written history narrations

[Donna T.]

Can you tell me how often you have your child do a written history narration? My son will be nine this week. We are using SOTW with Biblioplan. He really enjoys history. He is enthusiastic about the reading, the mapwork, the timeline assignments and the extra reading that I give to him. He does not like doing the written narrations at all. He also does copywork everyday, writing in his spelling book, writing for his English lessons (though I find myself doing more and more of Rod & Staff orally), and some dictation. And, a page in his cursive book. I think doing the narrations is VERY important and we'll continue with them, but I don't want to burn him out and kill his love of history.

 

Do you do a written narration for every chapter of SOTW? With Biblioplan, we are reading several chapters a week plus alot of other reading. I'm using the SOTW AG to help me guide him with the narrations because we never have really gotten the hang of doing them. The specific questions in the AG are very helpful to him.

 

Just wondering. I don't want to make him dread history. He's done written narrations in the past, but not as many as he's doing now. We've mostly done history in the Sonlight style - read, discuss, timeline, map... move on.

[Chris in VA]

We do very little writing, so I make sure we do at least 2 history narrations a week. Usually, we try for a narration that is just about one section of a lesson in SOTW. We've been bagging that and actually only doing copy work for our notebook pages lately. I have dd tell me her narration right before we do the copywork notebook page.

You can see examples on my blog.

We also use Rod and Staff grammar (2), but pretty much orally--we have been doing multiple lessons to make up for shelving it for a few weeks. I may have dd write out one of the exercises each time we do it.

That, and her spelling words, are all the writing she's doing now.

Perhaps if you had him give you oral narrations in history, then use some of his ideas to make a paragraph for him to use as copy work--it's been working for us.

[Shelly in IL]

At 9, he can surely do 1 narration a week, right? Do any others that week orally. I think multiple narrations each week for a child that age is over kill. I wouldn't skip the narrations, just do them orally. It helps their verbal skills - he narrates, you write. Expect complete sentences, etc. HTH

[Donna T.]

At 9, he can surely do 1 narration a week, right? HTH

 

I was wondering if one a week (written) would be ok at this stage. I figured sometime next year (fourth grade), we could perhaps double that number.

We've been doing daily oral narrations since first grade. It's the writing and/or copying that is making him dread history.

[ArwenA]

We do one chapter of SOTW per week and 1 or 2 narrations per chapter, depending on age/enthusiasm. I don't really want to use DD9 as an example because she LOOOOVES to write, but I guess for the less eager writer I'd do about 1 narration per week and then add more as you get more comfortable.

[Shelly in IL]

How about one original narration written and one original narration that you wrote down to be used as copywork? Or maybe if you teach typing, this would be a good time to implement it - typing is probably easier than handwriting if they know how to type!

 

Good luck

[Rhondabee]

I specfically avoided adding anything to SOTW (other than UILE and library books) because I was afraid that if I added another spine, we wouldn't have time to write about anything.

 

AND we only do one SOTW "story" a day

 

AND I often limit his narration to just one part of the story - I *do* think that if you choose to do written narrations once or twice a week, that you should guide him toward a specific paragraph-worthy topic.

 

This was easier after we discussed topic sentences and how to develop a paragraph in R&S-4, but basically to start ask him a specific question that will serve as your topic sentence. Write the questions down for him, and then as he orally gives you the answers, make "notes" for him. This can then serve as his "rough draft", and if necessary you could schedule the "final copy" at another time. And, it will keep the narration to a reasonable length.

 

(In 3rd grade, I just let him write about whatever struck his fancy, and when his hand got tired, I wrote for him. I changed tactics when the narrations went from 2-3 pages (skipping lines and writing big!) to 2 sentences.)

 

hth a bit,

Rhonda

[Parrothead]

I stopped requiring written narration last year( 3rd grade). If dd can verbalize back to me what we read I go with that, and call it good.

[Peela]

One written narration per week. At that age, ds could only manage a few sentences- as short as he could make them. Now at 12 he's up to half a page . If its really tough on him you could write it down for him for a while, then have him write it out himself. Also, I would keep up the oral narrations at the same time because it helps with the written ones. You may literally have to walk him through every sentence in the beginning. It can be painstaking. But eventually, he will get it and be able to work more independently, I promise.

 

For my reluctant writer, at age 9, he had one writing assignment per day, plus some handwriting (about 1 line). He did spelling orally. He did grammar orally, mostly. He did dictation on a separate day to copywork.

 

I am surprised others are saying more than one written narration a week for history. I would say 1 is more than enough and quite a lot for some kids, especially boys. It seemed like an enormous task to my son.

[michaeljenn]

My 8yo writes at least one written narration page a week, sometimes two and they are usually a page long. Now, this child is a girl AND she enjoys writing! If I asked this of my 13yo when he was 8 OR 9, he would have had a melt down!! At that age, he just gave me a sentence or two on paper, but could narrate wonderfully! Now, he can write without problem, and is pretty good at it. It is still not his favorite thing to do though.

 

You could also write, or type his narrations on the computer and allow him to illustrate it. This is what I did for my son when he was younger. I am so glad I did because it is just precious to go back and look at those pages now!!

 

Jen

[Hoggirl]

My ds still does most of his work in long hand, but for "true" writing assignments he types.

[Donna T.]

My ds still does most of his work in long hand, but for "true" writing assignments he types.

 

Yes, I've intended to start this soon. I'm currently looking for a program. I know this would really help. He has said that it's not the coming up with words that is a struggle, but pushing the pencil.

 

What program would you suggest?

[g007girl]

My son is 10 and he absolutely hates to write! He writes for all his other subjects but for his narrations he dictates them to me and I type them up. Every now and then I'll make him do his own, but I find that he gives better narrations when he dictates them to me. He still does handwriting and copywork, so at this point I'd rather he give me really good narrations. We do one narration a week and it's usually about a paragraph long.

[WTMindy]

We have always done one per week. Even now, if they do one well-written piece per week I'm happy (going through all the stages in the writing process, etc.)