back to indexEveryday Educator - Cultivating Curious Readers: A Family Approach to Summer Learning

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Welcome, friends, to this episode of the Everyday Educator podcast. 00:00:09.780 |
I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend some time with you today as we learn 00:00:16.140 |
together, encourage one another, and ponder the delights and challenges that make homeschooling 00:00:24.700 |
Now, whether you're just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight 00:00:32.260 |
of family learning, I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us. 00:00:36.860 |
But don't forget, although our online community is awesome, you'll find even closer support 00:00:46.360 |
So go to classicalconversations.com and find a community near you today. 00:00:53.680 |
Well, ladies, I am excited to have you join me today as we talk to our lovely listeners 00:01:05.100 |
Kelly Wilt, thank you for joining me and Delise today on the podcast. 00:01:11.280 |
And talking about reading is one of my favorite things. 00:01:16.620 |
And I'm going to explore that with you in just a second. 00:01:19.080 |
I want people to know what you've been working on. 00:01:22.420 |
Delise, I know that you are a bookworm like me. 00:01:38.700 |
One of the things that I remember the most about summertime was that I had more time to read. 00:01:48.520 |
But one of the things I remember about reading in the summertime is that almost everywhere had a summer book club or a summer reading program. 00:01:58.540 |
I can remember our local library did, our church library did. 00:02:04.160 |
I came, I'm telling my age, I came from the era that Pizza Hut had a summer reading program and you could earn a personal pan pizza for reading books, which was for me a slam dunk because I was going to read even if somebody didn't give me a pizza. 00:02:20.180 |
But I wondered about you guys, did you love or did you do a summer reading program when you were a kid? 00:02:30.940 |
And what was your favorite part of summer reading programs? 00:02:37.800 |
Well, you know that I did because any opportunity to capitalize on what I was already going to be doing was fabulous. 00:02:46.000 |
And I too am of the era of Pizza Hut book it. 00:02:49.300 |
Like we feasted like kings and queens on this little pizza. 00:02:55.000 |
And so summer reading club was always a part of my relaxing activities once the academic year concluded because it was time for me to finally get my hands on the big stack of books that I had been accumulating throughout the school year and hadn't quite gotten to yet. 00:03:18.560 |
Well, this is so funny to me because I'm like, okay, well, when did they stop it? 00:03:35.620 |
When you mentioned church, I forgot about that. 00:03:38.000 |
But there was a quaker church down the street from where we lived that we loved. 00:03:42.020 |
And we were very involved in that church as well as our home church. 00:03:44.820 |
And I think we got Krispy Kreme donuts from that one. 00:03:49.900 |
Because we lived in, you know, the land of Krispy Kreme when I was a kid. 00:03:53.740 |
And so those two things, like literally making reading sweet, were really important. 00:04:09.960 |
And so the summer was this just incredible opportunity for me to take my interests and to not have the pressure to read quickly. 00:04:17.900 |
Because, of course, during the school year, you've got to finish the book with the right paper. 00:04:21.540 |
Just there are more goals attached to the reading. 00:04:24.820 |
But this time, it was just read the books, get your pizza, make sure your brothers don't make fun of you at the end of the year. 00:04:33.480 |
I love that you said, like, summer reading clubs are not just for fast readers. 00:04:40.580 |
Because I know, like, I was a super competitive firstborn readaholic child. 00:04:46.280 |
And so, for me, part of it, my personal thing was, can I read more books this year than I read last year? 00:04:55.160 |
Not every child is a read a book as fast as you can. 00:05:03.740 |
And not every child can read that fast and enjoy it. 00:05:10.400 |
What do you do with kids who would not naturally choose reading as the fun thing to do this summer? 00:05:18.980 |
Kelly, do you remember a book that you fell in love with as a kid? 00:05:30.320 |
During the summertime, like Delise was saying, I felt like I had the flexibility to just luxuriate in the words that I was reading. 00:05:39.680 |
And so, probably, I think it was the summer that I was nine or ten, I discovered the Little House on the Prairie series. 00:05:47.060 |
And I spent a summer alongside Laura Ingalls Wilder, you know, thinking about all things Pioneer. 00:05:53.120 |
I think I slept under my bed a couple of times that summer pretending that I was a covered wagon. 00:05:58.640 |
My mom probably walked in and wondered, what on earth? 00:06:01.580 |
But, you know, I just, it was a time for me to just dwell in that land, you know, that fictional land of that book. 00:06:12.660 |
And shortly after that, another summer, you know, I discovered the Anne of Green Cables series. 00:06:18.700 |
And I'm going to say I plowed through it because it sounds horrible. 00:06:25.640 |
Like, I just wanted to see what came next to me with that character. 00:06:30.580 |
