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hard topics with different ages
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We will be studying American History this next year. Our children will be 11, 9, 8 and 6. As I consider what books to read aloud as a family, I am not sure how to handle topics such as slavery and war. I worry that books that would be appropriate and a good source of learning and discussion for my older kids may be too much for my first grader. I don’t want to just have the older kids do all that reading on their own and schedule-wise, I don’t want to have two sets of history read-alouds going. I am curious to know how other families handle this. I would also love to hear any of your favorite American History read-alouds that would be a good fit for this age range.
Honestly, depending on what books you are considering, I would separate them. I’m 100% in favor of family lessons, we do them a lot with 9 kids. But for sensitive topics I find age appropriate books on the same general topic and divide them. So my high schooler may read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, my 5th and 6th graders may read Amos Forture: Free Man, and my younger elementary kids may have read to them Follow the Drinking Gourd and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.
I would read with or alongside my high schooler and we would discuss. I would read TO or alongside my 5th/6th graders and we would discuss. I would read TO my younger elementary kids.
And we would choose a related books for our family read aloud together possibly, but one not focused on the details of slavery. Or perhaps that would be a time when we focus our family read aloud on just a literature title that is not history related (Black Beauty, which could offer us another way to talk about slaves and masters with owner and animal, or totally unrelated like Heidi.)
This is why I really like the SCM history guides. We read the family reading together and older students have their independent reading that goes more indepth on the same subjects.
This year we used Amos Fortune, Free Man as a family read-aloud for ages 10, 8, and 6 while we got the 3yo down for a nap. We would stop and discuss often. After we read a lighter book, we read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. That one was much tougher and required more discussion than the first. I knew that I couldn’t read it without crying. Our children enjoyed listening to both books because they really cared about the characters.
The SCM Stoies of America and Stories of the Nations are wonderful family read alouds for all ages. I enjoyed them too. Then give independent reading to older children and read the picture books to the younger.
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