Narrating is a time-tested teaching technique.
What Is Narrating?
Narrating is thinking out loud. It is an opportunity for you to share your thought processes with your child. Think about when your child was an infant and you were doing household chores. Maybe while doing laundry you narrated: “I’m going to fold this blue tee shirt,” or, “I’ve got 1, 2, 3, 4 socks!”
Narrating can also give your child a window into how you approach problems that you encounter. For example, maybe you are engaged in a text back-and-forth that has become heated. You might think out loud about how you can move the conversation offline in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
Why Narrating Is Effective
When we are online most of our decision-making about how to approach a sticky situation is done internally. When you narrate, you are making your invisible thought process visible.
By making your child privy to the various approaches you consider and pick, you are giving them insight into how and why they might pick certain problem solving strategies.
What Are the Benefits of Narrating as a Teaching Technique?
First of all, it’s free and all it requires is you!
It is also incredibly flexible – you can narrate just about anything.
It can create connections. When you narrate, you are letting others in – to your thoughts, your concerns, your problem solving processes, and what you are doing and why.
Most importantly, it is a way to model for your tween that what goes on in their digital lives is something that gets talked about.
For some fun and engaging activities that can help you narrate your digital life, head over to our activities page and look for the narrating tag.
Don’t just follow your kids online. Lead them.
