Posts Tagged a classical Christian education
Elementary Reading Strategies vs. Whole Books?
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING on April 12th, 2010
If you are familiar with the main tenets of a classical Christian education, you know that you should read whole books aloud daily to your kids. In fact, books are essential to the effective application of teaching the three skills of the classical trivium.
Well, what you do in your Christian home school is not necessarily what teachers in public schools are doing! My friend recently shared an interesting homeschooling article called “Let Them Read Whole Books” by Joy Hakim, author of the elementary series “A History of US,” which argues that public school teachers spend so much time teaching strategies for reading and analyzing paragraphs that there is no longer enough classroom time for reading whole books! Hakim clearly prefers the reading strategies adopted by homeschoolers:
Today, it is only homeschoolers, and children at a few elite or unusual schools who even read as much as one whole book. Teachers are much too busy teaching reading to actually let their students read a nonfiction book.
I’m sure that you would agree, but don’t let up! Keep reading. No matter how busy you are with daily household chores or teaching the math and science curriculum, make a daily commitment to read aloud to your home school kids. If you need a little bit of encouragement, click on the image above and watch my presentation to the Indiana Association of Home Educators on the real benefits of reading aloud.
