Written narration

[Renee]

Do the primers ever get into written narration or is it just drawing a picture? Also, I see that you can start on any primer. How then do the children progress through the year? My son is going into 3rd grade but Aesop would be too difficult for him. Would the primer series be good for him? Also, how much time does it take to do daily? (Approx.)

Thank you,
Renee

[greengables]

Renee,
We did not include written narration in Primer. Most younger students need lots of practice with oral narration and copywork before they begin to do narrations in writing, in order to solidify spelling and early grammar skills. When they do begin to write their narrations, they should for the most part be able to spell frequently used words correctly and with ease. This is far less frustrating for a student (and usually for his teacher!) Oral narration is a very important composition skill, allowing the student to 'write' without the fine motor skills that are slower to develop in many students. Do not underestimate the power of oral narration! In fact, we encourage you to have your student narrate orally all the way through Homer before doing their written narrations, and in my home school, I even have my high school students do many oral narrations.

Of course, if your student is able to write some of his narration, and enjoys doing so, you can have him do it on other paper. I just really want to stress that writing his narrations down does not need to be rushed. Charlotte Mason actually advised no written narrations until around age 10 at the earliest.

The student should narrate the chapter or story orally first. After that, the student can draw a picture from the narration, but this is completely optional.

The spelling work in Primer is not linear through the books, but it simply a tool to help solidify the spelling and correct usage that your student is learning in his stand-alone phonics/spelling program.

My eight-year-old son takes about 20 minutes to do the copywork, and usually another 15-20 minutes to complete the other activity (a little longer on narration days). He is probably pretty average in speed.

Please ask again if I did not clear things up for you enough.

Kathy

[Renee]

Thank you Kathy, that helps a lot.

Renee