Homeschooling parents often find themselves in the tricky dilemma of encouraging their little scholars to independent reading, but having little of their own time to keep up with their growing little’s reading. This leaves them in the uncomfortable position of not being fully clued in to what their child is reading. A parent has two main goals in reading the same books as their child: 1) to properly screen the content of the book and 2) to allow for good conversation about the book.
Unfortunately, as a child’s reading becomes more independent this can become very difficult for a parent, especially a homeschooling parent with multiple reading children. Of course, reading alongside your child is the best way to accomplish the two aforementioned goals. So how do we do that?
My biggest little is 8 years old. Here’s how we’ve worked it so far:
1. He reads books I’ve already read and remember decently. I’ve always enjoyed reading and now I like giving him books to read that I enjoyed as a child.
2. He reads aloud sitting next to me. Because he is still a pretty new reader, this is a good time for me to periodically check on how he’s doing.
3. We split the reading. A few months back he started reading The Adventures of Robin Hood (unabridged). Some days he was overwhelmed by the challenge, but I wanted to encourage him to finish. On those days, he would read a page aloud, then I would read a page aloud. It was fun for us to share the story.
4. He reads, I read. Or vice versa. Another of his recent selections was The Family Under the Bridge. He would read a chapter then hand it to me to read. I would get drawn into the story, and get a chapter or two ahead of him. He’d read some more the next day to catch up with me. Back and forth we went till the end.
I have found my littles guys realllly need encouragement to open up and discuss a book they’re reading. I’m guessing that once we establish good habits, these conversations will come more naturally.
My second little is reading short books independently now as well. As we add more readers to the mix, I see these ideas working out:
1. Adding my husband in as a parent reader too. One on two is working out, but I’m thinking I’ll need some help when all five of them are reading. Two on five is better coverage than one on five, right?
2. Utilizing audiobooks, when necessary, to our advantage. It’s much easier to multitask (laundry, cooking, working out) while listening to an audio book. Of course, my littles will keep reading the book, but we can cheat a little!
3. Selecting one book for everyone to read. We pick one book. We all read it over the same time frame and discuss it together.
4. Getting ahead of the game. Right now I’m reading classics for my own edification, but I know this will benefit me in the short and long run. Because when it’s their turn to read some of the major classics, I’ll just be reviewing them.
There are books we don’t attempt to keep up with like trusted series, The Boxcar Children or Imagination Station. Also my littles spend a lot of free reading time with non-fiction books on animals, insects, instruments, architecture, etc and I don’t keep up with those either. Most importantly, we try our best to introduce quality literature at home. Check out my earlier post, My Favorite Sources For Really Good Books, to see where we go for the best book ideas.
Are you facing this same dilemma? Or do your littles readily recap each book they’ve read for you? How are you keeping up? I’d love to hear your ideas!
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How am I keeping up? I’m not anymore. I used to try to keep up, but I have 2 children who will read for 3 or 4 hours in a day (not every day, but many times a week). I can not even attempt to read everything they read so I work hard at having good choices for them. They don’t pick out their own fiction at the library unless it’s from a “pre-approved” series. For me to pick out fictional books, I use lists like Sonlight’s readers, books from an author I have enjoyed, books I remember reading as a child, or from lists like this one: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2014/03/04/a-complete-classical-christian-school-reading-list-grades-1-8/. I also take time to ask my kids about what they are reading often, and they willingly share the plot with me (especially because they love reading). I don’t want to destroy their love of reading by making them wait on me to read every book, but I also don’t just let them read anything they can get their hands on. It is definitely a balance. There are a lot of books not worth reading out there as well. We have discussions about if they think a character acted in a Christian manner or what could they have done differently. We talk about how brave a character was or why a book was sad in the end. (Stone Fox caused a lot of tears but a lot of great discussions too.) If a book turns out to be a bad choice (like an American girl mystery Ruthie recently read because it was too scary for her), we get a chance to talk about why that wasn’t a good choice (at least at her age), why we need to trust God when we are scared, and how the book turns out ok in the end even if it was “scary” in the middle. Now I know we’ll avoid the American girl mysteries as least until she is older even though she loves the regular American girl books. My son sometimes get “caught up” in a series – something fun – to the point that we will limit that for a while because it is all he thinks about (Garfield would be a good example of this). I am glad you shared some recent books you’ve enjoyed. . .hearing from other Christian mommas about good books is another way I find more for my children to read. 🙂
I honestly wish I was keeping up better than I was. I like the idea of reading ahead. I just haven’t figured out how to achieve it.
Becki, great ideas! Perhaps this is more of a concern for me ’cause my littles are not so good about talking about what they’ve read. I reallllly have to draw it out of them by asking specific type questions. I should say I don’t really attempt to keep up with trusted series – like The Boxcar Children or Imagination Station, because I can gather enough about the simple plots by talking with them or reading a quick summary. I also don’t attempt to keep up with non-fiction books on animals, architecture, etc. They’ll usually bring those to me whenever they find something interesting to share, which is great!
I agree that one of the best ways is keeping good quality literature around! But, as you shared too with Stone Fox, the best books leave room for great discussion with our littles & I want to be prepared to engage them! 🙂
These are great suggestions and I try to do many of these things as well. I make great effort to read all or most of the books from my Grace’s Ambleside list so that when the other kids get to those books I will have already read them. Also trying to stick with more classics for free reads slows down their reading speed so that they don’t need quite as many to choose from. For example, reading The Secret Garden should take considerable longer than reading The Boxcar Children. And with classics they can be read more than once. I have certainly made errors in judgment though and given the kids books I thought would be “safe” only to find out that they were not good choices. But I also believe that it give them a chance to exercise their discernment muscles with us around to discuss their concerns. We have had some great conversations as I ask them how their book is going and what they think about the worldview.
Christy, thank you for sharing! Just after posting this one of my guys dug into a Hardy Boys book that I purchased the night before at a used book sale. I had not read any Hardy Boys books, but mistakenly thought it was a safe choice. Naturally, the first one he picked out of the pile contained a lot about witchcraft. Eek! We had a conversation about guarding our minds and honoring God with our choices. I’m sure this won’t be the last oops & I quickly realized how much of this has to be about the conversations we have. Just another step in the learning process!
Beth – Thanks for the great suggestions on reading. I appreciate your linking it up at http://www.solagratiamom.com Blessings – Colleen