heartofdakota.com

I need some advice. My dd finished unit 7 and I feel like her written narrations are lacking the art of story telling. Here is her most recent:

Before Egbert was born, there was a place called Britain. The Britains lived there. After a few years the Angles, Saxons, and Nutes came and took over. They split the kingdom into three parts. Two thirds on it was Christain and the other third worshipped many, many gods. After many years of fighting, wars and thoughts of beliefs they decided to make Britain all one land. The Angles and Saxons began to preach to the Nutes but they refused to listen. After a few years, Egbert came and preached. He persuaded them to become Christians. They became Christians and Britain became one land.

What do you think? Is it lacking? She is only 10. I know she has a ways to grow. Any thoughts? Last year it seemed like she has better flow than she does this year. Any help would be great.

Off of the top of my head, weren't the written narrations a lot of Bible stories in CTC? Do you think it was because the stories were more familiar? This history is pretty complex.

She is doing more of a summary, but that is pretty typical at her age and where she is in RTR. I have found over the years that my son's narration will vary from book to book that he is narrating on. Some of his narrations are more story like and some more factual. When he narrated on books in the Monks and Mystics series of books they were more story like. When he narrates on books that are more factual they are more factual and read less like a story. Also each time he has to narrate on a new book it can take quite a while for him to start regaining his "voice" in the narrations. It always seems like he takes a few steps backward for several weeks and then he will slowly get back to where he was before with his narrations.

Okay - this makes me feel a bit better. This was a narration on the book Story of Middle ages. It seems like if she writes something on about a single person and the events of their life, she has an easier time with making it more story like.

And Gwenny may also have hit the nail on the head with the Bible narration, she was very familiar with many of the stories that she wrote. She probably was able to add in more detail more easily. And all of those stories were about the lives of people. It seems like she is able to write narrations more easily when it is about a person or two.

The Story of the Middle Ages is the most challenging book in RTR. Once she gets to Mystery of History I imagine you will see her narrations improve quite a bit.