Someone emailed recently to ask what I do for narration. She had younger children than mine. It was good have this prompt to think about what we are doing right now.
First of all, what is narration? Well, most of us are familiar with the term "narrator" or even "narrative". Narration is a skill to be learned whereby the child learns to tell back what they have heard or seen. In a way, it is learning the art of summarising and crystalising the main points.
It doesn’t come naturally to most children. In fact, theirs is a world filled with detail! Seeing the detail is great and can be encouraged in other settings though.
Anyway, this is what I wrote back:
I think if you start small, it is more satisfying for you and your child. For instance, reading a picture book and then asking your child straight after they read it what the book was about. As they get a little better with it, you can ask them to tell Daddy at dinnertime about the book or just ask your child later in the day to see how much has been retained.
Short passages that can be narrated back in a few sentences are good too. Aesop’s Fables are often used as beginning passages for that reason. My 6 year old is asked questions about Bible readings at night time and is now at the stage of remembering what happened in the narrative from the night before.
So, if you don’t want to get overwhelmed, just start there.
Pam has put together a great list, with the help of others. It can seem overwhelming and your children may not ready for most of it. I like to have the list on hand for ideas, knowing that I only need to do one thing from it occasionally. You can find her list here:
Some recent narrations at our place:
Stevie & Zac taking turns to narrate the whole of Mattimeo to Adam so he’s ready for the next Redwall Day
Stevie & Zac having to tell me their personal Bible readings each day
Telling Dad about a fun outing that has been held recently
Narrating back what we read about John Wycliffe in History
Adam narrating the whole of Make Way for Ducklings, even doing direct quotes at times.
Stevie & Zac having to tell me their personal Bible readings each day
Telling Dad about a fun outing that has been held recently
Narrating back what we read about John Wycliffe in History
Adam narrating the whole of Make Way for Ducklings, even doing direct quotes at times.
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