reading. aloud. together. all the time. every day.

I have heard mounds of advice about homeschool over the years.

Piles and gobs.

Good advice about managing your time wisely, about organizing your day, about unschooling and school on line and classical vs. Charlotte Mason, about textbook choices and co-ops and at what age your child should be able to read, speak, think, tie shoes, make a pie, write an essay, climb a ladder.

And it varies greatly.

All that advice – it points you in a thousand directions frequently opposed to one another.

It’s tricky to navigate and it’s personal and it’s big and intimidating and it’s overwhelming.

But I don’t think I’ve ever met a homeschool parent who has said, “I wish my child had read less books. They just read too much. Reading was not helpful to their education.”

I’ve never heard that.

And so we read.

I’ve switched curriculums. I’ve tried at least three varied approaches to math with four kids and I think I’m trying a completely different one when Willow begins kindergarten next year.

But we’ve never not read.

Every year I reconsider using Sonlight curriculum across the board. I can’t wait to spend a year using the Little House on the Prairie books with a specialized lesson plans for the big kids. We’ve shifted co-ops and tried private school.

But we always read books.

Classic, quality, living books. Books about animals and people and history and ideas. Books with heroes and villains and goblins and princesses. Books that make the kids cry and books that make the kids angry.

We read out loud. We read alone. We read together and we read apart. There are books you may choose on your own and there are books I will place in your hands.

I read out loud with the kids regularly – the same book. Together. Sitting side by side. I read a paragraph. The child reads a paragraph. Chapter by chapter by chapter. We do this reading together to hear them pronounce words they may have never seen. To hear their inflection and expression. To send a message that grown ups read too. That it matters. It doesn’t end with high school graduation.

There have been homeschooling decisions I have made that I have been thrilled with the outcome. Ambleside Online has rescued my distracted mind often. London is thriving with our current Language Arts program called Classical Writing. You know I adore our co-op.

And there have been homeschooling choices that I would change in that time machine if I could. I wouldn’t have sent Riley to private school for two years. I would have made Bergen work harder on his class presentation in his co-op class. I would praise more. I would have found a specialized teacher sooner than I did to help Mosely learn how to read.

But this I would not change – the high value books have held in our home.

The time we have made to read together.

To listen to audio books in the car despite a few cries of complaint at the start. It never fails – no matter what each child says about the novel we are beginning, they are all quietly engaged in the story’s tale by the first three chapters. The car was filled with cries of complaint when Where the Red Fern Grows began playing in the suburban’s lame speakers. But by the time the climax of the book was reached, little sobs and sniffles were heard among the many backseat passengers – and in the front seat too, I’m afraid.

Reading.

 

It’s a cornerstone of our Wildwood education.