“Are we there yet?’  When Meredith and Connor were much younger, we regularly heard this plaintive cry from the back seat of the van on long drives to Chattanooga.  This innocent question reveals an amazing fact about the human mind:  children think in terms of linear progression.  There follows here.  Future follows present.  Last follows first.

Likewise, you can capitalize on this rule of thought by incorporating prediction when reading aloud to your homeschool children.  Predicting content is as simple as asking what is going to happen next.  After you’ve read a colorful two-page spread in a picture book, stop before turning the page and ask your child to predict the subsequent content:

“What do you think is going to happen next in the story?”

Demonstrate how to predict content by showing your child how to do it, and watch him imitate your example.  Use the illustrations and keywords as clues to how the author plans to develop or unfold the plot line.  Ask questions about what has happened previously in the story.  If a child expects you to stop periodically and ask  him to predict content , he will anticipate your questions by paying closer attention to the reading.  The satisfaction of getting the right answer will motivate your homeschool child to really concentrate.  If he occasionally messes up, go back and point out the clues that he missed.

To prepare the young child for predicting content in the preteen and teen years of homeschool high school, look at the front cover, back cover, art, title, and any other clues everytime you pick up a book for read aloud time.  After a cursory glance, ask your child to think about the total message of the story book.  This broad or universal exterior prediction serves to supplement the interior predictions that you request while reading the narrative.

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Are you looking for the best homeschool books for your preschool child?  Once your young child passes the toddler stage, look for books with sequencing and ordering like the timeless children’s classic, Caps for Sale, about a peddler and some rambunctious monkeys.