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Keeping up ELA - mostly literature


SarahW
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So yes, Crazypants is attending school in NL and is picking up Dutch rather well.

 

I switched over to afterschooling our usual homeschool lineup. Lots of things in my signature we only hit 1x or 2x a week, and we do some on weekends. Everyday subjects are Math (enrichment), Latin, and Poetry (memorization with some analysis and extension work).

 

My question is - CP is not a reader. He prefers to read non-fiction and UEWH (really, he does), and the BA guide books. He sometimes picks up a Narnia book and reads a chapter, but only with encouragement. Okay, so not everyone is someone who walks around life with their nose in a book. That's fine. But now I feel like I'm in a pickle because he spends 6 1/2 hours a day in not-English school, and I'm worried about keeping up on his English reading level. Because it's just a fact that English has a huge and heavy history of literature, and as a native speaker of English he should eventually be able to engage with it at some level during his education. Since he doesn't read fiction for pleasure, I feel like this is a subject I will need to assign and work with him on. But I am at a bit of a loss at how to do this, and do it efficiently (afterschooling time is very, very precious).

 

I do try to do read alouds with him, but he's not someone who just sits and enjoys a story. He gets wondering about Thumbelina's mother. He'll get mad at characters. Then he takes an attitude of "meh, what's the point?" I think a literature study would do him good, not least because he'll have time to work through some of the emotional issues on his own and then "get" something from it.

 

I feel like the poetry study we're doing might be enough for right now, if I can keep some light enrichment going with it. But some of the longer poems take a while to memorize, and there's only so much I can do with it if we're stuck learning it for a week. And at some point I don't think it will be enough.

 

Any btdt?

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I was an extreme bookworm for both fiction and non-fiction. What I have enjoyed was my mom bringing me and any cousins who wanted to come to musicals and theatre performances. So we watched Le Miserable, Hutchback of Norte Dame, many Shakespeare plays and other literature performance. My dad is an ESL so cousins and I watched classical Chinese operas with him, sometimes my mom would come as she is multilingual but worked shifts as a nurse.

 

My public school was bilingual from preK to 12th. We had an average of one book per month for literature assigned by each language teacher. So I might have Julius Cesar for English literature and Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Chinese literature. A longer book might take longer than a month.

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As Dutch tend to require reading Literature in its original language during Highschool, you don't have to be afraid he will loose his reading skills, he has to read in English and be able to talk bout it.

 

I can relate you want to do something meanwhile.

I would opt for books that are not translated in Dutch.

And for books he will like.

The literature will become after all :).

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That's true, he'll eventually get English lit in high school English class here in NL. But between here and there...I'd like him to spend more time on it. I'm just not sure how to schedule it, or how much to throw at him. Especially considering that he is already learning a 2nd language (and also Latin and Greek - which he enjoys..).

 

Since I posted last night I got an idea to do a mythology unit with him. He enjoys myths (he says they're not as stupid as fairy tales - well, okay then). I just have to put it together and try to keep it fun but meaty. Fun enough to do after school, but meaty enough to be worth doing.

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Percy Jackson, The giver and so are not translated into Dutch.

 

For myths we used Simone Kramer and Imme Dross in Dutch (Imme also write for adults so pick te right one.)

 

Rosemary Sutcliff has been translated, but is no longer available in most libraries, and absolutely not everything from her has been translated.

 

Would LL 7 / 8 be an option?

Willard Price books?

 

Galore Park English has good reading recommendations we think :)

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