Anyone have a child who is just kind of stubborn about narrating?

[DarlaS]

For lack of a better word anyway. :tongue_smilie:

 

He can read and recalls what happened, and does quite well with the leading question and answer approach, but seems to hate to answer in a complete sentences or even audibly sometimes. I know he can because he does it quite willingly sometimes. (I let one or two words answers slide probably more than I should. :o)

 

It isn't the writing, because I don't even ask him to write it most of the time. I get the feeling sometimes that he'd rather write it than speak it though. He will write complete sentences quite willingly. He has none of this pencil allergy little boys are typically plagued with. He just hates to talk about what he or we have just read. This brings me to my next question: Is the oral narration that important if the child is willing and able to write it?

 

My plan for now is just to keep on trucking, but I'd welcome any suggestions.

[purduemeche]

Our DS can't stand to narrate out loud, so about half the time we ask him to draw pictures of the story. Longer stories require more pictures. At least this way he's still using memory recall.

[Critterfixer]

I get the feeling sometimes that he'd rather write it than speak it though. He will write complete sentences quite willingly. He has none of this pencil allergy little boys are typically plagued with. He just hates to talk about what he or we have just read. This brings me to my next question: Is the oral narration that important if the child is willing and able to write it?

I think it is important to practice oral narration, even if he is willing and able to write it down. It is often easier in some respects to organize thoughts on paper, and one can always erase them, think some more, and start over. With oral narrations, one has to think, speak, and no take-backs. That can be scary. Especially if he is a child who is shy of speaking and shyer still of being corrected.

Perhaps if he wrote his thoughts first, or drew a picture of what he wanted to say he would be more willing to talk about it. I have one son who is mildly autistic. Narration is hard for him. One thing I have been doing is to have him explain to me how he has built something, or I ask him to draw a narration from our history lesson and then have him tell me about what he has drawn. I think the mechanical act of building or drawing helps him to organize his thoughts a little better.

 

To correct the answering in complete sentences I will have him tell me what he wants to say, then I will show him how it sounds as a complete sentence.

[DarlaS]

Some good ideas here. Thanks! I guess I'll just keep breaking it down a bit for him and leading him along a while longer. He's probably a bit baffled that I'm asking him to summarize what we just read together. I wish he'd draw more. I will try that and see what he thinks.

 

I also know that I need to step up the encouragement for trying new things with this kid. So much of what we do comes easily for him, that this new thing (We did WWE for a while, stopped and recently started up again.) is throwing a wrench in his formerly somewhat predictable day. He is very much like my oldest and really likes routine.

[Once]

My kids do not like to narrate.....I just let it go for awhile and moved on to copywork and written narrations. I would not recommend that approach as I have seen knowledgeable people say that discussion later on is very important.

 

I need ideas about how to get the narrations flowing.......anyone?

[Rosie_0801]

Maybe he doesn't like narrating to you because he knows you know what the book said. Could he narrate to his dad? Or tape record his narration so Dad can listen when he gets home? If he does that, you can still listen in.

 

Rosie

[Critterfixer]

need ideas about how to get the narrations flowing.......anyone?

Check out www.charlottemasonhelp.com for what amounts to some truly creative approaches for narration. I really found that site helpful.

 

From what I have gleaned I can say that

1) short pieces are better than long pieces to start with

2) whole pieces are useful to create a full picture

3)for reluctant narrators use pieces that they are familiar with already or for new work choose pieces that are of great interest

4) for young narrators I have found that fairy tales or fables that have the reading on one page with a picture of the event on the facing page are useful to help the child recall what was read and to organize it.

I'm willing to go out on a limb and suggest that for older narrators that struggle pieces with exceptional word pictures and visceral descriptive language would act in a similar way.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Critterfixer
Clarity

[woolybear]

check out these two websites for ideas. The Bravewriter page is more a general approach to narration skills, not narrating per se. My ds does not like to narrate, so I do not require it often. When I do, I try to use different approaches. A month or so ago he made a movie of a story we read. It not only accomplished the same thing, but so much more. However, I'm not up to that all the time, and it would get old for him too.

 

 

 

http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/narration/

 

http://www.bravewriter.com/bwl/one-on-one-time/

[flobee76]

I was going to post the same thing about my nearly 7yo DD. She doesn't like to narrate back to me, but I do know that she remembers what she reads and what I read aloud to her. I'll be checking out others' input as well.

 

THANKS, OP!:D

[Tracy]

My dd6 is like that. But I don't think that it is stubbornness, though that is how it manifests. Rather, I think it is her perfectionistic tendencies. My gut tells me that she is afraid of doing it wrong. It doesn't matter how gentle I am, I am going to have to help her sometimes to use complete sentences. And she hates doing anything that she is not confident that she can do correctly.

[DarlaS]

My dd6 is like that. But I don't think that it is stubbornness, though that is how it manifests. Rather, I think it is her perfectionistic tendencies. My gut tells me that she is afraid of doing it wrong. It doesn't matter how gentle I am, I am going to have to help her sometimes to use complete sentences. And she hates doing anything that she is not confident that she can do correctly.

 

Yep. Reluctant perfectionist narrators are more common than I realized. He is older, and this is not that new to him, but I'm backing up to WWE1 level skills. (We stopped after about 11 or 12 weeks--big mistake.)

 

I guess I somehow got the impression that the whole read/narrate part of the early classical education goes so smoothly for everyone else.

 

Good to know this is normal. I guess I'll keep on trying. He does much better with subjects like history and science than books. This week we've been reading Stuart Little. He hates narrating any part of this book (I even tried having him read a chapter to himself, then telling me what it was about), but does much better with history. In fact, he'd rather do a dozen history narrations than any kind of hands-on activity. Go figure.

 

Maybe his thoughts on history are somehow less personal to him. Hmmm...