Narration has been getting better for us too and as CTC was our first guide w/ HOD, I'm happy with how far my dd has come.
As far as retention...about 2 years ago I kept freaking out over my dd not being able to recall everything and sometimes stand there with the most blank expression on her face when I would orally quiz her or test her w/out the opportunity for open books. A very good homeschooling friend of mine helped me through this. She told me that it is a rare child that can have that photographic/perfect recall, most like the rest of us..we don't use it..we lose it...so don't fret..and, she said, everything you teach your child will come back around it will all cycle again.
So, that being said, I realized she was very very correct..and it really hit home when we began using HOD. Just look at the guides, it will all cycle back again.
I think as long as your child has been exposed to the concepts, and at the very least has shown even the most tentative grasp at the that concept... don't fret because it will be repeated again at some point.
I used to drill my dd over and over and go back again again again to that same concept...and about burned her out. I so wanted perfection. I was her worst enemy lol..when I did let go of that frantic need to want her to recall/retain everything I saw something amazing happen:
..at the beginning of CTC, my dd was watching Destination Truth, where they were investigating some very old pyramids..she jumped up raced over to the bookshelf and grabbed her geography book and said, "Look momma! I read about that mummy they are talking about and (pointing to the globe) and thats where they are!" I was flabbergasted
..I had never seen her do that before about any of her history.
Just when you think your kiddo may not have gotten it..lol just wait they'll prove you wrong lol
Mostly I love how HOD helped me to really take the smaller nuggets of recall from my child and help her build that skill and i think now she's able to narrate/recall about 60 - 75% without struggling or me prompting. She still has days where that incredibly irrating blank and glazed look crosses her face and I know the brain has gone somplace else
..those are the days I take the breath and go back to prompting.
We also figured out that she suffers from a level of test anxiety, her brain literally freezes ..my husband discovered this..we printed out two math tests for her one day, he told her to complete the worksheets and challenged her not to use her book. Now, she had taken these same two sheets a week before as tests and failed them.. miserably failed them because they were tests..She completed the "worksheets" in about 35 minutes and scored high 80's on both...
I now focus more on encourging her to give me the main points and have eased way back from testing..OUr goal over the next year is to slowly raise the the intensity of "testing" helping her to manage it in smaller chunks (hmmlol kinda like how Carrie builds the the intensity and level of oral narrations
)
Again, I'm going to praise Carrie and God's hand on her for her beautiful gift to write a curriculum that is balanced and giving/forgiving for each child's learning style. HOD cycles concepts back in a way that makes it new and exciting the 2nd, and 3rd (and hopefully a highschool line) even a 4th time around. I am thankful for this board and for the helps within the curriculum that now make it a joy to teach and to watch my dd be turned on to learning.
So don't fret..take it one skill at a time, one day at time. however, if retention seems to affect more than just school work, have your kiddo tested to see if there is a processing disorder, and then you'll know how to tweak his/her curriculum to maximize retention.
I know this was long, I hope my experiences help. The other ladies here are great at giving good advice.
are not retaining their history. It seems to go in one ear and out the other! I know that narration is the key. If they can retell a history passage, then they should be able to retain it, but I have to literally DRAG narration out of my kids STILL!
Can you remind me how long your dc have been orally narrating with HOD? If it's only been a year or two, then it is normal for narrating to be of a lesser quality, which results in retention being less solid. Bigger Hearts is the start of less guided oral narrating, but LHFHG and Beyond really focus on training dc to begin to orally narrate. If dc have not gone through both LHFHG and Beyond, and are starting in Bigger Hearts, they will still need time to be eased into narrating. It is a skill that takes much time to develop. Bigger Hearts has more challenging books in it as well, which makes narrating upon them more difficult for dc on the younger side of the target age range of it. I remember wondering if narration would ever come for my oldest about the time we were doing Beyond/Bigger, and then suddenly it began to click! I am seeing the same thing happen with my middle ds who is in the middle of Bigger Hearts now. They both did all of HOD's previous guides though, so really Bigger Hearts was their 3rd year of practicing oral narration. 