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My children, my oldest in particular, has never been that great at narration. Instead of working with him more on it, it was one of those things that got pushed to the side. We've been away from narration for about 1 1/2 years. We are returning to do Preparing for him (11) and his brother (9). My question is though, would the narration in Preparing be enough or do you think I should do a specifically designed narration program like WWE (Writing with Ease)? I have level 3, and honestly think he would need to do this one, even though it would be 2 years "younger" than his grade. Thoughts?

I think the narration in Preparing is definitely enough. They are working on oral narration and written narration in Preparing. From what I understand of Writing with Ease you are just reading them a selection and having them narrate and they don't have the context of the entire story to build on. To me that isn't near as effective as having them narrate from a book they are reading or one you are reading to them. They are going to have more of a relationship with the book and the characters in the book from which to base their narration on. Preparing has guidelines for written and oral narration in the appendix for you and for the student. I think they do two oral narrations a week and 1 written. It really is a narration program, just fully incorporated into the Preparing guide.

LynnH wrote:I think the narration in Preparing is definitely enough. They are working on oral narration and written narration in Preparing. From what I understand of Writing with Ease you are just reading them a selection and having them narrate and they don't have the context of the entire story to build on. To me that isn't near as effective as having them narrate from a book they are reading or one you are reading to them. They are going to have more of a relationship with the book and the characters in the book from which to base their narration on. Preparing has guidelines for written and oral narration in the appendix for you and for the student. I think they do two oral narrations a week and 1 written. It really is a narration program, just fully incorporated into the Preparing guide.

I totally agree with LynnH! She is correct in her interpretation of written narrations in "Writing with Ease". This is not the Charlotte Mason style of doing written narration, and is far less effective than doing it using her method. PHFHG uses CM's method of written narrations, and I really think it is more than enough. The context provided by doing written narrations as planned in PHFHG results in richer, more accurate narrations as more can be understood and shared as dc develop a "relationship" with the entire living book and its author they are enjoying rather than a one time shot at a portion of a selection they read that will change the next day. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

I have found the narration in Preparing enough for my oldest, although I am certain she could have had a better introduction to narration earlier on, so am feeling very blessed to have just started doing Bigger with my 8 yr old and had to narrate from our Storytime book yesterday. I think it really gave her a much better idea of what we are looking for in narration. I'm hoping my 11yr old will hear me doing it one day and gain a little more insight into how it can be done. I just love how everything builds upon what has been previously learnt, I do so wish I had known about HOD when I first started my home educating journey, but am so thankful we have it now, and that my boys will get to go through the programme from the earlier guides.

And I forgot to add that I had done WWE2 with my 8 yr old last year and it certainly did not prepare her in the way that Bigger is going to.