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Hey all,

I just had a quick question about narrating in Bigger. I remembered Julie saying something about not narrating unless it says to in the guide, and then I noticed that it only requires them to narrate on the History reading once a week. Does that mean for the other days that you just read it, and that's it? I was under the impression that they needed to go over the material in some way in order to make connections with it ( so that they would remember it ). Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

In His love,
RuthAnn

Hmm I don't know what you were supposed to do, I honestly just opened Bigger and went. But we did narrate every time I read. I think it really helps with comprehension. I thought you were supposed to always narrate. Well anyway that is what we did and it worked really well. We were quick about it but I'll tell you what all that stuff stuck.

But I think now that I look at it you are supposed to have them narrate as directed in the box. The Appendix of Bigger has some great narration tips if you have not seen them yet. It took my kids a little bit of time to learn to narrate. I will say that I was doing Bigger with 9-11 year olds as well so I was expecting more. If you follow what the box tells you to do for the day you will always be on track for what Carrie intended. That is always your best bet and it does not say narrate every time so I would guess that you are right it was not necessarily meant to be done every time. She is very good about directing you to exactly what you are supposed to do, nothing is assumed. If you read the introduction and appendix then follow the boxes every day you will always be on track. Probably does not help much but I know you will get some other great advice as well.

I believe they are asked to narrate some days on the history box, some days in the"story" box, and also sometimes in the science ... so I don't think you need to require a narration every day in multiple subjects. I tend to haave my children narrate one subject only, I just do what Carrie says . I gotta say, it is so freeing and much easier to rest in doing it the way it is written, instead of me reinventing the wheel as I have done for years (trying to piece together my own plans)!
I start with the youngest, and then let the older narrate afterwards. I never thought of this, but maybe I could have them each narrate a different subject per day. Though maybe it helps teach the younger how to narrate by listening to her older brother's narration after she does hers....I think I will stick with the way Carrie says, and just have them narrate the same selection (youngest first!)

Hi RuthAnn! We did BHFHG a few years back, but I knew we did oral narration daily, so I looked back at the Introduction to see what we were narrating about (my memory is fading as I get older ) . In BHFHG, here is the rotation of narrating:

Science Discovery - Day 1: practice narration by retelling the science story
Storytime - Day 2: model narration to foster comprehension
Reading about History - Day 3: orally narrate using the Narration Tips in the Appendix
Science Discovery - Day 4: practice narration by retelling the science story
Storytime - Day 5: practice narration by retelling the story

We really enjoyed narrating daily in different ways. I feel like this helped my ds be able to narrate well from a variety of resources, and of course it doesn't hurt that all of HOD's book choices are so living! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie