RAR #186: Should my kids’ reading correlate with their history studies?

Speaker 1 (00:00): Hi, Sarah. Holly (00:01): Hi Sarah. My name is Holly. April (00:03): Hi Sarah. My name is April. Speaker 4 (00:04): I'm in Melbourne, Australia. Speaker 5 (00:07): I have a question about ... Julianne (00:09): My name's [Julianne 00:00:09] and we live in India. Speaker 7 (00:11): I am wondering ... Crystal (00:12): Hi Sarah. This is Crystal from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Speaker 9 (00:15): Can you give me a suggestion for an especially fabulous book? Sarah Mackenzie (00:23): Hey, there. I'm Sarah Mackenzie. This is the Read Aloud Revival. In this short episode, I'm answering one of your questions. Audra (00:31): Hi Sarah. My name is Audra and here's my dilemma. I have an emerging reader, a third grader, who's just beginning to enjoy reading chapter books for fun. He recently finished The Wild Robot, which he loved. I see on your book list for young boys, that you have some historical fiction titles, such as The Cabin Faced West, The Sign of the Beaver, and The Match Luck Gun. (00:54): I think my son would love to pick those up right now. My only reservation is, he hasn't experienced those time periods in his history studies yet. While I think he would enjoy the stories, would I be doing him a disservice by giving them to him too early, in a sense? I'm afraid he won't have the perfect context in which to enjoy them to their fullest. That when we get to that point in history, we'll want to reread those as read alouds or whatever. He'll say, "But, I've read that already." I'm noticing that I've been sticking to a lot of fantasy in our family read alouds in order to avoid this problem. What are your thoughts? Thanks so much. Sarah Mackenzie (01:34): Well, my first thought is happy, happy, congratulations. I love it. When my kids make that leap from sounding out words and being very developing readers into getting lost in chapter books and just the independence and freedom and deliciousness of being able to pick up a chapter book and go somewhere tucked into a corner on the sofa or in their bedroom and just get lost in a book. One of my daughters has just made that leap and it's a beautiful sight to behold and, also, I'm a huge fan of The Wild Robot. I also enjoy it. (02:10): Okay, so great question. A couple of thoughts for you. One, is that one of the things I wish I had worried about less early on in homeschooling and, just for new listeners or anyone who doesn't know, I have six kids. The oldest is a ... as I record this as a sophomore in college, and then we've got a senior in high school, a junior in high school, a nine-year-old, and two eight year olds and we've homeschooled all of them the whole time. (02:33): Okay. With the older kids being already graduated or about to graduate, I've had a lot of opportunities to look back and think about what I might have done differently in the early years and do that with my younger kids, which is kind of fun. One of the things I wish I had worried about less is making everything line up. I worried about reading Johnny Tremain, which of course is set during the American Revolutionary War, when we were learning about ancient history in our ancient times in our history. Or, I would worry about, where does something like Charlotte's Web fit because that doesn't really go with any historical fiction, but it is set in history and it just doesn't fit. Anyway, I wish I had worried less about that and just let my kids kind of get lost in this story. (03:22): We talked about this a little bit in episode 179. Go back and listen to that episode if you haven't. You don't need to worry over much about your read alouds or your kid's reading dovetailing with your history studies or with whatever you're talking about in science or your curriculum. A lot of the really good thinking that happens when our kids are readers happens, not because we're making those connections for them, but because they're making the connections themselves. This is why, actually in Charlotte Mason in a really true Charlotte Mason education, there is really not correlation hardly at all, between what your kids are reading in literature and what they're studying in history. They're not unit studies. You can be reading about all different kinds of ideas and time periods because, you're expecting the child to make the connections themselves. (04:19): That's where the real learning and thinking happens. All that to say ... very long way of saying. It's a running theme for me in these Q and A episodes, is I always take a long way to explain it. I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can do a couple things. One thing you can do is, if your child is really getting into historical fiction, which is my own favorite genre so I understand this. You can use a timeline or a timeline book if you want, and you could print out ... go online and find a small cover of the book and then print it out and have them paste it into their timeline to orient themselves. This is the rest of the stuff that was happening in the context of the world when this book took place, when that the time period this book was set in, let me say. Because if it's fiction, of course, it didn't actually take place, but this is when it was set. (05:05): You could do that if you wanted, but you might be surprised at how many connections your kids actually make without you having to do that, go out of your way to make it all line up. It's also worth knowing that you can't get through all the different historical times and topics during your school years. You're also not going to be able to get through all the read alouds you want to get through with your kids. I hate to tell you that. That's just the truth. There's just too many good books and there's too much history to cover. If you think of it more like a well that we're just dipping into and enjoying and helping our kids develop that thirst for what's in the well, then after they leave home, they'll keep reading. You can worry less about making sure everything's lined up perfectly and that you're just spooning out the exact right number of ounces of water, right? From the