how much literature is necessary?

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  • October 20, 2015 at 4:44 pm
    caedmyn
    Participant

    We’ve been largely following the Year 4 list from Charlotte Mason Help, which has about 20 books listed as free reads and half a dozen others as “literature” for the year. The literature books are more difficult ones like Age of Fable (which we’re skipping), Stories of Beowulf, Robinson Crusoe, Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and Stories of King Arthur and His Knights. This is in addition to some science and history go-alongs. It just seems like too much. It looks like SCM just recommends a few of the free-read books as literature. Is it necessary to do a bunch (or any) of the more difficult books as literature? What would be the advantage of including them?

    October 20, 2015 at 5:11 pm
    Monica
    Participant

    Some of the more difficult books my kids enjoy on audio.  You can find lots of great books on audio for free at http://www.librivox.org.  In addition to listening to a quality literature, it helps kids learn to understand a more intricate language-style than is used nowadays and exposes them to more challenging vocabulary – in a natural way.  Audio books are also such a nice way for kids to relax and have some down time, or listen to a story while they’re doing a chore or working on a handicraft.

    My 13YO through the years has liked Tom Sawyer, the Narnia books, and lots of history selections (history is his favorite).  My 9YO liked the Wizard of Oz and Dr. Dolittle, among others.

    October 20, 2015 at 6:24 pm
    HollyS
    Participant

    We often do more difficult books as read alouds.  I’ve offered to download difficult books for my DC from Librivox, but they prefer to read them or have me read them aloud.   It’s a fine line between challenging your DC and overwhelming them.  If they really don’t like a book, I’d move on to another selection.  It’s hard to know what they’ll like until you give it a try.  Some difficult books have been successful and others we ended up not finishing.  I wouldn’t worry if you don’t get to all of the books.  I think the main thing is to enjoy the ones you do read!

    To give you an idea of what we’re doing in a week’s time:  My DC read 4 chapters for history (SCM) in addition to our daily family reading, 3 chapters for literature (ELTL), 2 chapters/readings of living science books along with 2 chapters of The Burgess Bird book.  By the end of the year, they’ll have finished quite a few books at this pace, without being overwhelmed.

    I don’t assign free reading.  The only part I help with is requesting books from the library.  They may not always pick the best books, but they are starting to make better choices.

    October 21, 2015 at 5:37 am
    Melanie32
    Participant

    I don’t assign my 13 year old daughter a certain number of books to read for each year. I assign her a certain amount of time to read each day. I don’t assign free reads-she chooses her own books (with my oversight) for her personal reading.

    Here is how we fit good literature into our homeschool schedule.

    My daughter reads from a classic each day for about 30 minutes. I read aloud from two books each day as well-a classic and a book that goes along with our history studies. She is also reading real books for her independent history studies.

     

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