Amy's Kindergarten Narration

When it comes to "writing" in our homeschool work, Gemma and Joshua give "narrations."

That is, we separate the physical act of putting words onto a page from the mental and verbal work of composing thoughts and sharing them with an audience.

That is, I say, "What happened?" and they tell me what happened.

Or I say, "What did you learn?" and they tell me what they learned. 

There's a lot more to be said about this method, but this post isn't about pedagogy.

It is about an excerpt my Mother just sent me from a journal she kept as her kids were growing up.  The excerpt, it turns out, is my narration from the first day of Kindergarten:

SEPTEMBER 3

Amy’s first day of school – only one hour in the morning – 10:30 to 11:30 – she talked for three hours after! 

“Well, we didn’t do any work – just listened to Mrs. Fordyce – she doesn’t like being called Teacher” –she wants us to call her Mrs. Fordyce.

We went out to recess on the playground – a girl got stung by a bee –Andrea asked which was worse, to be stung by a bee or be cut by a mirror –there’s a girl in class cut by a mirror – we decided being cut by a mirror was worse.”

        

Later – “You know, I don’t know where I’m going to sit yet – Mrs. Fordyce didn’t assign us a desk – we have our locker – we can use one box for our gym shoes and paint smock and one for our rest towel – we can put only three things in our box (?) 

But I wish I knew where I was going to sit, I want to know who’s going to sit with me – do you think I should remind Mrs. Fordyce to assign our desks?

        

Later – Mrs. Meyers had the nicest hair, it was soft and wavy. Mrs. Kesbe had nice hair but she had to go work at another preschool. Mrs. Penland had the really curly hair. I remember Mrs. Fordyce last year had white hair, but now it’s grey

(Janice interposes,“Amy, you get gray hair before you get white hair.”) 

Well, anyway, Mrs. Fordyce was the nicest.

When kids play on the climbing tower, they can’t raise their hands (to touch ceiling) or Mrs. Fordyce will get upset – she says that gets her upset – she forgets, too, she says sometimes we have to remind her when it’s time for something because she forgets.

All of this relating for one hour of school – tomorrow she goes all afternoon, 12:30 – 3:20– it will take her until bedtime to tell me everything, I’m sure.