SOTW and Narration?

[Guest Candeepal]

My son enjoys listening to the "Story of the World," but once I tried incorporating into our curriculum, instead of reading it as a bed time story, which he enjoyed, things didn't go well. He was 5 when we did it and this fall when he will be 6 I plan to try again. He does not do well at all on the narration. He only seems to remember the war stuff.

 

Has anyone else used SOTW and skipped the narration? I want him to think of history as enjoyable and not a chore.

 

And yes I know I was starting him a year early. He does at least first grade work on everything else so I thought he could handle it.

 

Thanks!

Candee

[Lovedtodeath]

My first thought is that WWE and the SOTW AG have comprehension questions that you ask first in order to jog the child's memory and draw them out. Then after covering those, you ask him what you should write. Have you tried this? Narrating may also go more smoothly if done in a different way. You could ask him to explain pictures to you that go along with the story, or you could ask him later what did we read about last night? In addition, the sections in TWTM are longer than some children can narrate from. You might have him narrate after only 2 key paragraphs. Finally, he may just not be ready for it yet. CM doesn't have children narrate before they are 6.

 

If you want him to enjoy history, and think narration will suck the joy from it, then I don't think you have to. In TWTM it says that you don't need to narrate or notebook every book they read, as that will suck the love of reading out of your child. So I say start WWE when you feel he is ready for that. It will cover all the narration skills that are needed, and you can relax with SOTW, making it enjoyable.

 

I am curious to see what anyone else has to say.

[Strawberry Queen]

Maybe you could have him draw his own picture and tell you about it. He might also like to set up a scene from the text and then reenact it. My dd6 is a little reluctant with narrations. I try and stop after a shorter time and get her to say one sentence on let's say 2-3 paragraphs. Sometimes I don't narrate at all. We're doing SOTW3 right now and some of the chapters are rather complicated and a little less story like.

 

BTW I wouldn't worry about the war thing. I'm pretty sure that's normal for children,especially boys. I mean really what's more exciting someone getting their head loped off or people sharing their crops? We read Black Ships Before Troy and my very girly, sensitive girl was all over it. Liked the drama and blood and guts. :D

[ELaurie]

one other thought is to simply ask him to tell you one thing he remembers from SOTW at first, as SWB suggests in the level 1 book for WWE.

[Lovedtodeath]

one other thought is to simply ask him to tell you one thing he remembers from SOTW at first, as SWB suggests in the level 1 book for WWE.

Oops. I assumed she already knew that. Good point. If you haven't read WWE, how would you?

 

To further clarify: WWE does not have a child picking out the main or most important point until level 2. In level 1 they only have to remember one sentence.

[jedbel]

I second using the AG questions to jog his memory. Also, when my first ds was that age I would ask him to draw a picture after the reading and then to describe the picture to me. I could tell he was understanding by all the details in the pic. He is really good at narrating now (he is nine yrs. old). It just takes a while for a child to develop those skills. HTH.

[Mommy22alyns]

I always ask the questions first, then start the narration. Our early narrations were very short, and now and then we still have 1-2 sentence narrations.

 

Something is better than nothing, right? If he remembers the war stuff, then he has remembered something. That's good!

[arcara]

I really have to prompt my dd, who is 6. "What happened after that?" "Why did he do that?" etc. I don't care that she remembers everything, of course! But, asking some questions after she's started with a sentence brings out some more of the story. We always start with the comprehension questions from the AG.

 

My dd actually enjoys making me write a lot :) For WWE, she know that one day of narration she has to copy and one she doesn't. She she always asks which day it is, and usually makes me write more when she knows she won't have to copy it. :)

[moki4]

I cover all of these for reinforcement with all of my kids (ds age 5 is the youngest).

I have ds complete copy work (2 sentences) usually directly from the "narration" example given in the AG.

HTH:)

[Guest Candeepal]

one other thought is to simply ask him to tell you one thing he remembers from SOTW at first, as SWB suggests in the level 1 book for WWE.

 

 

What does wwe stand for?

[Lovedtodeath]

Writing With Ease at peacehillpress.com. The sample has a lot of information, actually I have been told it has everything that the Writing With Fear audio has. That should help you quite a lot!

 

Chapter 3 — Why Writing Fails

Chapter 4 — The Three Stages

Chapter 8 — Year 1, Weeks 1–3

[Sara in WA]

Another narration idea is to have your kids tell about all the people they remember, then the places, then the big events. It's not in paragraph form, but it is a way to have them tell what they learned.

[Blackforest mom]

I love SOTW. It works so well even all the way up til 8th or 9th grade for a kid who loves stories more than just facts.

I have been using it in my enrichment classes. I teach it for my 13 year old who has learning disabilities, but who retains so much from this.

Anyhow, when he was little, I allowed him to draw pictures of what I was reading. This helped him remember some of it. Also, in the student pages and IG there are some outlines and questions. The maps are great too because they review the story and the kids get to do hands- on color coded mapping. this allows them to see where these events occurred. And remember, history is repeated three times before you get out of school in 12th grade. At age 6, it's great to just love learning and get what you can out of it, I think.