"The most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day is that children fail to acquire the habit of reading." Charlotte Mason
"The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you'll go. Dr. Suess
Our family loves to read so it has never been an issue to get the children to read, but I noticed a couple years ago that left to themselves my children would usually choose easy fiction over other reading material. I wanted them to have a balanced diet in their reading so I designed a checklist for them with six categories. Following are two versions we've used with success. Feel free to copy them if you'd like to try them or make your own with your own desired categories. Just click on the titles below.
Reading Record Sheet
Reading Record Sheet 2
After Christmas we did a major cleaning and reorganizing which included our school room and all of our book shelves. I've been collecting books for the 20+ years we've been home schooling so there are plenty to choose from. I organized one of our shelves to fit the categories on their lists making it easy for them to select books.
Your bookshelves look wonderful! I have boxes of books from over 20 years of homeschooling. We have been moving around like nomads for a while. In fact we may be moving again in a couple of months. But someday we will settle and I'll have bookshelves like yours! Your organization system is great. I'll be happy when I can do something like this.
ReplyDeleteI love bookshelves full of good books!
ReplyDeleteI love the pics of your books! My daughter just started reading this year and yes, she picks mostly fiction. Thanks for the idea of specifying different types of books. Do you require them to read a book in each category before starting the list over again?
ReplyDeleteGina
Gina, Thanks for taking time to comment. Watching a child learn to read is such a wonder! Books open whole new worlds. I do ask our children to complete all the categories before starting the rotation again. They don't always read every word of their "how to" books but they at least browse them and try some things. The list keeps them exposed to a variety of reading. You can modify it to suit your heart for your family by choosing categories that suit you. You could also have more than one of a given type of book in each rotation if you want to emphasize one type of book, for example you could allow two fiction books per rotation or more than one biography.... Sometimes we have also had one category that was free choice. If you find your child reluctant about one of the categories, you could help choose an easier book in this category, offer to read it aloud, or let them read this type less often, say half a book per rotation. Hope this is helpful. Happy reading!
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