When did your kids start writing narrations without doing them orally first?

[Sally Day]

I have a just-turned-8yo 2nd grader who is on WWE3 and SOTW 3. We are still doing his narrations orally at the moment (followed by me dictating them to him). When did your kids start writing them on their own straight to paper? My 6yo is just starting to do narrations for SOTW and I'd love to be able to send the oldest off to another room with a piece of paper while I deal with youngest! Lazy, hopeful mummy........😉

Edited November 21, 2015 by Sally Day

[...................]

Never.  My kids both absolutely hated narrations with a passion and thought, from the start to the end, that I was insulting them by asking them to tell me back what I just read. This continued from when they were 5 all the way to 10, even when I pretended it wasn't narrations by asking in different ways..... Then, when we used FLL and WWE they felt it was insulting that they couldn't just write their own ideas and had to re-write others' ideas.  By the time they were really good enough at the physical act of writing to write narrations on their own, I had given up.

 

 

[KeriJ]

Mine started writing theirs about 4th grade, just a few sentences.  At 5th grade, they were writing almost a page, but we do more CM type written narrations.  I just asked them to read their chapter and then write about what they found interesting.  In that way, they felt they had more input.  I guess I usually ask for independent written narrations around the same time they are reading their lessons more independently.

 

ETA: mine probably could have done it a little earlier, but they were much more willing to do it at 4th grade.  

Edited November 21, 2015 by KeriJ

[The Governess]

This year, in 4th grade dd9 started reading SOTW independently and writing illustrated summaries for each section. We are still using WWE3 as well; we follow the instructions for those narrations. Many of the selections are a higher reading level than she is comfortable with, while SOTW is just right for her to read on her own.

[Miss Tick]

4th and now in 5th. Stay the course! I think the WWE4 instructions shift to that maybe mid-year.

 

We never wrote SOTW narrations (I know, shocking rule-breaker, aren't I) So if you are feeling overwhelmed that might be an area to cut. Now in 5th I assign them some reading and occasional written narrations on their own.

Edited November 21, 2015 by SusanC

[Sally Day]

Thanks. That's really helpful. Sounds like I should hold off a while. What is forcing my hand is that he is being rather lazy doing them orally, waiting for me to guide him through it. I wondered if getting him to do it independently would make him more engaged. Any thoughts on that?

[KeriJ]

One way we handled it at that age was "Tell Daddy what your history story was about today."   If I had tried to do oral narrations every. single. day, my kids would have resisted as well.

[OlgaLA]

I would ask him to try. It really depends on the child. My DD13 still growls when I ask her, and then does a poor job. My DS8 can do it easily, but needs me to sit next to him, just for moral support (so no sending him to a different room).

[hollyhock]

Thanks. That's really helpful. Sounds like I should hold off a while. What is forcing my hand is that he is being rather lazy doing them orally, waiting for me to guide him through it. I wondered if getting him to do it independently would make him more engaged. Any thoughts on that?

 

Out of my 3 boys so far who have completed the WWE series, the earliest any of them wrote their own narration was 9.5yo (beginning of 4th grade). I do think that instead of guiding him through the narration, you could start asking him, "What was that about?" I think there are instructions in WWE 3 somewhere about when to start doing that.

[FO4UR]

Charlotte Mason recommends 10yo as well (which is the age the typical child would be finishing WWE4).  I think that's based on solid child development knowledge. 

 

 

[Farrar]

My kids just couldn't do them orally. We would have a conversation instead. I was definitely not allowed to write them down!

 

They did, as a result, start doing a sort of written narration at about 3rd grade. It was much, much more pared down though and I didn't focus on spelling and so forth.

[4KookieKids]

. I just asked them to read their chapter and then write about what they found interesting. In that way, they felt they had more input. I guess I usually ask for independent written narrations around the same time they are reading their lessons more independently.

 

ETA: mine probably could have done it a little earlier, but they were much more willing to do it at 4th grade.

 

This is what we do. But I don't know if I'm missing something formal- like they have to do it completely independently- but I start ed as soon as he could read a simple nonfiction book even if there were only one or two sentences per page. So if we were talking about marsupials and he read half a book about kangaroos, even if it was an easy picture book, then he'd write me two or three sentences about kangaroos and draw a picture. I still help when he can't spell a word and do stuff like remind him to capitalize at the beginning of sentences. Edited November 24, 2015 by deanna1ynne

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

5th grade!!!

[solascriptura]

Actually, we started doing just that this year. I just couldn't take doing oral narrations anymore. It's working out well.