Save time and simplify
your homeschooling life...
Learn from experienced
homeschoolers how to write your own curriculum.
It really is that easy!
Use this website with Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling - Practical Considerations to help you develop your own educational curriculum to suit your family situation, beliefs and lifestyle. The checklists can help you identify your children's current educational skill level in each subject area, as well as find any 'gaps' in their learning, plan what they need to cover or keep track of what has been learned. As you can appreciate this website is continuously under development... It's our aim to add pages on a regular basis in all curriculum areas: check back frequently. Feedback and comments welcome. We hope you enjoy the articles and activities and find the links and recommended resources useful. Over the next year we will be working our way through each subject area and writing fresh, new content which will also be reproduced in a reasonably priced handy reference booklet from our Practical Homeschooling Series. |
|
"Congratulations on a terrific website. It's a great resource." Steven "By sharing your experiences, we are into our third year of homeschooling and enjoying it thoroughly." Marina "Thank you so much for your wonderful website! I was getting quiet frustrated with finding appropriate information on homeschooling - thanks to your website we are now on the right track... Using your checklists for reassurance helped me to have the confidence to come up with my own programme that suits our needs." Rachael "I'm a frequent visitor to your website... I gain valuable knowledge from your website, luckily recommended in the very early stages of our homeschooling journey." Geradine "I checked out your website today and was incredibly impressed by it. I can tell it will be a great resource for our family for many years. THANKS for all the hard work that has gone into making homeschooling easier and much less isolating for families like us." Cynthia |
Tell Me Again! The Role of Narration
© Beverley Paine, 2004
Narration is the art of retelling. My husband narrates stories he's heard from customers at work when he comes home. My daughter narrates stories she's heard from friends. We all retell the plot from books and movies we loved or hated or that moved us in some way. Retelling our experiences is another way to prepare children for reading readiness, but the ability to narrate is a skill that will serve your child throughout life. Over time, learning to retell, in their own words, what they have read cements into a practical and effective study habit.
Most three-year-olds child can "tell back" a recent experience or their favourite stories read over and over by parents. Our daughter, April, "read" her favourite book, turning the pages lovingly, repeating the story she'd learned off by heart, to her teddy and younger brother. Through the process of repetition, which led to memorisation, in no time at all she was reading this book for real, and quickly moved on to other stories! Unprompted narration is natural for children and we can celebrate it for what it is - learning to read. Using narration as a tool to educate our children is simply a progression of this natural act. Our son, Roger, loved to retell stories using the pictures as prompts. If he faltered, I'd point out different elements in the picture and we'd work out why they were there. Picture book artists don't just illustrate the text - their art complements and adds to the text: often there are elements of the plot that are told only through the picture.
Begin with short or favourite story or poem, song or rhyme. The aim isn't to memorise the passage completely, but to retell, in their words what the passage says. When we make meaning from what we read or hear we will remember the content for a long time. The closer our retelling is to the original text the better our memory of that text becomes. As the child ability to retell improves move onto a single page, and gradually build his memory and language skills. Through narration, a child learns to think, to sift information and to choose what is important to remember and what is not. Gains are also made, in a natural way, in the areas of composition, reading comprehension, grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and expressive language skills.
If you encourage narration in short bursts throughout the day it won't seem like 'school work' or a chore. Charlotte Mason developed a complete educational philosophy based on narration skills. There are dozens of books written by homeschooling parents on the Charlotte Mason approach, including whole curricula. A quick search on the Internet will result in hundreds of excellent how to articles and support forums. Lauri offers these tips on the website www.home.att.net/~bandcparker
• Introduce a new passage or selection, define new words, or review as necessary.
• Remind your child that they will are going to retell the selection at the end.
• Read the passage or selection once.
• Have your child tell all he or she remembers about the passage.
• Write down the narration as your child dictates it, for later copying and/or his portfolio.
• Don't correct your child while he is narrating. Make a note of weaknesses to review at a later date.
• Sometimes narration can take a different form and incorporate a variety of skills and interests, in much the same fashion as a unit-study:
• Create a mural
• Record on cassette tape
• Draw sequence pictures (Sequencing)
• Dramatize the selection
• Draw a picture about selection
• Use a map to chart routes
• Tell the story on a flannel board to siblings
• Study any animals mentioned
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
Getting Started Manual Unschooling Books Educational Games Natural Learning Practical HS Booklet Series Curriculum Reports/Portfolios Homeschool Diaries Conference DVD 
More questions?
JOIN the FORUM
Time to spare?
Browse our extensive
ARTICLE
LIBRARY
Feedback is always welcome
on our websites!
Join the HEA in 2008
and receive 2 FREE Booklets!
A percentage of sales
goes to Trees For Life
|
|
We welcome
advertising inquiries
from educational suppliers.
Email
ALWAYS LEARNING BOOKS
ABN 17 503 397 443
Beverley and Robin Paine
PO Box 371 Yankalilla 5203
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Thank you for visiting!
Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia,
Beverley and Robin Paine
are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families.
They began homeschooling in 1986 and three years later started the
South Australian Home Based Learners
network. Beverley continues to write for homeschooling newsletters
and magazines as well as hosting several websites dedicated to promoting
and supporting home education in Australia. Her aim is to demystify the
education process and make it accessible to all parents. Enjoy Beverley's
wealth of practical knowledge, homeschooling and unschooling tips and
ideas through articles and books and online at
www.homeschoolaustralia.com.
Since the late 1990s Robin and Beverley have been building their home education
publishing business - Always Learning Books - from home with the help of their son Thomas.
"Education is not a preparation for life. Education is life itself." John Dewey
Please note that the opinions and articles included in the suite of Homeschool Australia websites are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine, nor do we endorse or necessarily recommend products (other than our own) listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.
Please visit the following websites for information on homeschooling in Australia:
Homeschool Australia : SAHEN : Australian HS Curriculum : About the Paine Family
Text & Images on this site
Copyright © 1999-2008 Beverley Paine.
All rights reserved.
Help | Disclaimer | Copyright | Privacy