And I think I did the same thing with the Chronicles of Narnia. 00:06:35.380 |
And almost this bittersweet goodbye at the end of the summer when I would reach the end of the author's words in a particular series. 00:06:43.920 |
Because I wasn't quite ready to let go of those characters I had come to love. 00:06:48.980 |
But summer for me was always the time of a series and not just a standalone book. 00:06:57.400 |
Parents, if you're looking for something with some longevity. 00:07:01.920 |
I know that there were books that my kids loved and they wanted the next one. 00:07:11.900 |
You know, I'm sorry, there's not another one. 00:07:17.920 |
I'm not going to tell the author in case they come after me. 00:07:20.040 |
But, like, I took some picture books and just took the character and made up my own stories because my kids were so affronted that there was not another one. 00:07:35.960 |
Delise, what book did you fall in love with as a kid? 00:07:39.420 |
Yeah, I will say, to piggyback, the series thing is great. 00:07:42.440 |
And I know sometimes parents say that they have challenges with their boys wanting to read. 00:07:58.100 |
We have them because my brother now lives in Japan from my brother's childhood. 00:08:04.360 |
But to get to your question, two come to mind. 00:08:10.200 |
And I actually, for the first time, read it to Leo last night. 00:08:17.680 |
When I was little, I just thought she was the most hilarious thing. 00:08:22.320 |
And it was very fun helping my three-year-old to navigate the wordplay. 00:08:30.180 |
Some of them were terms we don't use anymore, you know, like to draw the drapes. 00:08:33.880 |
And so that was fun for me to describe to him why it was funny. 00:08:40.380 |
So I definitely liked little books like that when I was very small. 00:08:44.060 |
And then reaching to high school, I remember falling in love. 00:08:48.640 |
I think this was the first large book I read on my own volition. 00:08:59.580 |
And I just remember looking at the book and thinking it was beautiful. 00:09:06.260 |
I'd seen that film, that original one that won all the Oscars a million times. 00:09:10.840 |
And I thought, you know, how did, why is it so long? 00:09:20.400 |
And so I read it and I read that book very quickly. 00:09:23.800 |
And I just fell in love with period pieces after that. 00:09:28.220 |
It really sparked a curiosity for me for history. 00:09:32.240 |
So then I wanted more things like Jane Austen or just things that would bring me back in time. 00:09:41.460 |
You know, I was thinking, oh, what would I say if I was going to answer this question? 00:09:45.920 |
And, you know, you guys have taken a lot of my answers because I loved those same kinds of books. 00:09:51.620 |
But I remember our church had a summer reading club and it must have been the year I was in, the third or fourth grade. 00:10:01.680 |
And the summer reading club that year was arranged around the presidents. 00:10:08.380 |
So like you read a book, like for every three books, you got to put a sticker of a president up. 00:10:17.200 |
And so I decided I would read some biographies of some presidents. 00:10:24.360 |
We didn't have a biography of every president in our church library, but I did some. 00:10:30.820 |
So that whole summer I spent, I read about Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton. 00:10:43.000 |
And that was the kind of book I had never read before, really. 00:10:49.500 |
And so parents, if you're looking, if you have a student who really doesn't like make-believe. 00:10:59.580 |
Like, I love make-believe and my kids like to make-believe. 00:11:02.340 |
But some kids don't like to read make-believe. 00:11:15.080 |
You said you were introducing Leo to Amelia Medillo, which I think is awesome. 00:11:21.460 |
What is Leo's favorite kind of thing to read with you? 00:11:26.580 |
And what does he like best about reading with you? 00:11:40.540 |
And I was also a music and movement teacher for that sweet spot, that age range where he is right now. 00:11:47.520 |
So I have a lot of musical books that I can read. 00:11:55.740 |
Yeah, so a lot of folktales from around the world. 00:12:06.440 |
I tend to have a song that goes with it, culturally speaking. 00:12:11.500 |
And so, like, for example, we love The Laughing River is one that we read. 00:12:25.520 |
And in a lot of the books that I have from the 90s, they have it written in the book. 00:12:31.160 |
Like, if you don't know how the song goes, you can just flip to the page and read the music and you will know. 00:12:36.400 |
But for the ones that I have, for example, Winnie the Pooh has a lot of little songs in it. 00:12:50.820 |
And if there is a story that we like and it has a really good rhythm and I appreciate the rhythm. 00:12:58.520 |
I was a song grading major in college, so I will often make it a song, even if it's not a song. 00:13:04.840 |
Just because I find little children gravitate toward music. 00:13:08.860 |
And it really helps them to feel that they can identify and remember. 00:13:14.460 |
The problem comes, though, when you make it up that other people don't know it. 00:13:20.540 |
And my kids would say a lot of times, that's not how it goes. 00:13:24.300 |
Or Gideon, my grandson, my daughter, I would make a little song while I'm telling the story. 00:13:29.340 |
