Probably a silly question... re SOTW and read alouds?

[staceyobu]

If you use SOTW, how do you do read alouds? I love how Sonlight has read alouds corresponding to the time period. How do you do that with SOTW? Do you just go to the library for book mentioned in the Activity Guide? Do you buy some of them? