wondering about…

If you’re specifically  looking for books, poems, short stories, etc., to encourage your ds to build stronger habits and character, I highly recommend the SCM resource Laying Down the Rails for Children. Each of Charlotte’s 60 habits is given, along with specific lessons to help children learn each habit, including stories, characters, and poems to inspire the children.

As far as classic literature and its relevance…I would just say that, in my opinion, anything “classic” is always relevant. 

We have read loads of classics to our children from the time they were very little, and have never had the children bored, inattentive, or apathetic about the books. Sure, some books weren’t favorites (like Wind in the Willows, because of its language and style of writing), but all have been enjoyed to a certain extent. 

To date, we have not found any of the classics that we’ve read to be laced with racism, prejudice, or any other inappropraite material. Since you are going to be reading to a 7yo, you might find SCM’s Free Curriculum Guide, Years 1-2 helpful to determine age-appropriate, classic literature and read alouds. We have loved Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, Heidi, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Black Beauty, Pollyanna, Pollyanna Grows Up, Chronicles of Narnia, and The Secret Garden, just to name a few. All of these would be classic, in my opinion, but all have been relevant, exciting, interesting, and entertaining for our entire family, including Daddy.

I hope you’ll browse this site more and learn more about Charlotte’s methods. So far, I have not found even the “old-fashioned” ones to be irrelevant or useless in our home and homeschool

Blessings,

Lindsey

Adding a bit more regarding having a boy…

We read The Secret Garden last year. It was one of our son’s favorite read alouds to date. He’s 9. He probably enjoyed Heidi even more, and was always asking for “just one more chapter, momma”. The Little Princess is on our list for the coming year. On the flip side, our daughter has not complained or shown disinterest when the book was primarily about a male character (Stuart Little, Teddy’s Button for example). I think it’s all in how you read it to them. I have always tried to be an enthusiastic reader, giving each character his/her own special voice or accent to make the book come alive.

 Also, many classic pieces have heavy strong tones/stories based on racism etc. How do you navigate this?

We have found some “classics” that have terms that would now be considered racist (for instance, in Canada at least, you would not use the term “Indians” for Native Americans/Canadians).  We tend to view this as part of the learning experience and share how terms change, attitudes change etc.. and how this is a good thing.  It would be horrible for us to use the terms for black people that were used in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but I don’t think that negates the value of the book; we explain how people used to think and use it as  learning opportunity to share how things have changed.

No offenses taken! I would not recommend Huck Finn until after age 12-14, at least. Since your son is 7, I wanted to point out that none of the books recommended for that age have inappropriate content. None of us wants to introduce our children to those more mature concepts until the right time, when they are older.

Definitely going to agree with Christie on that point. Our children can grasp far more than we give them credit for. Also, we are doing them a great disservice when we shelter them from the mistakes of former generations. Yes, slavery, prejudice, racism, genocide, abortion, etc. are terrible things that past and present generations of human beings have been part of. Shamefully, some of my ancestors were most likely slave owners. Hiding these things from my children isn’t really protecting them; it is being unfair to them. It is my job to expose my children to these concepts at a time that I see they are ready to think about them. Unfortunately, humanity isn’t all Swiss mountains and quaint, country villages (referencing Heidi and Secret Garden, here).

Our son is very interested in WW2. We have provided him with tastefully done and age-appropriate books about Jewish persecution. He has read books about concentration camps, Anne Frank, Jews in hiding, and more. Because of the way these books are written, these concepts are serious to him, but not scary in the least. It gives him a greater understanding, I believe, of the sin nature of our world, and what can happen when sin is not held accountable.

Hopefully, this is helping you gain some perspective from those of us with children a bit older. We would all love to hide our children’s eyes to the evils of this world, but since we can’t do that, I’d much rather expose those evils through the beautiful language of good literature than through the stark emptiness and apathy of a textbook.

Blessings to you,

Lindsey

Great questions!

I don’t think you should feel any pressure to finish X amount of books in a 10-month period. I’m sure you’re planning on using other books besides your literature selections, so you have to consider that as well. We keep a family read aloud going all the time. We read a chapter at lunch and maybe another chapter before bed. Sometimes we’ve got two going at once, depending on what we want to read. But we’re also reading books for history, the Bible, living geography books, readers, etc., etc. If your question is specifically about how many lit. books you should expect, that is entirely up to you. A chapter a day is a good goal to begin with, but if your son’s attention span is only 10 minutes, you may not be able to finish a chapter in that time. So you pick up later or the next day. It really doesn’t matter!

•  In the CM method, literature is read together and narrated back by student? 
  Yes, if you choose to ask for a narration on that day’s reading. What you have them narrate or not narrate is entirely up to you. Many of us have our children narrate anything and everything that is read. Some of us do not require narrations for family read alouds. If you’re trying to build your son’s narrating abilities, it might be best to have him narrating often.
• Does the narration include opinions?
  Allow the child to give his full narration first, and DO NOT interrupt him. Even if you want to correct him or steer him in the right direction, try to refrain. This allows the child to maintain his thought process, and shows him courtesy as he gives his best effort during the narration. If, AFTER he is finished narrating, you want to discuss, give opinions, or ask additional questions, go ahead. I have found it better to say less and listen more; the children eventually begin to form their own opinions, relationships with the book and characters, and ideas.
• What other interactions with the text should I expect or plan for?
  If you have read, your child has narrated, and any corrections have been made AFTER the narration, you go on. If by “other interactions” you mean should you give the child a multiple choice/true-false test over the material, then no. You may notice your child’s imagination is stirred after a few readings, where you find him re-enacting his favorite scenes with his Legos or stuffed animals. My children have often put on puppet shows or play-acted scenes or characters for days after we finish a book. This is the type of interaction we want to encourage! And don’t be discouraged if this takes a while to start happening. And it probably won’t happen with every book. For instance, my children played Narnia ALL THE TIME during and after reading the books. But when we read Pollyanna, they never played scenes from the book or even talked about the characters outside of our reading time. Charlotte wanted children to form their own relationships with books and ideas, not for us to connect all the dots for them.
• Finally, allow your son to practice his own reading aloud to you with books that are to his level. This may be picture books, Dick and Jane books, Pathway readers, Frog and Toad, or whatever his abilities are. These are still giving him a feast of ideas, just in a form he can read for himself. As his skill advances, you give him more challenging books.

Hope that helps!

Lindsey