And he would go home and my daughter would read him the book and she would try to sing it. 00:13:33.960 |
And he would just look at her and go, no, no, no. 00:13:46.480 |
I should have guessed that you would do that with your background. 00:13:49.780 |
Kelly, what did your kids like to read with you? 00:13:52.300 |
And what did they love the most about reading time that you did with them? 00:13:57.520 |
I think just being close, holding them close. 00:14:01.540 |
Having just a time where we just shut everything else in the world off for a few moments and just 00:14:08.960 |
were together in that world of imagination made it special. 00:14:12.700 |
My kids also love for me to sing and to use different voices and narrate different types of people. 00:14:21.940 |
I still remember we read Bread and Jam for Frances by Jan Hoban. 00:14:30.080 |
These little tunes that Frances sings as she describes how much she loves jam on toast and 00:14:36.200 |
how she hates soft eggs and all these things. 00:14:43.240 |
We also read tons when they were small, tons of Sandra Boynton books, which are hilarious little 00:14:52.580 |
And I came up with a tune for the Snuggle Puppy song. 00:14:56.480 |
And even just recently, I was just standing in the kitchen cooking and I started singing 00:15:03.460 |
And my 19 year old turns around and like, he looked like he had like a tear in the corner 00:15:09.060 |
I haven't heard the Snuggle Puppy song in years. 00:15:15.360 |
And he's like, oh, thanks for reminding me of that. 00:15:20.620 |
You know, I think that now that they're older, though, like, you know, when they were young, 00:15:27.740 |
But now that they're older, a lot of times we'll read books separately and then come together 00:15:34.540 |
And I think that's especially sweet for my 16 year old daughter. 00:15:37.680 |
You know, I'll just make some coffee and we'll sit down and we'll talk about Pride and Prejudice 00:15:44.000 |
or we'll talk about the Screwtape Letters or whichever book. 00:15:47.900 |
She's a huge mystery reader and she loves mystery books, kind of like her mom did at that age. 00:15:53.780 |
I remember one summer was the summer of Agatha Christie. 00:16:05.020 |
And, you know, that closeness has evolved as my children have gotten older. 00:16:10.440 |
And it still is a precious time for us to be able to share together. 00:16:23.680 |
And it is what draws lots of families to reading. 00:16:27.260 |
But I also know that there are lots of families whose kids are not naturally drawn to reading 00:16:34.980 |
or who, fine, I'll sit down and read for 30 minutes a day. 00:16:43.500 |
So I titled this podcast active reading because I know some people only think that reading is 00:16:54.600 |
the quiet time or what you do in the half hour between eating lunch and going back to 00:17:04.580 |
And I really want us to help families think of ways to make reading fun for all of our 00:17:18.580 |
What is one way that reading could be active and not a passive activity? 00:17:28.640 |
I know you've got little Leo, who is only three, and so passive is probably not in his 00:17:35.420 |
vocabulary, at least not for very long at a time. 00:17:38.980 |
How do you make reading active for somebody little like Leo? 00:17:43.480 |
Yeah, if we're talking about someone small, and I remember my mother did this so well just 00:17:50.480 |
But if I was just thinking of a person, say, under the age of six, anything that can make 00:17:58.980 |
So, you know, if you need physical and quiet, I used to keep scarves while we were reading 00:18:06.920 |
And you can act out the story with your scarf, you know, the characters move slowly or making 00:18:14.660 |
So that's an easy way for them to have their hands busy, but productive and really internalizing. 00:18:20.180 |
And you can tell, even with a very small child, if they are actually understanding what you're 00:18:25.640 |
reading, by what their hands do, because some children, it takes them longer to articulate 00:18:29.760 |
their understanding, but they can express it. 00:18:35.140 |
And of course, if you don't have a scarf, you could use a little toy or figurine and say, 00:18:40.880 |
let's pretend this character and you be this character and I'll be this other character. 00:18:47.120 |
Um, and even just asking really good questions, you know, the older they get is sometimes you're 00:18:52.640 |
working on emotional literacy and, and so you're looking at the book and before I read 00:19:01.120 |
the page that tells you how the character feels, I'll say, Hey, how do you think this person is 00:19:10.220 |
And let's find out or ask them to guess, you know, instead of just reading them the whole 00:19:15.540 |
story, say, okay, what do you think is going to happen next? 00:19:17.820 |
Why do you think that's going to happen next? 00:19:21.140 |
So it kind of gives them a chance to interact with the book and they can, they can get up and 00:19:26.800 |
do that, or they can just talk to you about it. 00:19:29.640 |
He's fine with just telling me a little story. 00:19:32.660 |
Um, so there's that, but then, I mean, depending on what you're reading, there are activities 00:19:39.260 |
Like what we mentioned earlier, the, how to, how to bake an apple pie and see the world. 00:19:43.660 |
