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We just started Bigger this week (yay!) with my almost 7-year-old daughter. She completed Beyond and is completely ready for this guide at half pace for now. Narration intimidated me, but I did some searches and watched some youtube videos of narrations done by homeschoolers which helped some. Below is her narration of Columbus discovering America:

"Columbus got on three ships with some men who went with him. When they landed he kissed the ground. They saw Indians and traded gifts with them."

I know it's short, but for her (and my!) first narration, what do you think? We worked on not saying "And then" because she wanted to do that a lot I hope as we both get more comfortable with this part of HOD they will become longer, but I just wanted some reassurance that for a child at the younger end of the guide she is on the right track.

Thanks!
Melissa

I think that is fine. Narration is a skill that builds slowly over time and cannot be forced at a faster speed. I have a child that began narration with blank looks and "I don't knows" (earlier guide). He has grown so much and some days he jumps right up and starts excitedly giving me a narration, other days he gives a short narration and then seems lost (he is 7 also). I wouldn't worry at this point.

Thanks for the input That is how I felt, but being so completely new to this whole narration thing I wanted to see what more experienced moms thought!

Melissa - I think your dd did just fine! Narrations are typically short at first, and we have worked on nixing the "And then" sentence starter for about a year with Riley. He finally has learned to stop that for the most part, but still slips back into it now and then. I like to give 3 compliments and 1 thing to work on each narration. This has worked well for our dc, as they feel like they gave a good narration and can focus on one thing to improve upon at a time. I did want to point out that Beyond Little Hearts has oral narration practice on Day 2 and Day 5 of each week within the Storytime box of plans. Day 2 is a modeling of the narration by the parent, and Day 5 has dc practicing oral narrations in various ways with a variety of helps. But I know that Bigger Hearts is when they are really taking on the responsibility of narrating more and more! I think she is off to a good start!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks so much Julie! I have to be honest and say we skipped the storytime box last year It was our first year homeschooling and we started mid-year. I also had my two youngest to deal with and although we did a lot of reading out load together, I didn't bother with the box. Knowing that now I'll make sure to do it with my 2nd daughter

lissiejo wrote:We just started Bigger this week (yay!) with my almost 7-year-old daughter. She completed Beyond and is completely ready for this guide at half pace for now. Narration intimidated me, but I did some searches and watched some youtube videos of narrations done by homeschoolers which helped some.

Your dd's narration sounds good!

Can you tell me what you used to search for the Youtube narrations, because I'm not finding much yet? Thanks!!