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on my daughter's narriation skills. One problem is that I won't let her finish what she is saying. She takes so long in between sentences I thought she was done. So now I ask her to let me know when she is finished. She has no problem answering the quesitons in the back of the Bigger guide for the emerging readers section. It's when she cannot find the answer in the book she gets 'lost'. Before switching to HOD programs all she had to do was read a story and answer questions. If she didn't know the answer she'd just look in the story. Now she has to THINK about some of the questions. We just finished Wagon Wheels and it asked about their home. She had to explain what it was but it didn't descibe it in the book. It was just a Grr part. Now we are reading Buffalo Bill, I think that is it. It had a question to where she had to THINK instead of just look it up. I think this is why Drawn Into THe Heart Of Reading didn't work the first time thru. It's not the reading it's the comprehension part of it. The gettin her to think on her own. Also to some how pick up the pace of telling the story back to me. There is way too much quietness, IMO between sentences. Hope this makes sense. My 3 year old is wanting something to eat, AGAIN. She has had an bottomless stomache for the past two weeks.

Here's my favorite link for narration ideas.

http://home.att.net/~bandcparker/narration.html

Mel

In reading, it seems like the first goal it just to get them to know the sounds and words (a.k.a. "phonics" ). But after that, it becomes all about getting them to "think" about their reading and "respond" to it. That's what I LOVE about the Emerging Reader's Set, and DITHOR takes that one step further after that.

It helped me with my oldest ds (and also now with my next son) to keep in mind that "thinking" about reading is a brand new skill that has to be taught. I think that this is VERY important, and unfortunately sometimes overlooked! Have you ever met someone who says "My dd or ds can read at a "such-and-such" reading level - usually it's something incredible, like a "four year old reading at the eighth grade level" or something. I honestly don't think that is possible, because reading is not just being able to say the words on a page - it's being able to tell what the reading is about too!

So, get ready, because while this is painful at first... (I too have recently had a "long pauser"), it keeps getting better and better with time. I just had a conversation yesterday with my middle ds that now that he's so good at reading words on a page (he's doing phonics readers) that the next thing is to be able to "talk" to me about what he has read. He had a "deer in the headlight" look about this, like this had never occurred to him. He actually let out a very long sigh, and said, "When you ask me questions, can't I just look back and reread the book to answer you?"

I laughed and said, "Sure, for awhile, but that's a totally different skill to learn, and it's one you're already pretty good at anyway. Going back and rereading to look for an answer is sort of like using a good reference book, like a phone book or an encyclopedia, but it's not the same as really "knowing" what you read.

He's had the advantage of listening to his older brother narrate for a few years, and when I told him that he was starting to learn the skills to be able to "narrate" by being able to "tell back" some things like his older brother, he was much more on board.

Now, he'll still sometimes say when I ask a question, "Can't I just look back and reread that part in the book, Mom?" I'll say, "Sure, if you really need to, but I think you remember it without doing that because I could tell you were really starting to "think" about your reading when you were reading. Can you give it a try without looking back?"

Usually he does pretty well with that now, and then after he answers, I act flabbergasted , he just laughs and tells me, "Yeah, I'm getting pretty good at this "thinking" part of reading, Mom!"

This is a slow process though, so just be ready to put in some time before the "breakthrough" begins. There are even high school aged children who still don't "think" about what they're reading, though they may be reading "on the college level" - that is NOT what we want!!!

If you haven't gotten a chance to check out the "Narration Tips" in the Appendix of the HOD guides, that's a great list to use! I still show the student one to my oldest ds and we read through it talking about what things to keep in mind as he narrates. It really helps him. Number one on the list should be learned first, then number 2, then number 3, and so on though - certainly don't tackle them all at once!

HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

mama23bearcubs,

You've already gotten some excellent advice here that I totally agree with. I also agree that kiddos vary widely in how well they are able to narrate. Auditory kiddos narrate well almost right off the bat! My oldest was like this, and I thought I had narrating down! My oldest is also great at summarizing and seeing the big idea, which really helps with narrating.

My second son is a detail person. He loves to talk, but his narrations just went on and on and on. I could hardly help myself from interrrupting. He also has come along very well and has finally learned some summarizing through years of narration practice. We narrated with the Narration Tips sheet in front of my student as well.

At school, I also had multiple opportunities to listen to the long pausers. I know this is terribly frustrating, so I've linked a couple of old threads below to help with that. Just soldier on knowing that it will improve as your little one has more practice. I know other moms on the board have struggled with this too (and Charlotte Mason herself mentions it in her writings as well)!

Here are a couple of old threads that may help:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=698

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=876 (on narrating with more than one student, but has a good link about narration in general on it)

Blessings,
Carrie