I mean, literally it's right there on the top. 00:19:52.600 |
Kelly, what, what are some things that you did? 00:19:58.800 |
So I suspect that some of the times that you wanted to do reading with your boys, especially 00:20:04.960 |
like Delise said, when they were little, they wanted to be moving or active. 00:20:09.480 |
What are some things you did to keep reading active? 00:20:14.120 |
We had some eras where we had to be very active in order to keep engaging all three of them at 00:20:20.960 |
I remember there were several summers where I would just choose a book and we would make a certain 00:20:28.760 |
And we would make it special because I would, I would take all four of our chairs at our 00:20:34.220 |
table and I would lay like this huge rainbow knit Afghan over the chairs and we would make 00:20:41.140 |
We would, we would all lay under our fort that would work better for my boys. 00:20:46.720 |
Um, and we would all lay on our bellies with a book and I would read to them. 00:20:51.960 |
And there was something magical about that or them. 00:20:55.360 |
And I remember one summer I undertook the idea of reading Alice in Wonderland to them out 00:21:01.080 |
loud, which, you know, we, we had some, some parts that like Delise was describing Amelia 00:21:07.600 |
Bedelia, where they just, they loved all of the language, but they didn't always connect 00:21:13.820 |
And so I would have to stop and explain, you know, but when we got to the end of the book, 00:21:18.300 |
I told them, I said, guys, we're going to celebrate. 00:21:20.300 |
We read this book together and we had our own tea party. 00:21:24.660 |
We played card games and we decorated the table with cards and we pulled like out of the pantry 00:21:32.280 |
and we made them into hats and we all sat down. 00:21:36.020 |
And I think, you know, I just had cookies and we drank lemonade, but to them it was the Mad 00:21:42.800 |
Hatter's tea party and it made it special because we were doing it together and I have pictures 00:21:49.220 |
of them when they were little, we would do that with different books throughout the year 00:21:53.240 |
I have pictures of all three of them sitting on our couch, eating their bread and jam because 00:21:56.940 |
we did that for bread and jam for Francis and, you know, different, different books. 00:22:01.520 |
It gave them different experiences because reading, you know, when reading becomes a part of who 00:22:07.380 |
you are, reading leads to doing like you want to take ownership of whatever's happening 00:22:14.020 |
So I remember the summer of Little House on the Prairie, like I really wanted to learn how 00:22:21.340 |
And so there were things that I saw Ma doing in the book or, you know, Pa doing. 00:22:26.620 |
Now, I didn't want to take an ax and go out and chop down trees and build a cabin. 00:22:33.840 |
But there were certain things that I looked at and went, well, that sounds like fun. 00:22:37.480 |
I want to learn how to make flapjacks and, you know, I want to learn these things. 00:22:41.400 |
And so I think that's a huge part of making summer reading active reading because as you're 00:22:49.300 |
reading, you should be thinking about the things that are happening in that book. 00:22:53.800 |
And, you know, obviously there are some books where this doesn't hold true, but in a lot 00:22:58.020 |
of them, there are things that you can encourage your child to learn more about, participate 00:23:05.840 |
Because like Delise said, you are cultivating emotional educational literacy as they're taking 00:23:13.260 |
in those words and they're thinking about what they mean and about the plot and the setting 00:23:17.840 |
So it really is a rich time where during the academic year, you know, you might just not 00:23:23.580 |
have as much time because you do have, you know, I guess, you know, windows of time where 00:23:31.140 |
And in the summer, you might have a little bit more luxury to be able to spend more time. 00:23:36.960 |
To spend more time enjoying those types of activities as we read. 00:23:42.400 |
And, you know, I think my children, it was always a wonderful time whenever I would say, 00:23:47.060 |
all right, you know, we're going to go and do this thing because they knew that the reading 00:23:51.500 |
And so for active little boys and an active little girl, that was like magical for me to 00:23:59.740 |
Now, I suspect, guys, that there are some moms out here who are thinking, but nobody in 00:24:10.060 |
And, you know, they may be thinking my family read to me, but now I don't remember the names 00:24:15.940 |
How am I supposed to go find a book that would lead to an activity? 00:24:20.160 |
I mean, people are probably furiously writing down Little House on the Prairie and, you know, 00:24:28.000 |
But where, if you are a young mom or if you're a grandma listening to this and you think, I 00:24:39.000 |
I want to mention one resource that I used as a young mom. 00:24:43.540 |
And in talking to Delise, I know that she has plans to use this, too. 00:24:53.260 |
It's a curriculum that will advocate you reading the same book. 00:25:02.280 |
So even your youngest listeners are going to be drawn to it. 00:25:07.380 |
They advocate that you read this book every day for five or six days. 00:25:12.600 |
