7 year old narration in Bigger?

[rodandmegs]

Everything is going great in our homeschool with Bigger. It takes us about 2 hours to finish everything {including math and grammar} for my 7 and 10 year old. However, my 7 year old is having a hard time with oral narration. It's like she is put on the spot and has no idea what to say. I ask her questions to prompt her, and she will answer them. She doesn't use complete sentence with it, though. I don't know how much she should be doing. My 10 year old, on the other hand, can practically recite the entire section we read! {I do this in a separate room so she won't be embarrassed or upset that she doesn't do as well as he does. Although he is older, she doesn't understand that he should be doing more than her.} Anyway, my question is what should I expect from an extremely smart 7 year old daughter when it pertains to narration? In everything else, she is excelling.

[Nealewill]

They younger they are, the more time it will take for them to grow into. My son was the same way last year. It was so frustrating at times too. But as the year went on, it got much better. Some of the activities listed in the story time box really helped. There were times we would go back and forth. I usually had to get him started. But as the year progressed, he took the reigns eventually and he was able to narrate like a champ. It was a great year of growth. As for specific expectations, I would just do as much hand holding as you can. Practicing narrating together will help to grow your 7 year old stronger in this area.

[my3sons]

Narration from a 7 yo is often a short, choppy, quite unrefined and unplanned experience - even if LA is a strong area for them. It takes years and years of practice to become adept at oral narration, and then it takes even more time for a personal style to develop. I would really encourage her at this point! The BHFHG Language Arts box on Day 2 each week has excellent 'helps' in the plans for the parent to provide modeling. The "Narration Tips" in the Appendix also provide much guidance that we have found very helpful in developing strong oral narrators through the years. My now 8 yo has improved so much from the time that he was 7 yo by following the oral narration tips in Beyond... and now by using the oral narration tips from BHFHG. I would try to focus the Storytime narrations on your dd, and let her 'shine' in this, and I would focus the extension oral narrations on your ds. The science oral narrations twice a week, and the history oral narration once each week can be alternated. For one of the science narrations, you can carry over the 'help' from the Storytime box if you find that would be more of help to your dd and less of a comparison she is making with ds. If you really want to focus on dd and ds is doing very well with orally narrating, and if dd is self-conscious about narrating in front of big brother and not doing as well, you can have your ds orally narrate into an iPod or other recording device some of the time, and work primarily on helping dd. She is on the very young side of the guide, so her oral narrations will be shorter and not have nearly as much flow as your son's narrations do. Mainly, I try to keep my kiddos positive about oral narration by helping them as needed, and they all have and are growing into better narrators each year, slowly and steadily by doing each part of the HOD guides and using the Appendix tips for helps. I just want to encourage you - it takes real time - but it is a worthy skill to pursue!

In Christ,
Julie