Summary vs Narration

This is a great question; and Linda, good point. Another thought that came to mind is, in a written narration (or any narration, for that matter), the child is encouraged to add his or her own opinion, mental connections to other events or people, compare and contrast, etc.

A narration is much broader than a summary, as mentioned. In fact, a summary can be one TYPE of narration. Most of us I think begin our children in narration by saying something like this: “Tell me about X” You are going to get a pretty wide variety of reactions to that over time! I have a child who does long rambling narrations, including many verbatim copies from the reading, many expressions of opinion, things that reminded him of something else, etc. I have one who has ALWAYS been a “just the facts, ma’am” sort of guy, but what he would choose as the main points would often surprise me! Then I have a littler one who starts fine and then forgets where he was going. LOL

As my older child has gotten older, I’ve begun challenging him a little in the narration department, and asking him for summaries, or outlines, or character sketches, or compare and contrast papers, as per Charlotte’s writings. See Vol. 3, School Education, pages 179-181, where she mentions that children should infer, generalize, classify, judge, give a sequence of events, connect the links in an argument, analyze, divide into sections and give headings (outline!) tabulate and classify, discern character, etc. Now, these are “advanced topics” and I wouldn’t try to draw them out of a beginning narrator; they will be things you will lead your child into in time.

So, there IS a time and a place for summaries; it is a very useful skill to learn before hitting college textbooks, for instance. But to develop the whole skill of narration you will not want to spend too much time on just summaries.

HTH!

Michelle D