Charlotte Mason wrote the following…
“…for the best thought the world possesses is stored in books. …our concern is abundant provision and orderly serving!”
Yes, the best thought, the greatest ideas, and a world of information are all captured in books. They are the very best textbook. They are the very best lesson book. We have at our fingertips a bounty to serve to our children. So, in your choices, give abundant provision! Consistently serve them the very best books.
But, where do we begin? How do we serve up whole books?? Let me give you some very easy tips that will get you started…
How to Serve Up Whole Books!
–> Set up a book basket. Actually, we have A LOT of book baskets in our home. I set the example by carrying a basket or a tote loaded with my goodies most everywhere that we go. As soon as we check out our books that we are reading from the library, we pile them into the family book basket. This keeps them all in one place and helps to save on those overdue fines! Plus, it is easier for everyone to find books when they can snatch that moment to devour one!
–> Have a time daily (meal, bedtime, school time) to read as a family.This is central to using whole books as your texts of study. It takes time to read through a generous curriculum of real books. This time is so worth it though! Set aside a time that works for you and make it your tradition as well as your time to learn together.
–> Plan well in advance! We live in an area that is filled with home educators. This is great for the activities and resources available for home educators…but the down side is that you must be careful or the books that you want to use for teaching your children will all be checked out. I have found that a couple things help me. I always make a list of books that I would like to read. I determine which books are available at the library and which books can be given to the children as gifts from us or the grandparents. I really like to buy the good books for our home library, but this takes a good bit of foresight if we are to have them when we need them. I plan well in advance. Then, we are ready to roll.
–> Use books for their purpose. Some books are for read alouds…some for pictures… some for finding out facts. It is OK for you to use a book for pictures or a few facts and NOT read it! A great example is that I do use some of the books by Isaac Asimov. Surprised?? NO! I do not read them. They just have great pictures! We use them to show the children the pictures of what we read about in other resources that are more reliable. The pictures in his books are the very best, but the information is the most proposterous out there. We have other books that we use just like this. It gives us the very best resources at our fingertips. Use the resources your own way! Let them be your tools. Enjoy them for what they are good for!
–> Use other resources to supplement. I remember the day that I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to read ALL of the books that I wanted to my children. This may sound simple and obvious, but I was afraid of developing “holes” in my children’s education—anybody relate? I wanted to teach my children everything! I have learned now that we will never read all of the books I would love to read with my children…nor will we be able to cover everything that I want to cover in these short years. I have decided to use my time to select the greatest books for our reading time and to use resources to supplement the studies so that we would not miss too many of the great stories. We have found wonderful audiotapes and videos that we can enjoy together. We also love to visit historical sites and ask REAL people all about what we are interested in. These resources contribute to our lifestyle of learning while helping me to teach all that we can in these short years.
Ready to dig into a great book? Why not grab a great book and dig in today?
Happy Reading!
