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My sons are combined in Beyond, and I am wondering how any of you with combined children do that narration with them? It seems one of mine wants to narrate to me more and the other gets left out more, etc? How do you handle this? Also, do you have them narrate the storytime portion each day too? Thanks!

tnahid wrote:My sons are combined in Beyond, and I am wondering how any of you with combined children do that narration with them? It seems one of mine wants to narrate to me more and the other gets left out more, etc? How do you handle this? Also, do you have them narrate the storytime portion each day too? Thanks!

My dc are currently combined in Beyond as well. If the storytime calls for narration that day, then yes I have them narrate. What I do is choose someone to start, they narrate a little, then tell them to stop and have the other dc pick up where they left off and just rotate it like that. If someone else wants to add something in that they feel like the other person "forgot" then they are allowed to add it in at the end. Sometimes I also have ds go in the bedroom, I listen to dd narrate, have ds come back and then do his narration. Both have worked very well for us. HTH!

I know this has been posted before, but Charlotte Mason's "bean" method works well. You let your children know that one child will narrate per lesson, but don't tell them who it will be. Also, alternating days won't work, because the one who isn't having their turn won't pay attention as closely.

So, you have 2 different colored beans in your pocket...2 different colored unifix cubes...2 of whatever. One color is always assigned to one child and one color to the other. After you finish reading, announce what you want done so both children have to *think* about it as if they were going to have to answer. For example, "Children, I want you to both think about this. Pretend you were Benjamin West. Today I want you to think about retelling or narrating what happened in today's reading from his point of view. I will give you a couple of minutes to think about that."

Now you have both children thinking. Nobody is tuning out. They know that either of them could be called upon to do the retelling.

Then pull one of the beans out of your pocket. That child goes.

This works well for lots of things. Even if you are asking them to answer some simple comprehension questions from another type of reading. It is randomized!

I have 2 on the same level, like you. One can retell forever, and another needs a lot of help. I try to make the latter feel as successful as possible by praising his attempts and offering little helps along the way.

Good Luck!