well. (05:50): You're just letting them dip in and taste a lot of different things. Things kind of sink in and they make connections on their own. One thing you mentioned was, if your son reads a book, now let's just say ... I don't know, let me think, The Cabin Faced West or something. You get to that time period in the future and you're going to read it aloud now and he'll go, "But I already read that already." That's not something I've experienced a whole lot of. A lot of times, in my house, usually my kids would go, "Oh, I remember that book. I loved it." They're very happy to reread it, for it to be read to them again. Any really good book is worth rereading. (06:30): I'll just direct you to episode 141 for more on the specific benefits that rereading books has. There are some absolutely amazing benefits that rereading offers that reading a book for the first time simply does not give our kids. Anytime, let's just say your son reads the book and enjoys it now for the story and the plot, and as a new reader, right? Then, two years, three years, four years from now, you revisit or even a year from now, you revisit that same book as a read aloud. He's going to get more from it. He's going to get more from the setting. He's going to understand the nuanced language and the historical implications, because now you're learning about that time in history. He's going to make different kinds of connections. He'll even get more layers of the story itself just by rereading it. This is even better, I think, than having your child experience it for the first time. (07:22): If your kids, let's just say, read Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and then you land in that period of history in two years, and you listen to Farmer Boy, it's going to be a richer, better reading experience the second time around than it is the first. That first time was also probably a delight, especially if you read it on his own. Just keeping in mind that reading a shorter list, fewer books over the period ... over the course of your child's school life, but taking the time to enjoy them and revisit them and reread the best ones, that's far better and really far superior on pretty much every level than having our kids read through a huge variety of books, but only reading everything once and making sure it all lines up, just so. (08:07): I hope that helps you. Lots of freedom here. There's no wrong way to do it, but anytime you're encouraging your child to make their own connections and to think about what they know about the stories they've read before, and they've heard before, and putting them in context and in order. You can think about this in the case of your family stories. If your child's grandpa sits him on his knee and starts telling him about that time that he stole a lollipop from the candy shop and got found out what he had to do to go back and pay for it and apologize and sweep out the front deck, the front porch of the shop owner to make up for it or whatever. You wouldn't stop him and go, "Wait, wait, wait, you can't tell him that because, we're not there chronologically yet." (08:55): You haven't told him all your stories before that, so don't tell him that one out of context, because our brains are made to make connections. You can do this with history, too. It's okay for your kids to learn things or to read books that are set in periods of time in history they haven't learned about. We have ... I think we can rely on our child's ability to make connections and place things in context and weave together stories and understandings, whether it's stories from grandpa or whether it's historical fiction that they're reading for fun and for school. I hope that helps. Thanks so very much for your question. (09:30): Now, let's hear from the kids and what they're reading lately. Hannah Fisher (09:37): My favorite book is Something's Wrong. Speaker 13 (09:39): What's your name? Hannah Fisher (09:42): My name is [Hannah 00:09:46] Fisher. Speaker 13 (09:46): How old are you? Hannah Fisher (09:47): Four years old. Speaker 13 (09:49): Why do you like something's Wrong? Hannah Fisher (09:55): Because, the bear doesn't understand that he has underwear on. Josiah (10:01): My name's [Josiah 00:10:02]. I'm seven. I'm from Alaska. My favorite book is Something's Wrong. I really like about it because after Anders said, "It's a new thing and that everybody else is wearing underwears." Everybody wears underwears, even the slug. Cayden Spratten (10:25): Hi, my name is Cayden Spratten and I'm eight years old and I'm from Bakersfield, California. My favorite book is Our Island Story because it teaches me things about history. Sarah Mackenzie (10:39): Thanks for listening. If you've got a question for an upcoming episode, leave me a voicemail at readaloudrevival.com/message. Until next time go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books. (11:00): So many of us feel overwhelmed in our homeschool. There's a lot to do and it feels like every child needs something a little different. The good news is, you are the best person on the planet to help your kids learn and grow. Home is the best place to fall in love with books. (11:27): I'm Sarah Mackenzie. I'm a homeschooling mother of six, the author of Teaching from Rest and The Read Aloud Family. I'm the host, here, on The Read Aloud Revival podcast. This podcast has been downloaded over 8 million times. I think it's because so many of us want the same things. We want our kids to be readers, to love reading. We want our homes to be warm and happy havens of learning and connection. We know that raising our kids is the most important work of our lives. (12:04): That's kind of overwhelming, right? You are not alone. In Read Aloud Revival Premium, we offer family book clubs, a vibrant community, and Circle with Sarah: Coaching For You, The Homeschooling Mom. You can teach from rest, homeschool with confidence, and raise kids who love to read. Our family book clubs are a game changer for your kids' relationship with books. We provide you with a family book club guide and an opportunity for your kids to meet the author or illustrator live on screen. 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