Narration

Narration is a major part of our homeschool curriculum. When we first started, SG was hesitant to narrate. She loves to read, and I know she comprehends because I can either draw the plot of a story out of her, or she will bring up something from the plot at a later time on her own. But she hated when we asked her to tell us about what she read. I honestly still don't know why it bothered her so much.

Drawn narration. She then explains what she draws to me.

We had to get her to narrate, though, because narration is key in a Charlotte Mason education. Narration isn't simply how a student shows they know what they read; narration actually helps the child understand and use the information they have just read. So obviously we had to get her used to narrating.

This is a "narration" of a painting.

First I gave her a list of narration choices. That sort of helped. She could choose to write, draw, tell, or act out the material. The choice itself became problematic because she would often say she didn't know which narration style to choose. It seemed to stress her out, and I didn't want narration to be stressful!

At first, I tried to write down everything she said when she narrated orally. I couldn't keep up! 

What has finally worked for us is a narration "jar" with a few different types of narration styles written on slips of paper. Now she can reach in a draw a narration style instead of having to make that choice. The choices keep narration from becoming too routine and mundane.

Yep, it's not a jar, but it works for us.

The choices we have so far are as follows:

Tell mommy about it

Act it out

Tell your favorite part

Draw a picture and tell about it

Write a sentence about it

Mommy narrates and you fill in the blanks

Ask three questions

Skip Narration

Make a model with Lego bricks or play dough

Using play dough to make a coral reef

After each reading, she draws a narration slip. After a few weeks of this, there are times where she simply asks if she can draw her narration or just tell her narration instead of drawing a slip, and I'm happy to just let her do so!

She decided to write several sentences AND draw a picture for this reading.

I've been pleasantly surprised with how much her narrations have changed over the past 9 weeks of school, and I definitely see the benefit of narration. She does seem to retain the information and be able to use it later after narrating.