Trouble with History Narrations & Remembering Info

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  • July 28, 2010 at 8:27 pm
    missceegee
    Participant

    I have a 9yo and 6yo and we are in Module 4 – Middle Ages. We are reading from Famous Men of the Middle Ages and I must say my kids are having a tough time narrating. They narrate wonderfully from any literature or Bible selection, but history from the Famous Men series, well, it’s tough. I go paragraph by paragraph and sometimes they get it, other times it seems they get lost in archaic names and such.

    • We do follow on maps and so the locations at least are making sense. 

    • I am also quickly reviewing each previous lesson and they can recall a little bit. We are being more diligent with our Family BOC.

    • I do write the names and such on a piece of paper ahead of time and tell them to listen for…

    • I even bought the Memoria Press teacher guide (filled in student workbook) to use as brief oral review

    Any suggestions? I’ve tried letting them color something or draw something related, but my kids lose their focus when doing that with history it seems.

    Thanks in advance,

    Christie

    July 30, 2010 at 3:06 pm
    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    A couple of ideas come to mind, Christie.

    1. It might just be one of those books that don’t work as well for your family. You may need to find a different book or give them a few more weeks to get used to it.

    or

    2. It might just be one of those subjects that they find harder to narrate. I read an interesting quote the other day about this idea. 

    “It rarely happens that all the children in a class are not able to answer all the questions set in such subjects as history, literature, citizenship, geography, science. But here differences manifest themselves; Some children do better in history, some in science, some in arithmetic, others in literature; some, again, write copious answers and a few write sparsely” (Vol. 6, p. 241).

    Have they struggled with other history books? If so, it might be the subject. If not, it might be the book rather than the subject.

    Another thought came to mind: So much of Middle Ages is battles and fighting for territory. Would it help to elaborate on the map method that you’re doing already? Maybe keep the famous men’s names in their places on the map, writing in the next man in line as they work through history, and having the children come up with one or two key words to summarize each one? It might even be helpful to somehow illustrate the changing boundaries. You’re so creative, I’m sure you would come up with something even better if you think that will help.

    July 30, 2010 at 3:34 pm
    quietwatersmommy
    Member

    Christie….that is a tough book to narrate. We were supposed to use it this past year to go with our MOH study of the Middle Ages.

    I found it way too intense for my 15, 13 and 11 yo, so we didn’t narrate it. My two older ones are girls and don’t care much for all the battle stuff (which I think is pretty typical for girls) and my 11 yo, although a boy, has Asperger’s and has no interest in battles, either.

    Just wanted you to know you are not alone!

    Nanci

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