Narrating and Composing with the Hesitant Child

Some of us have not been doing narrating from the beginning.  Fortunately my children aren't too old to fix it!  Some of my children find narrating easy and some find composing easy while others think they are getting their teeth pulled for one or the other.  While they are doing it I feel like I'm getting mine pulled as well!

Older children can be taught why you want them to practice narrating and composing. You can list the benefits of it and they will quickly see why they need to do it.  Younger children might not be so easily persuaded.

Narrating:
For a hesitant narrator I would have them start by having them tell back some of their favorite scripture stories. They can practice being descriptive and remembering facts. They'll be very familiar with the stories so they can be confidant in their material.  I think that as they tell they will gain confidence.

You can then branch on to something physical that they are familiar with.  "Tell me the habits of our dog Hank."  My kids would find that hysterical and get quite animated about it.

After confidence as grown they may be ready to retell a chapter from a book you just read to them or they read themselves.  Perhaps reading a simple book would help.  Andreola mentions that some books don't have a lot going on in them and so they may be hard to narrate.  She used On the Banks of Plum Creek as an example where there isn't much to say.  However Farmer Boy is filled with lots of action.

I can see girls being more shy to narrate then boys.  Some times some girls are not as self-confidant and perhaps feel that they may be doing something "wrong."  Explaining that there is no right or wrong way to narrate so long as the facts are correct may help. Perhaps it may help them to only narrate with just you as the mother listening.  They might not feel so sure of themselves if they have siblings listening in.

Composing:
I haven't written much on composing yet.  But let's pretend we all know what it is.  : )  (It's just writing down the narration).

If you have a hesitant narrator than I would not move on to composing until narrating is going well. 

Once the narrating is going well then mom writes down the child's narration.  Then later the child begins writing down their own narrations.  This is where a couple of my children throw up their hands and say, "no."  These are my best narrators too!  I THINK the reason is that they don't want to go through the manual work of actually writing.  They aren't quick or real legible with their penmanship and this is where the breakdown is in our family.  Also writing is physically harder and takes more work than talking. 

My older son (age 10) is now seeing that maybe it would be good idea to work on better penmanship and as requested that he have a "cursive writing class."  I think that as he gains confidence in his penmanship AND some muscle in his writing hand that he will develop lengthier compositions.  In the meantime typed compositions could also be helpful.

So I have generalized because in our family there is a pattern.  The girls (Liberty and I) can write for hours about something, but we aren't sure about orally telling you because "we might get it wrong and people are listening."  The boys (including my husband and all the boys) can talk (hubby is a politician) and talk for hours.  However they don't like to write because it "takes too long and it hurts their hand."

To conclude this poorly written essay:

1. Girls need confidence
2. Boys need hand muscles

The end.

Just some thoughts.

Narration

I have spent a lot of time reading Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series.  It is so wonderful.  I have also been rereading Karen Andreola's Charlotte Mason Companion.  I have more thoughts running through my mind.

One particular subject I have been rereading about is the Art of Narration.  I have read about it before but have never intentionally applied for the sake of Charlotte Mason.  I have always regularly had my children tell me what they learned in Primary and what they read in their scriptures that morning.  Now I am seeing value in branching out to include narration in other aspects of our lives.

First off narration is essentially the telling back of what a child as learned either from a book, another person, or observing something in nature for example.  Children are invited to retell what they learned.  At first this my be difficult but over time children will learn to express themselves better.  In Charlotte Mason this replaced endless workbook pages (which I doubt they had then anyway).  Oral traditions of retelling are as old as time and narrations are a continuation of these ideas.  I think perhaps we as a society are loosing hold of our oral traditions and oral story-telling ability?

Continuing on with Charlotte some of the benefits included:

• Mind filled with beautiful thoughts from beautiful words or visual observations
• Helps the child to retain the information learned
• Inspires a love of learning
• Strengthens mental powers
• There is no extra test, that is the test
• Trains children to listen the first time
• Improves there ability to express themselves
• Sets them up for being excellent writers

Karen Andreola includes a helpful list in her book (126-127) that provides ideas for narration.  They are:

• Tell me about: the habits of the squirrel, Columbus' first voyage across the Atlantic, the last plague on Egypt and the first Passover, Heidi's visit with Peter's grandmother, etc.
• Explain how: a polliwog turns into a frog, a rose is pollinated, a sedimentary rock is formed, Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith, Jesus healed the blind man, the Magna Carta came to be written, how bread is made, etc.
• Describe our: trip to the shore, nature walk, visit to the fire station, planetarium experience, etc.
• Describe anything new you just learned from this chapters
• Tell me five things you learned about...
• Tell back the story (passage, episode, chapter) in your own words
• Ask or write six questions covering the material of this chapter (good for an older student)
• Draw a picture, map or likeness of....
• What did you learn about... in this chapter (The Wright Brothers, Sarah Noble, Abigail Adams, Martin Luther, Queen Elizabeth, Captain Ahab, Pinocchio, etc)

As your child grows you may write down their narration occasionally.  You may then have then copy it in their own writing to work on penmanship.  As they become more confident they will dictate their narrations on their own.  They will then correct it (learning spelling and grammar) and rewrite it continuing to improve on penmanship.  I see the vision of this because dry workbooks become unnecessary. My children would be more engaged because it is something they are more excited about. One comment I read was that it seems like "one more thing to fit it."  The response being, "no you replace and simplify." (my words)

My husband and I have pledged that we will place an emphasis on this now.  Even if I just had them narrate the book we are reading a loud it would make a difference. 

Most of this information was gleaned from Karen Andreola's book mentioned above from pages 113 through 137.