Notes on Beginning Descriptive Narration

Yesterday SA(7) and I started reading The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge. The book starts with two or three pages of description of a castle hall... columns, thick walls, windows without glass but such deep window-seats that the rain could not come in... Up till now, SA has not touched on descriptions very much in his narrations. They have been in his books all along, but he has been able to get away with moving on to the action quite quickly. This book is different, though. This is the first time we've had a reading that was all description, no action.

Now, I suppose that the natural thing to do in the case of a long descriptive passage like this would be to require a drawing as narration. SA's drawing skills are just not there, though. So this is what we did:

-I set the timer for 20 minutes. I think SA likes knowing that he can trust me not to make his lessons longer than a set time.

-I made sure he could picture the difficult things: columns "like the crypt of a cathedral" and cauldrons, for example. We briefly looked at a picture I found online of a crypt. (I wrote the words I wanted us to review earlier in pencil right on the page of the book. I will be going through this book with several more children and I plan to erase it all after the last child.)

-I encouraged him to picture things in his mind as I read aloud to him.

-After reading half a page or so, I stopped and got out a pencil and paper. I asked him to tell back what I had just read, and I drew what he told me. I'll be honest, he said very little at first. I kept in mind that this is a new skill in narration for him, and said things like, "I remember something about the fires." He came back with the fact that one fire was hotter than the other, and there were no chimneys so the smoke rose in the room and blackened the ceilings. Every now and then JJ(5), who was at the table with us, would pipe up and add something we had forgotten. We continued in this way until the timer rang. 

We only got through about two and a half pages in our 20 minutes. This might mean that we will have more readings than I anticipated for this chapter, but we will just move through the readings in order. If it takes us longer to get through our term because of that, so be it.

One of the things I realized as we did this is that my second child will not have any issue with descriptive narrations (No doubt he will have his own challenges.). It seems to come more naturally to him to see scenes like this in his head. Also, he will be able to draw better than SA can right now. This was interesting to me because I have always considered SA a visual learner. He does extremely well at math because he can see it in his head, for example. But he is also more literal, less imaginative than JJ. (If you're into MBTI, SA is ISTJ, while JJ is probably ISFP)

For your amusement, I have included my drawing. I have very (very, very) little artistic skill, but I did find that drawing this rough representation of our reading fixed it in my own mind very clearly. Also, when I think of that reading, I still see what I imagined in my mind, not what I drew. (I hope my boys also see what they imagined, not what I drew...) It was not an artistic exercise, but a process of fixing what we had read in our minds.

It will be interesting to go back to this post at the end of the year, I think. I remember from Year One that things that were very difficult at the beginning of the year became easy by the end. We will see if that proves true for descriptive narration as well.

I Don't Remember...

As we are nearing the end of our first term using Ambleside Online Year One, I have been thinking through writing a post about how much we are liking it, and how wonderfully the new skill of narration has been developing in SA(6).

And then we ran *smack* into today.

Today we were home all day after going out four days in a row. (My general rule tends to be that I never go out more than one day in a row. For reasons that will become obvious.)

I woke up in a bit of pain. Nothing serious, just the usual pregnancy aches and pains that happen after I overdo things a little bit. Just enough to dull my usual optimism into more of a "let's just get through this day" sort of feeling.

Unfortunately, SA seems to have woken up with much the same feeling. He dawdled with his math, and only completed a quarter of a page before it was time for his first narration of the day.

If I had just been thinking, I would have known that I should choose an easy passage for narration, or at least one from a favourite book. But I glanced through "Prince Darling" in the Blue Fairy Book and thought it would be fine.

It was not. When I paused for the first narration after reading the first paragraph, he said, "I don't remember."

"That's too bad," I said. "I thought it was quite interesting. Try to listen very carefully to this next part so you can tell it back to me."

So I read the next paragraph, and he told me again, "I don't remember."

Uh-oh. That line usually works on him. What do I say now? "Do you remember any of it, JJ?"

JJ(4) never narrates, so he was very pleased to tell me what he remembered. "There was a lady with a crown of roses."

"Yes!" I said. "Does that help you remember anything more, SA?"

"No."

On to the next paragraph. Still nothing. And so on for five more paragraphs before I gave up.

What can a mom do in such a situation? I felt like giving up on the day and just going to bed, honestly. I even felt a bit like screaming. Thankfully I held it in.

