Very New and Overwhelmed

Welcome to homeschooling (and this forum!); its’ a wonderful journey for your family to take together.

I use our local public libraries and interlibrary loan–we’ve even gotten materials sent to us from a large university library that is 2.5 hours from here and smaller libraries with older books not available at our local branches. The SCM Curriculum Guide and the Bookfinder on this site are good sources for deciding which books to use, as well as Ambleside Online’s booklists.

In terms of what constitutes a “living” book, there is an article here entitled, What methods did Charlotte Mason use? that describes it best. Basically, a living book is generally written by one author (as opposed to a panel of authors writing a textbook), and it often covers the topic in a story form or conversational tone.

As far as finding out what your son has retained, there are two excellent ways to discover this. The first is through oral narration. (You wouldn’t expect your son to write his narrations at this age.) Simply ask him questions after you have read a paragraph or two such as “Tell me what you know about…..” or “Describe….” and let him give you the details he remembers. It can take some time to develop this skill, so be patient with him and very accepting of what he has to say. As he improves, you can read longer passages before asking him to narrate. The article I linked above also has more information on narration.

The second way I like to discover how much they’ve retained can be a real source of delight for you as a parent. I observe how my children play after we’ve been reading about a particular topic, and often I see and hear them play-acting something we’ve read. A science book about animals once had my son sorting his stuffed collection into a zoo display; a visit to a museum collection of battle armor overheard them talking about a recent study of knights. You never know what you’ll hear them say and where they’ll say it….we were walking through a display of posters at a warehouse club and one of the kids exclaimed, “Hey! There’s a poster of Van Gogh’s Starry Night!” (Of course, I shamelessly glanced around to see who might have overheard her. )

You’ll find things go more smoothly with time, and your son is young yet, so be encouraged and keep reading all you can about homeschooling as time permits.

Just wanted to note – once you know the resources you would like, you can check out http://www.booksamaritan.org (or .com or something like that…)   They are a ministry who provides books for homeschoolers who need assistance for free.  It takes a while to recieve them… but it is a great blesssing.

(And a plug for them – hey, anyone with homeschool things they don’t need/use anymore – send them to booksamaritan!)

You also can get great book suggestions for him right on this website, on the home page go to the organizer/bookfinder link, then in the search box type leisure reading.  Select his grade level and many books will come up that you could then find at your library.  That has helped me so much finding good books for my 7 yr old.  Have fun!