And then they give you tons of activities that would make reading this book active. 00:25:19.740 |
I can remember reading the story of Ping with my little girls. 00:25:27.240 |
I remembered it from when I was little, but I was so excited to read it to them because then 00:25:34.520 |
Like we found where China was and we made a pen and we put it in China and we looked and 00:25:40.720 |
we put a piece of yarn between China and where we lived in the United States. 00:25:45.140 |
And so we talked about distance and we talked about the kinds of boats they have in China. 00:25:51.020 |
The wise-eyed boat, which was his home on the Yangtze River that Ping followed every day. 00:26:03.980 |
We did all kinds of things and I didn't have to think of all of the good activities myself 00:26:10.540 |
because like my brain was spent just trying to keep these little humans alive and the house 00:26:20.060 |
If you're thinking, yeah, I love this book, but I don't know what I would do with it. 00:26:24.020 |
I mean, get some help at first because once you kind of get your juices going, once you see 00:26:30.800 |
what somebody else has thought about doing with the book, you'll start thinking that way too. 00:26:50.420 |
Where are, what are some environments that lead themselves to active reading? 00:26:59.040 |
Well, I loved when you mentioned, Kelly, that you guys had the same place, that you returned 00:27:07.320 |
Because again, you guys will just have to forgive me. 00:27:09.960 |
If you don't care about how the brain works, that's okay. 00:27:15.100 |
I think it's fascinating the way that God's made it. 00:27:17.780 |
And in the same way that people like to have their Bible study chair and they just feel 00:27:23.120 |
like they need the Lord better in a specific spot. 00:27:29.260 |
If it doesn't have to be elaborate is what I'm saying. 00:27:32.120 |
It does need to be repeated, especially if you have a child who, who isn't as interested 00:27:38.520 |
in the book, you can help them to learn, to explore and learn, to love learning by just 00:27:45.920 |
When that's good, I'll give you some ideas, but yeah, the repeating the spot is, is I think 00:27:52.140 |
that little sweet secret that a lot of people sometimes do, but if you want to dive into it 00:27:57.840 |
headfirst, you'll find that it's very rewarding. 00:28:02.400 |
I know that's controversial for some people, but there is something really beautiful and 00:28:09.700 |
And there's no reason in the summer, usually that you can't just take that same thing you 00:28:15.780 |
were doing inside when the weather wasn't as nice outside. 00:28:19.380 |
So I would highly recommend that one, especially again, if you were like me as a child, reading 00:28:26.620 |
So being outside and helping them to maybe wake up and get a little more sunlight could 00:28:33.000 |
And so anywhere, hammock, you know, you can put them on, on the top of the playground if 00:28:38.840 |
you want and just tell them you can come down when you're done. 00:28:41.280 |
A couch, somewhere that you can make noise, especially for younger children. 00:28:47.180 |
But honestly, for me, I find myself laughing out loud in public places. 00:28:54.100 |
So being able to ask questions of it, of the book, and ask questions of the people around 00:29:02.160 |
And just going back to what I was saying, with the books I'm reading with Leo, sometimes we'll 00:29:11.040 |
So if the person is walking, you know, we're padding out that. 00:29:13.920 |
So a place that has space to move so that you don't feel like you have to be still while 00:29:21.260 |
you're internalizing the information is a really good spot for you. 00:29:27.480 |
You want your children to be free to move around. 00:29:31.520 |
And, you know, I think a lot of us, when we thought about read aloud time with our kids, 00:29:36.700 |
we imagined a sweet little child snuggled up in our lap, just happy to listen to all the 00:29:44.840 |
But then you get the child that has a question about every fourth word. 00:29:54.960 |
And you're just like, okay, if you'll just let me get through the story, we'll all know 00:30:02.700 |
That is your child entering into the world of that character and asking questions. 00:30:15.480 |
And then just explore the beauty that reading with your real child can be with them asking 00:30:24.300 |
Maybe you will even stop and ask them some questions. 00:30:29.380 |
Or like Dele said, what do you think it, what do you think he, the sound he would make when 00:30:34.940 |
Well, what, what would the bear sound with the bear make when he walks? 00:30:39.420 |
And so you explore all kinds, you teach them how to imagine. 00:30:43.120 |
And so we have to say that we agree with that. 00:30:59.440 |
But why, why is reading in the summer an important activity? 00:31:08.180 |
Well, I know a lot of people refer to summer and the lack of activity in the summer as being 00:31:13.900 |
the summer slide where, you know, you just, you kind of lose all of, you know, a little bit of the sharpening of the skills that we practice in the academic year. 00:31:24.540 |
Make sure you use your, lose your academic edge. 00:31:32.200 |
And so one of the reasons why, you know, I know that reading during the summer months is good 00:31:37.120 |