The day did not get a lot better until after supper, when SA asked me if he could finish his copywork (also not done...) and his second narration. We read two of Aesop's Fables. He did well, because he was willing.

He is a routine-oriented boy, and he would not have been quite happy if the day had ended and he had not at least completed the basics of our homeschooling day.

Tomorrow is a new day.


Filed under "funny stories" because it will be funny some day. Right?

Narration from Year 1, Week 1

For the Record.

We are using the free curriculum guide from Ambleside Online. This narration is on the story of The Tortoise and the Ducks, from Aesop's Fables. SA is six years old, and this was his first week of learning the skill of narration (telling back what was read). On this occasion he was a little reluctant, so I offered to alternate sentences with him. He soon picked up the story, though.

After first section read:
Me: The tortoise carries his house on his back.
SA: And the house is a shell.
Me: Jupiter made him carry his house on his back because he was so lazy he wouldn't go to Jupiter's wedding.
The tortoise felt sad because...
SA: The birds punished him?
Me: Well, you could say that. The birds flew anywhere they wanted to go, but poor tortoise...
SA: Couldn't go anywhere he wanted because he had no wings.

After second section read:
SA: Two ducks were there and he asked the ducks to carry him where he wanted. So they took a pole and two ducks were on the ends and the tortoise was in the middle.

After third section read:
SA: A crow flew by. Then when he opened his mouth to say something, he fell down on a rock and smashed into pieces.

You will notice that he missed a few details in the second section, and completely missed the moral of the story in the third section. :) This was an average narration from our first week. Sometimes he did better, sometimes he did worse. I felt it was a good start. I plan to write down a narration at the end of the term as well so that I can see his growth.

Saturday Quotes (from the Boys)

The boys went to visit some friends this week while I sang for royalty. Uncle Sid and Aunt Linda gave them a wonderful time outside chasing squirrels and collecting butternuts to plant at home. Later this week, SA told me all about the butternuts, so I grabbed a pen and started writing. I missed the first part, but this is most of his narration.

...they grow, and as soon as they're ready to drop, then the branch drops it. Then you look at the ground, then you could see butternut seeds. Then you take off the case and the black, then you put it in your pocket if you're not at your house. Then you just shovel the grass off or plant it in your garden. Then you put the seed in the hole, then you get only the dirt on it. Then soon it grows into a butternut tree.

SA also had an adventure with a huge bumblebee yesterday. It landed on him in the house, and we had to collect it with his hat and let it go outside. JJ was extremely interested in the process, and helped me every step of the way. (Those are his hands in the picture.)




MM has been saying "thank you" all the time lately. If I don't respond with "You're welcome" immediately, he repeats it. The funniest thing is when he's about to nurse. He always makes sure he says thank you before he begins.

The morning we had our watermelon teatime, we were unfortunately swarmed by black flies. I slathered on the natural insect repellant, but apparently SA still got bitten...
SA: "Mama, the bees hold their breath." (He meant bugs.)
Me: "Oh, did you get bitten?"
SA: "Only a couple of times. Some of them like the smell, and some of them don't."

Spontaneous Narration about a "Cookie Press"

C is coming over today to make cookies with the boys. She is going to bring her cookie press, so they can make wreaths and trees. They are pretty excited, though they really have no idea what a cookie press is. SA was thinking about it, though, and remembered a video he watched a couple days before. I captured his spontaneous narration:

"Opa has a cookie press in the bakery. He puts the cookies on trays, then they put another tray on top and put wood on it. They just slide it in the cookie press. They put the handle down, then the cookies are pressed flat. You have to be careful not to get them too pressed down."

JJ (as he realizes what SA is talking about): "Peter do that on the video!"
SA (knowing I've written this all down): "You should email that to Oma and Opa."

This is the video they watched on Monday:

Post by Nick The Dutch Baker.

So they still don't know what a cookie press is, but I guess they'll find out this afternoon.

SA on Making Hay

On July 4, SA and JJ spent some time with some dear ladies from our church. There they had the great pleasure of watching haybales being made. Ever since then, any time we see haybales, or any time they are reminded of the occasion, they launch into detailed narrations of how it was done.

Here is what SA told me about it today (2 1/2 months later):

"A tractor makes a haybale, and another tractor puts the haybale on the wagon. Then they pull the wagon to wrap them, and they wrap them in white so they cannot get wet."