold of narrating. I would suggest baby steps that are well under their ability until you see steady progress.

Now, I myself, only read a bit out of a couple of books each day that require my children to narrate. These are usually history, science, and bible, but I may only have them narrate a small, small portion. There are books that I read aloud for pleasure, but I do not require narration from those books. That is the fun family time.

Sounds to me like you are doing a great job, but are tackling too much. If you pare it back I am sure it will be more fun for you and your kids and everyone will retain much more. 🙂

Rebecca,

In addition to what the others have said I want to hone in on something I caught in your post.

I assume that this is your first year having your children narrating in-general, since it’s your first year with CM? YOu also mentioned your 9 yr. old dd having trouble narrating after reading a chapter. It takes more than a year of narration practice before a child can narrate a whole chapter. If you had been having her narrate since she was 6, then by 9 she’s be able to do it, but not just starting out. Also, use shorter books for narrating and the longer ones for pleasure reading. It will build upon itself. Have her read only a chapter and then narrate. Plus, I know it’s hard (I’m not always true to this, but it’s best), this is the best opportunity to teach her to look into the eyes of a person she is talking to by you stopping and having her look at you while narrating.

I have 2 children that narrate to me and they narrate:

Their Elson Readers (the selections get longer as they get older)

Christian Liberty Nature Readers

Their history readings (for example, the Clyde R. Bulla books) that correspond to

our history period.

The McGuffey slections.

For narrating from a read aloud, they narrate the history and science books, sometimes poetry if I remember. Not the Shakespeare, either.

They don’t narrate our literature selections.

Another thing, to get into the ‘habit’ of thinking narration style, when they read a book they like, and they bring it up, just casually, but with intense interest ask “so what was it about?”. That will also get them into the habit of retelling naturally. Trust me, eventually, you’ll want then to STOP, as both my children retell about 90% of their private readings, whether I ask or not!

Faith,

The answer is ‘sorda’ read it. This is another reason to make the selections relatively short. I have the book in hand and ‘skim’ as they are retelling, so no I don’t read thoroughly but can keep them accountable as I ‘follow along’. Does that answer your question?

Hope this helps both of you,

Rachel

Rebecca,

I haven’t found any Bulla books for the Greek time frame. BTW, I do think they are more geered toward your 3rd grader, though. YOu want shorter chapter books for your children in initiating narration, but I’d recommend not to stay in that area for too long, otherwise they could become stagnant in their desire for richer literature. So just keep your antennae up to be aware when they start telling back easily and start upping the literature’s challenge.

I would also highly recommend using the Reading-Literature series readers and the Elson Readers, as opposed to the more modern readers, for them to narrate from. The selections are shorter, but the selections are children’s literature/poetry from around and before the turn of the 20th century. My children get the biggest kick and enjoyment from these stories. YOu can read a few sample pages at the Yesterdays Classics site. There is also other great stories for all ages.

Based on my knowledge of the content, your 9 yr. old would use Reader two in both, your 3rd grader, reader one in both and your first grader,the Primers of both.

The Reading Literature is from Yesterdays Classics(can get from Amazon, too)

http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/catalog/displaycatalog.php?catalog=literature

and Elson Readers from Lost Classics or Amazon

http://lcbcbooks.com/

For Greek books for your 1st and 3rd grader, I’d suggest Veritas Press and Sonlight to get book ideas from.

http://www.veritaspress.com/

http://www.sonlight.com/products.html

For your 9 yr. old, in addition to the above sources, Yesterday’s Classics has books for this time period that are quality and historical. There’s a section on Greece as well as World History. I think the Our Little…of Long Ago would be good for her to narrate and then others to read for fun.

http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/catalog/displaycatalog.php?catalog=greece

In answer to your question, If she responds that way with an “I don’t know”, then gently probe some more. As she retains more and retelling becomes more second nature, this answer will be reduced.

A gentle probe could be, “what was the one most interesting thing that jumped out at you or the part you liked the best?” or “was it about a male or female going on an adventure?” and if you can narrow down the sex of the main character(or a character) you can follow up with “what did they do?”.

Open ended questions like that; no one answer questions. If your getting absolutely no where, then stop and try again another time.

Other ways to get into ‘retelling’ as second nature is to engage her in nature studies. If she comes and tells you she found some interesting creature or some beautiful plant, ask her to ‘tell’ you about it.

When you see a piece of artwork, whether at your home or out and about (doctor’s offices usually have classical paintings, not the twaddly ones)ask her what she sees?, what season is it?, what colors does she see? That’s narration, too.

Hope this helps. It’s going to be fine, just be patient. Give it several months to take hold. You’ll find that your attention to details increases as well.

Rachel