is that it helps keep your child's brain active. 00:31:43.520 |
You keep building on your experiences during the homeschool year. 00:31:47.580 |
And so there's not as much recouping when those things start to, you know, begin again in the fall. 00:31:55.840 |
And when the community begins to come together and maybe you're memorizing, you know, memory work again. 00:32:01.800 |
You're still helping your child to just keep momentum, momentum, you know, during the summer months. 00:32:09.520 |
I think also one of the reasons why summer reading is good for you is that, you know, you're continuing to build family culture, a family culture of learning even during those months. 00:32:22.260 |
So I think sometimes, you know, those of us who maybe weren't home educated, we fall into this. 00:32:28.440 |
Okay, these are the academic months of the year and then the summer. 00:32:31.360 |
These are the resting months or the playing months. 00:32:34.740 |
And really as homeschoolers, you know, life is learning and learning is life. 00:32:39.380 |
And so maybe summer reading, you know, might look a little different, but, you know, it's still good for your brain. 00:32:47.840 |
It's good for your family to engage together. 00:32:50.380 |
I was thinking, Lisa, about what you said earlier in the podcast about how some students, you know, they want to engage in the practical and a learning environment that maybe we didn't mention because Delise mentioned a bunch of wonderful learning environments. 00:33:06.900 |
The kitchen is also a great reading environment. 00:33:10.680 |
So I'm thinking about like in the summer, that's the time when sometimes I'll pull out recipes and I'll have my daughter read them to me. 00:33:18.700 |
And so we're practicing sequencing skills and real life application. 00:33:23.240 |
But that reading during the summer is also a time to maybe do some lower stakes reading that will continue to reinforce those skills that you've sharpened during your academic homeschool year. 00:33:39.120 |
I know there are some things that you can add, too. 00:33:47.440 |
I'm so glad that you brought up just those practical aspects. 00:33:55.340 |
You really hope that your scientist has an imagination, you know. 00:33:58.840 |
You can picture what's happening beyond, et cetera. 00:34:04.320 |
But if I had to just say, why is it good for you? 00:34:08.500 |
I would say it helps you to stay inspired and curious. 00:34:11.940 |
I thought about that phrase people say, how the idle hands are the devil's playground. 00:34:17.400 |
But I would even take it so far as to say idle mind is just as bad. 00:34:22.520 |
And so, you know, when Paul is talking to the church in Philippi and he's telling them to think on good things and he gives this list. 00:34:31.820 |
He kind of gives that list, you know, whatever's good, whatever's true, whatever's lovely, you all know this, with the understanding that they would have a point of reference. 00:34:40.220 |
And I think that's something that sometimes we take for granted with our children, that they have that point of reference. 00:34:45.760 |
You have to have, as my mom would say, good schema. 00:34:48.920 |
You've got to have something in there to refer to in order to meditate on good things and then act on good things to cultivate a beautiful life, to have good culture. 00:34:59.580 |
And so I just think it's the best way to feed a healthy curiosity. 00:35:08.940 |
Sometimes people do change, but I think God makes you a specific way in a lot of aspects. 00:35:16.500 |
I've always been very curious about the tactile arts. 00:35:20.060 |
And so when I was a child and you sent me into the library for my summer reading program, I headed to the adult nonfiction. 00:35:27.340 |
And I wanted to learn books about either biology, my fish tank. 00:35:38.000 |
And my mom let me pick out, you know, the Bobby Brown book. 00:35:40.700 |
And I wasn't allowed to wear makeup, but I sure could contour your face and see what all the time, you know, all kinds of stuff like that. 00:35:47.280 |
But it made me, it changed the way that I looked at the world. 00:35:54.300 |
So I didn't have to, I didn't have to plow through it, but I was able to internalize it. 00:35:59.200 |
And frankly, that's the same reason we would sit and read the encyclopedia for hours. 00:36:13.100 |
And I really wanted to make the point that it's not just our children who are learning to read that shouldn't take the summer off, like Kelly was saying, or it'll be the slow slide. 00:36:25.860 |
It's not just the kids who are learning to read. 00:36:30.420 |
For the reasons that you two have just given. 00:36:33.420 |
In the summer, you can read what you're interested in. 00:36:39.120 |
And you can read a little bit of this to quench your thirst for answering a certain question. 00:36:46.460 |
I know one of my daughters just loved to read. 00:36:50.320 |
And she loved the summer because she could indulge her imagination. 00:37:01.220 |
So she read books that were set in faraway lands, in distant times. 00:37:11.120 |
It gave her a great moral imagination because she solved lots of dilemmas that she would never personally be faced with. 00:37:22.780 |
But it built in her a character of resiliency. 00:37:34.560 |
