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It's so ironic that I have so much trouble getting dd to narrate, precisely, main points, in order. We try and try, I explain and explain, and I shorten and shorten the readings...history, read-alouds, science...narrations are so poor, then (this is the ironic part), there's tonight...she just picked up a DITHOR book, Lighthouse Family: The Storm. We aren't going to do DITHOR this coming year in Bigger so I told her she could read all her DITHOR books. She read the whole book in about 30-45 minutes and it's well over 70 pages! Then she comes in the living room, walking laps around the coffee table, narrating the entire book with exceptional recall, chronological as best I could tell without reading (it made sense to me in the order she gave), hitting all the big ideas. I'm sure much was left out, but it took her well over 5 minutes to tell me all about it that she could. Now, how about what we read in history??? At least I know she really is picking up on the skills though! The ability is there thanks to HOD!

Could she read the history readings to herself and then narrate them to you? Maybe her listening comprehension is not as strong as her reading comprehension. Personally, I can't stand it when things are read aloud to me. I would much rather read it myself. If you feel that some of the history readings may be a little too hard or you want to work on increasing her listening comprehension, you could read the passage aloud to her first. Then let her read it again to herself. After that, she could narrate.

You could also give her some tips to improve her listening comprehension like "seeing" the story in her mind as she listens. She may also just need more practice with narration. It's okay to throw in a few, "Then what happened"s in there to keep her moving along.

hth,
Laura

Way to grow in narrating! Give your dd a big hug, she's coming along just great! With narration, some dc are better at orally narrating from what another person has read to them, and others are better at narrating what they read on their own. Both are necessary skills though, so it's important to do both. HOD covers this well. I was just thinking the other day how often I have used both myself on a daily basis - for example, I had to retell my brother-in-law's news from the doctor (very detailed, and I had to retell it to my dh and my sister after first hearing it on the phone from my mother). Later that day, I read a book myself I needed to retell to my sister who is considering using that book in a later curriculum. It was important I could do both things with clarity, or I could have really confused my audiences. Oral narration is a skill needed for daily living, so keep on working through each kind of narration - they will come over time. I'm celebrating with you here that your little gal can already orally narrate well from something she's read on her own!

In Christ,
Julie