dd's written narration

[Mom2Monkeys]

DD8 read all of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" yesterday and asked if she could write a retelling of it?! We've not really done written narration and I don't have a guide telling me what to look for. She asked if she could do it like a "school thing" so I think we'll fine tune it today (spelling, punctuation, etc.). She is an amazing reader, but horrible speller. And for the life of me, I can't get her to capitalize!
I'll type it below, just as it is written and would love your feedback on it...primarily content and such, in light of carrie's written narration tips.

Charle is a poor boy who eats cabege for every meal. Mr. Willa Wonko is a famos-choclate maker. When Mr. Willa Wonka gives tickets for his fatory.eveyone wants one. even charly. he serches three bars hopefuly, and he findes it in the thirdone. he has adventures. in every one a kid is bad and gets hurt. he wins and gets to own the fatory!

[Carrie]

Tamara,

We typically follow Charlotte Mason's guidelines for when to begin written narrations. She said that a child age 9 can begin writing a written narration once a week. I can't remember how old your daughter is, but I am thinking she is younger than age 9. Until kiddos are 9, we recommend having them dictate their narrations to you while you write it on a markerboard or large piece of paper. Then, you'd have your daughter copy a part of her narration in order to make sure that she has a correctly written model to copy from that has the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation right. This is because it is so important for kiddos to have the habit of correct mechanics and capitalization down before they attempt much assigned writing on their own.

In the scenario that CM advocated, the kiddos are also meant to have several years of copywork under their belts and at least a year or two of studied dictation before jumping in to written narrations. With that being said, your daughter's narration would be pretty typical for a younger child.

If she continues to show interest in written narrations, I would lean toward having her dictate them to you and have her copy from your model. Or, she can do them in her free-time without any correcting from you if preferred. My own kiddos did write in their free-time, and I did not correct their free-time creative writing.

I would also make sure that she is getting daily copywork practice and daily dictation practice to help her cement the habits of mechanics, spelling, and capitalization.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Mom2Monkeys]

She is almost 9 (well, in June) and has been doing dictation and copywork and oral narrations for quite some time! We just slacked off these last several weeks/months ...in everything.

She much prefers written narrations to oral, and much prefers to read on her own or listen to an audio cd than for me to read and ask her about it. Since this was a "free time" thing, and the best narration I'd seen from her, I just praised her for it! She's very fast and mostly just needs to slow down and think before she writes. She knows the rules for capitals and punctuation, and I KNOW she can spell better than that! I'm sure it will all improve as we get back into school again...

As for writing a narration for the whole book, is this pretty good? I mean, if I were going to let her dictate a written narration to me for her to copy, is this a reasonable beginning? I'm not good at narration myself, so I'm not confident guiding in this area.