Moments: Three cheers for B!

Here he is! My narration-extraordinaire! Hip Hip Hooray!

Our first real attempts at narration have been successful (and to be sure, I received affirmation from the gals on a Charlotte Mason yahoo group). So here's his first narration from chapter one of An Island Story, used in Year 1 of Amblside Online, which we recorded immediately after I read:

"Well, in this story, um, (asks quietly, "What was his name?") Neptune, um, had a son. He wanted to choose a very beautiful island for one of his sons, which was his best and favorite son. And all the mermaids and mermaid men went and told the counsel what...about islands. And Neptune and his wife kept saying "No." So, um, once a very beautiful mermaid came and told them about an island. It was jewelled like a diamond and the son and Neptune chose that one for his boy so his son lived there. He died once when he was trying to fight Hercules but Neptune ruled it then. And then he was getting too old to rule so the island ruled the seas. The end."

Pretty impressive, eh? Well, I was impressed anyway.....and I'm allowed to be 'cause I'm da mama.

For those interested, narration is simply the retelling of a passage that has been read aloud or silently. When the kiddos are under age 10, they are done orally. As they get a bit older, they learn to organize what they say into written narration (writing is talk with some rules). There's a lot of information about narration all over the web. Here is a good explanation from a popular Charlotte Mason author.

I'm amazed at how simple this seems when we're doing it. I just tell the boys I'm going to read them a story, and at the end I will ask them to tell me back what they remember. I really get into the reading, and I'm sure to do so clearly and slowly. They listen attentively, and parrot back. Charlotte said if you can narrate back any information, you own it forever.

What a gift we've been given from God in these children. He's created the child's mind to easily absorb life around them. What a priveledge and responsibility we have as parents to saturate that growing brain with good and lovely things. I hope thru narration, my boys will have their minds so crammed and so familiar with beautiful stories and language and nature, that they'll look for beauty and find it for the rest of their lives.