My DD6 is a very fast and voracious reader. She pours over books and reads her favorites over and over. I struggle to keep her supplied with enough non-twaddle books. She learned to read before I really knew about CM, and is used to choosing her own books at the library (15 or 20 of them a week). We are slowly weaning her off books like the "Rainbow Fairies" and "The Puppy Place" and trying to include more living books, although that is a challenge since we have to specifically look for books online and reserve them. Isn't it sad that living books just aren't as readily available as the twaddle?
Anyway, I've been wondering if I should be choosing more books relating to our history, science, or other studies to let her use for free reading. Are there any drawbacks to letting her just breeze through books about Egypt or some animal stories (to supplement the Burgess Animal book), without expecting any narration. Just to give a point of reference, she would probably finish "Boy of the Pyramids" in less than an hour if I let her. I keep remembering reading somewhere that a lesson not narrated is a lesson wasted. So I have been doing all our school books as read alouds in order to slow her down and make sure she is narrating. However, she does remember incredible amounts of information from the books that she reads just 'for fun' and is always telling me things I didn't even know.
I guess the question is basically, how much should I control what she is reading, and how much should I just lay out a HUGE feast and let her go? Following the feast analogy, is it possible to 'gorge' too much when it comes to reading?
Joanne
