Perhaps you remember this photo from last September of the school books I was going to try to read?
Now it looks more like this, not including the Weather Book and a couple on audio:
I did finish four books from the first stack. Narrations for Watership Down and The Sword in the Stone were quickly handed over to hubby, as he’d already read them. And I listened to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the start of this term. But the rest just fizzled out.
I think it’s a good thing to know what our children are encountering in the books they’re reading, and what’s going on in the history they’re studying. But keeping up with it all can become a burden – perhaps an unnecessary burden. I think it has in my case.
I am overseeing four different grades and four different AmblesideOnline years. My wonderful husband has been willing to take on some of the pre-reading and listening to narrations over the past few years, which has been a great blessing. I read ten or so of the Year 7 books when Miss A did it a few years ago, so that’s been helpful as Mr. D reads those same books now. I also read several of the Year 5 books when Mr. D did it, and I’m tackling another couple this time around. Because Mr. L is still learning to read, I have to read all his Year 1 books aloud to him, and that will likely continue in Year 2.
I love having multiple books going at once, and seeing the connections between them. But I’ve also felt a need to have room in my days for my own books, my own interests, and I simply can’t do that if I am trying to keep up with all the books my kids are reading. Perhaps that sounds selfish, but it is important for Mom to communicate joy in learning and growing, and it’s hard to do that when I am feeling drowned in a list of “shoulds” without any “want-tos”.
Something Sarah Mackenzie said in a recent podcast with Pam Barnhill made me feel better about not pre-reading everything (Sarah has a way of making me sigh with relief – it’s that whole Teaching from Rest thing 🙂 ). She said that some of the best conversations she’s had with her kids were about books that she hadn’t read herself, but had asked them about (she has a whole list of great questions in The Read-Aloud Family). She thought that was at least in part because her kids knew she didn’t have any expectations about what they should remember or say about the book. But from my own experience, I wonder if it isn’t also because, at least in some cases, I might be more interested in what they have to say because I haven’t just read it myself.
The other day, Miss A and I were discussing Arguing about Slavery, another book that I only read a few chapters of back in the fall. The nature of John Quincey’s battle to get the issue of slavery addressed in Congress has been monotonous reading at times for her, but she can appreciate his patience and perseverance. And she was making connections between what he did then and a current issue in this country, and how he was an example of making slow and steady progress rather than a quick fix that wouldn’t really fix anything. I’ve asked her to write down her thoughts, because they were good, and I hope she will!
In Freedom’s Cause is a Year 7 book that I have not read, and may well never read. I just don’t have much interest in reading Henty’s historical fiction, although I understand this is one of his best books. But I have enjoyed listening to Mr. D’s narrations of it – I can tell he’s enjoyed reading it – and I don’t feel that not reading it myself has been a great disadvantage.
There are some books that I should have kept up with. Mr. E has struggled with understanding Madam How and Lady Why, and I know that it is advised that that book should be read aloud. But it was a struggle when I read it to Mr. D a couple of years ago, and we ended up not finishing it – it’s just a tough book all around. Of Courage Undaunted is another one I really should read when Mr. L gets to Year 5, as well as Poor Richard in Year 4.
Finding the balance between keeping my finger on the pulse of my kids’ education and making time for personal interests will likely be an ongoing quest. I certainly don’t intend to stop pre-reading, but I don’t feel the need to do it all. For me right now, having a few of my kids’ school books in my reading stack with room for some of my own is the more restful choice. 🙂