And so she got to know who she could be or who she might be by exploring the world through books. 00:37:48.940 |
I lived a thousand lifetimes before I graduated from high school because of all the books that I read. 00:37:55.520 |
And the little things that you pick up become part of who you are. 00:38:00.980 |
Give your children the freedom to explore the world with books. 00:38:10.280 |
And I'm not saying don't steer them toward good things to read because, of course, you want to have good things input. 00:38:19.280 |
But let them be like Delisa's mom and let them read decorating books or makeup books or how to fix the lawnmower books, even if you don't have a lawnmower. 00:38:33.600 |
They may not be interested in it for more than a week at a time, but that's okay. 00:38:41.160 |
I actually thought about setting a timer, but I'm not going to do it because that just is too schoolish. 00:38:46.060 |
But we're going to take 60 seconds and brainstorm. 00:38:50.860 |
How can moms and dads make reading an active experience this summer? 00:38:59.260 |
So you just call out ways to make reading active. 00:39:11.440 |
Revisit the past cycle of memory work and take note if there was anything that your child was like wanting to know more about. 00:39:22.520 |
And if you do have a child that's interested in nonfiction, that might be a great jumping off place because you're tying some of that reading to things that they've already experienced during that previous cycle. 00:39:36.040 |
One of the fun ways that I encourage as a challenge director for my challenge students to prepare for the upcoming year is I make a bingo board. 00:39:44.360 |
And there's something about a bingo board that just makes them want to prepare because it's a lot more fun to cross things off a bingo board than it is to cross them off a list. 00:39:54.600 |
And so there are lots of bingo templates online. 00:39:57.820 |
Find a bingo template and think about all the different types of things that you could read together as a family and just start filling in the boxes. 00:40:06.540 |
And together, yeah, have a book bingo summer where you just mark things off as you experience them together. 00:40:13.600 |
And it can be a lot of fun because you're working together to achieve a common goal. 00:40:18.440 |
I love it that you said lots of different kinds of things. 00:40:22.120 |
So if I was making a bingo board, I would put a song. 00:40:30.460 |
We're going to read a political speech or maybe one of the farewell addresses or the inauguration speeches of a president. 00:40:44.260 |
We're going to look for one of our manuals and we're going to read through the how-to and find words that you don't know. 00:40:52.140 |
I also love the active reading that you can do when you, like Kelly was saying, read a cookbook and make something from that. 00:41:03.380 |
Or, you know, we used to say, okay, we're going to go to the library and you find a title that starts with, and I would give both of the girls a letter. 00:41:12.840 |
And it doesn't matter what it is and we're going to read it and we're going to see what that book is. 00:41:18.340 |
And what could we, is there a game we can play from that? 00:41:26.220 |
We can rally around that, that that was a bad book. 00:41:29.620 |
Just things that bring your family together that you can read together. 00:41:36.580 |
Delise, what are some good active reading ideas? 00:41:40.860 |
Well, I know, I think I've mentioned on the show before, we always had books that were in the category of things to make and do. 00:41:49.940 |
Back in the day, you know, when they used to bring the encyclopedia to your doorstep, you had this. 00:41:59.300 |
But that's fun because in those books, you'll find things like arts and crafts or science. 00:42:05.120 |
Let's say your kid picks out paper airplanes. 00:42:12.640 |
And then you could read books that go deeper down that. 00:42:18.200 |
Let's go through the science brain, not just the historical brain. 00:42:23.120 |
Or another thing that you could definitely do would be the cooking. 00:42:33.600 |
See if you can recreate a scene from one of the books and keep it up. 00:42:38.880 |
You know, we used to take those big refrigerator boxes. 00:42:41.560 |
A lot of the hardware stores will give you those leftover boxes. 00:42:47.780 |
Make one of those worlds that you've always wanted to go to. 00:42:51.360 |
Okay, well, let's see if we can make it with our own materials or things we can reference. 00:43:00.080 |
I mean, I know a lot of kids just like to illustrate what they're seeing in their mind. 00:43:05.280 |
And that can be really helpful for you to know, okay, this is how this child is interpreting this story. 00:43:10.960 |
So letting them all draw it out is a really beautiful opportunity as well. 00:43:18.720 |
And that's another really fun thing, especially if you're in different period pieces. 00:43:22.340 |
You can make something that looks like it came from that era. 00:43:28.540 |
I have so many ideas, but the last one I'll share for today is also exploring different points in time. 00:43:34.400 |
So a child's book that was written in the 20s. 00:43:38.560 |
I always like to look like it's very different than a children's book that was written in the 80s. 00:43:43.920 |
And if for an older child, that might sound like, okay, this is cool for a younger child. 00:43:48.280 |
