Narration at Night

Okay, we don’t normally do narrations at bedtime. We usually reserve evenings for free reads and stories that may help them fall asleep, not something that they have to be so attentive to as to narrate afterwards. But we were getting behind in our Robin Hood reading last spring, and the day before I was secretly cracking up at these darling narrations as my boys were rolling over backwards with feet dangling toward the ceiling–just carefree kids with a gigantic vocabulary and keen insight. I wished I had a secret video. So I had the brillant idea at bedtime to sneak my camera in to record a little snapshot video of an actual narration. I couldn’t really capture anything while being sneaky save the bottom of wiggly legs and dark shadows, so I exposed myself and got this reluctant piece from a sleepy seven year old.

I often wonder how school looks in other people’s homes. I know each is so beautifully unique. Same with narrations. Sometimes mine are given while standing on their heads, hanging off chairs, often while building a Lego creation, sometimes while drawing or modeling clay or just while sitting on the couch.

The home is rarely a quiet serene setting, but with a canary singing or children chasing each other, playing puppies in their fort, or practicing the latest song on a recorder, piano or drum. It’s often pretty chaotic. But they manage.

Here’s my now eight year old narrating from Heroes by Charles Kingsley. I trimmed it because it was so long in three parts, which is why it is choppy. Notice how his six year old brother chimes in at the end.