Narrations

So what about narrations?  How do we do them?  What should we expect?

For 6 and 7 year olds, narrations are kept to a minimum.  No more than five minutes of reading precedes the narration.  No more than a few sentences are expected from the narrator. The aim of narrations from this age group is more to prove that the child was hearing what you had to say, and is thinking about what they heard.
Key points should be noted on the board or in a place within eye-sight; points such as names and dates of importance, and older children should write down their own notes.

8 year olds can be expected to narrate after 10 minutes of reading (about 1 small chapter) but no longer than this, or you'll start to see eyes rolling, attention diverting and when you ask them to narrate, there will be a lot of shuffling and 'I don't know' going on. The best tactic to take in this instance, is to break down your reading into more manageable chunks. Five minutes, get a narration. Five more, another narration. At the end, ask them for a drawing of their favourite part of the story, and type up the appropriate narration for that particular piece. Alternatively, ask them for another narration for the whole thing... but if you dont get it, don't push it.

Narration purely through the use of questions, is to be avoided for now. You might like to try this Socratic method with an older child, or as a way of showing a child what you are looking for, or even as a method of teaching, but as a narrative method, it is not recommended. It defeats the purpose of trying to get your child to really *hear* a story and retain it in their memory if you ask leading questions all the time. Charlotte Mason was actually against the use of prompts at all, but judicious use, and careful phrasing can really help your child when they are having problems. All prompts, when used, should be very indirect. Let us say that we have read Beauty and the Beast to our child, who is in a stubborn mood because they did not sleep well, and is not wanting to narrate. We start out the narration with a simple beginning. 

The traditional 'Tell me the story in your own words' beginning is not recommended because it does not often work.  Something along the lines of:
'Tell me what happened in Beauty and the Beast' or something a little more direct for those very stubborn days 'Why did Beauty go to Live with the Beast?'
Is much more likely to do the job.
We do not need to have our child narrate the entire story to us, so a judicial use of prompts can actually help us pare down the story into a manageable chunk for the child to narrate. You may get a blank look, or a sentence or two.  Hopefully the latter, but if not, you might try an even more direct prompt such as:
'What did Beauty's father do?'
Hopefully, you get more from your child... If you can at least manage to get a sentence, you are on your way!

EXAMPLE: "Beauty's father tried to steal a rose and the beast made him bring Beauty to his house"

This is a great start.  It means that they were listening.  If you can't get this much out of them, or even a small sentence, then leave it, and try to read less to them, or break the story up into chunks, having them narrate the first part or middle part only. 
If you got this far then you might need to further prompt them with something along the lines of
'Then what happened?' or if they don't respond, try something like 'What did Beauty do then?' 

The best prompting questions are indirect... more of a 'Tell me more' or 'What happened next' kind of thing.  You are asking your child to continue.
As they get used to the narrations, they will probably offer way more than you are able to write down! They become used to the idea of what Mum is expecting from them, and it helps them to know... 'oh all Mum wants is for me to tell her the story quickly, then I can draw and play!'

Sometimes, a smaller chunk is better for the narration.  So when reading a biography, instead of asking 'What happened today' you might ask something along the lines of "Tell me about the trip to ****** ", which makes it less overwhelming.

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