Beginning Narration in Your Charlotte Mason Homeschool
Do you have a new narrator? Or a student who struggles with narration? Here’s a pointer that will help:
Start Small
When beginning narration, start small. Read the passage to your child and ask them to tell you JUST ONE THING that they remember from the story. JUST ONE THING! That’s all! And then PRAISE YOUR STUDENT for that ONE thing!
This is all about positive reinforcement and gaining confidence. We want the student to have a positive association with the task of narration. We do not want to put undue stress on a beginning narrator, as stress will cause your student to shut down. ALWAYS praise your student’s efforts, after all, children are NATURAL narrators!
Jump to the video below to see examples!
Here’s how it might work: Let’s say, for example, that you read a story about Johnny Appleseed, and your student’s narration consisted of “a guy had some apples” – that’s great! It’s a great STARTING POINT. Really, I promise, it’s a great start! Give your student a big high-five!
Later on, you will require more from the student, but for now, just ask for ONE THING during ALL narrations until you feel that your student is ready for more. Narration is hard work!
Build Narration Skills
Build your student’s narration skills over time. Require more from him as he gains confidence.
In this short video, I give you some concrete examples that you can use right away.
My son, Aaron, played the part of a new narrator in the video (even though he’s now 16) to show you what to expect.
Watch the video now (and stick around at the end of the video for some bloopers!):
Get Your Beginning Narration Checklist Here
If you have any questions, leave a comment or pop over to The Plenary Facebook Group! I hope to chat with you soon!
Thank you for your helpful tips! We are working on starting narration, and this helped me break it down! I am having trouble accessing the checklist. It seems the hyperlink or button is missing. Is there something I’m doing wrong? Thanks so much!
Thank you so much for this information. I absolutely loved the video and the bloopers. I have a 7 year old son and we’ve been struggling with narration. I usually get the blank stare followed by “I don’t know”. I’ll definitely be trying the tips you suggested to get him more comfortable with narration. I am having one issue a can’t seem to download the checklist for narration or prepping the lesson. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everything!
Hi! Thanks for letting me know! Try the signup form again please.. I think it’s fixed now. The PDF should pop open when you hit “submit.”
Thank you so much! That did fix the issue for the Narration checklist. I did just try to download the checklist for Prepping the Lesson and that one still doesn’t work.
Fixed that one just now too! Thanks for the heads up! I hope you find the information helpful! 🙂
Wow! What an amazing resource you’ve put together! Job well done! Your website has been incredibly helpful as I start my journey with CM homeschooling. I’m confident I can start doing this today with my kiddos! Thank you!
Thank you for the video and this blog post. What a helpful tool for someone like myself who is very new to CM! I am doing Kindergarten with my twins who are 6 now and we are excited to start narration off right.
Thank you for your kind words, Christina! I am so glad you found the info helpful!