But for an older child, they may be able to pick up on some of those narratives and some of the things of what was going on in the world at that time. 00:43:56.240 |
And why were they emphasizing things the way they were? 00:44:02.080 |
And if I have looked in old books and think, wow, that would never have been the job of an eight-year-old today. 00:44:13.720 |
Or in the 60s, this is what they were expected to do. 00:44:20.340 |
Like, if you wanted materials, if it's a picture book, what was available to them? 00:44:32.620 |
One thing that we could take from this, all of us can take from this, is that get interested in these books and in these stories yourself. 00:44:42.260 |
The questions that you have, you can absolutely share that wonder with your children when you ask questions about what you're reading. 00:44:51.560 |
Or when you want to do something with what you are reading together, it gives them the idea that, oh, we don't have to just sit here and read the story. 00:45:05.240 |
I had one daughter who loved, who wanted to act out a story. 00:45:10.960 |
She actually wanted, in all fairness, she wanted to write a story and then have all her friends act out the story. 00:45:18.400 |
And so we had to explore the fact that not everybody would know the story. 00:45:24.820 |
And everybody does not necessarily want you to tell them what they have to do. 00:45:29.540 |
She was young enough that she just needed to work on that. 00:45:32.140 |
So what we did was we picked a really familiar story. 00:45:35.060 |
We took the story of the little red hen and we adapted it because she said, well, none of my friends will want to be a chicken. 00:45:49.020 |
And I said, okay, but it has to, the lines have to be predictable so that we don't have a lot of time to practice. 00:45:57.220 |
We're not good, you know, the costumes have to be easy. 00:45:59.740 |
So we scripted because of who was going to be involved. 00:46:16.820 |
And it was kind of like, who will help me bake this cake instead of who will help me plant this corn. 00:46:23.760 |
But anyway, you can find what your child loves, what they are motivated to spend their time on, and show them how reading a book together can make what they want to do possible. 00:46:39.480 |
Can give them a framework for exploring something that they are eager to pursue. 00:46:48.820 |
And that's what we wanted to leave you guys with today. 00:46:57.200 |
But active reading, maybe that could be your new summer fun this year. 00:47:07.580 |
What's your parting salvo for this podcast for families who want to pursue active reading? 00:47:13.800 |
Oh, I think mine would be parents, challenge yourself to be a cultivator of curiosity this summer. 00:47:22.340 |
If you are cultivating curiosity, then you're going to have a beautiful garden for the imagination for your child to play in. 00:47:33.140 |
I think I would encourage parents to do this. 00:47:41.080 |
Make sure that you're reading something that makes you curious. 00:47:46.620 |
Do you need a highlighter when you're reading that book? 00:47:49.260 |
If not, you know, maybe find something more challenging sometimes. 00:47:58.000 |
Because I think once you remember what it's like to learn and to do things for the first time, it makes you a much more empathetic teacher. 00:48:05.240 |
So staying in that position of cultivating your own curiosity will really help you to recognize those sparks in your kids so that you can create that culture in your family. 00:48:18.060 |
We are trying to cultivate a family culture of learning and doing it all together makes that fun. 00:48:25.000 |
Families, as you're looking forward to next year already, well, you may be planning. 00:48:32.380 |
The Math Map series by Classical Conversations offers a unique Christ-centered approach to mathematics. 00:48:40.860 |
It's time to think about teaching math this year. 00:48:43.880 |
And this is something great for you guys to consider. 00:48:46.480 |
It emphasizes the language of math in the natural learning environment. 00:48:53.820 |
The Math Map provides scaffolding math instruction across multiple levels. 00:49:01.700 |
So all of your children are going to be exploring the same concept, but at their level. 00:49:08.840 |
So right now we have digits, we have integers, fractions. 00:49:12.860 |
These are designed for different age groups, but every level, this is the best part, every level builds on your previous one. 00:49:21.500 |
So it helps students progressively master these concepts from basic digits, and this is like five-year-olds up, to integers, to fractions. 00:49:39.180 |
And the booklets will allow your children to work on concepts at their level while you as the parent are teaching everybody together. 00:49:50.840 |
So discover how your family can celebrate, really, celebrate God's design for mathematics. 00:49:59.120 |
You can visit classicalconversations.com, the math map today, and find out more about it, okay? 00:50:08.520 |
So you guys go and actively read this summer, and maybe drop us a line and let us know, what are you reading, and how is it going? 00:50:18.400 |
What are you doing to be active with your reading? 00:50:21.540 |
We would love to hear from you, so go forth and read and let us know.