Encouraging narration 6yo

[mamamindy]

Pretty much what the title says... How do I encourage narration in my 6yo? She is always so resistant. She will have fun with a subject until I request this of her. (Like rattling off what she's learned from her history reading to her brother, talking about alligators to anyone who will listen, etc.) I have tried to act non-school-y, and just talk to her... Any tips for me? Is this something I should even require of her? I thought so in 1st grade.

[freeindeed]

Here is a link to some great ideas:

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

[blondeviolin]

Something that helped me here was to have real expectations. Listening to SWB's lecture on writing in the early grades was really good for me. In it, she walks through the narration process and I realized that at such a young age, it is fine to prompt with questions and ideas. In SOTW or FLL or WWE, it always says "What is one thing you remember about the passage?" but I've found sometimes it's helpful to prompt with, "Who was the story about? What did he do?" At this point, I'm just trying to guide her to telling me the main big chunks of what I read and not focus on all the itty bitty details and missing the whole point of the story.

[Tracy]

My dd was also very resistant to narrations until we started WWE. She always listened well and understood the story, but didn't understand how to narrate. She felt like she needed to tell the story back verbatim, no matter how much I told her otherwise. She really needed to be walked through it gently like they do in WWE1, answering specific questions about what was read.

[mamamindy]

thank you! I appreciate the advice :)

[mamamindy]

I just want to update that M&Ms have been a miracle cure to my reluctant narrator! :D I don't usually "bribe" my children - well, maybe I do sometimes, but I try not to make it habit - but I have given her an M&M for a response that's a complete sentence, and she's caught on quickly! Yay!