Question about history narrations with 2 kids

[tiffanieh]

How am I to do history narrations when I have two children? Do I allow them to hear the other's narration, even though that would skew the originality of the other narration going second. Or do I listen to each of them privately?

 

Also do you have them narrate all this for history and science everyday??

[my2boysteacher]

SWB says that with her children she would send one in the bathroom to sing loudly and make faces in the mirror while the other child gave a narration. Then have them switch places.

We do the same thing, because I agree it is important for them both to give individual narrations without their brother's/sister's opinions influencing their thoughts.

The more narrations you do, across the curriculum, the more they will develop the skills. We do pretty informal ones, after we read anything.

[NancyNellen]

I always just sent one into another room w/ the door closed to color the coloring page or draw a picture from the story.

[Mallory]

It seems to work better for us to do the whole chapter at one sitting, but only one narration each (it's the only way we can keep moving, trying to to do it all for each section gets us bogged down). We also do the whole question part as more of a discussion, so I can for sure tell if they haven't been paying attention during that part even though we do it together.

 

Also since we do the whole chapter they can each do thier own section. (and actually my older has moved on to outlining this year so we don't have this problem any more ;)).

[johnandtinagilbert]

I let them hear the other and make them take turns going first. I have found that they learn from each other. For example, if I remind one of them to use complete sentences, the second won't need the reminder. They generally pick up on different things anyways b/c they are such different dc.

[expat91]

:iagree:

[Critterfixer]

We are learning the technique of narration, so I usually have them narrate in rotation so that they can learn from the other. One technique of narration I read about on a CM site suggested a narration in which one child starts narrating until the teacher stops him and signals the other child to carry on from that point. Another technique is to have the children draw a bead or a straw; if it matches up to one the teacher has then the child with the matching bead does the narration. They both have to be ready to narrate, they just won't know who is going to be called on.

 

Also do you have them narrate all this for history and science everyday??

Right now, yes. We are learning how to narrate, and I think the practice is needed. But we do not do history every day or science every day at this time. So I have them do literature narration, narrations on their library book picks, etc. I tend to have them do this narrations separate from each other, because the interpretation of the literature is much more individual than that of history or science. While one is working on Penmanship or copywork, the other is doing a narration with me in the adjacent room.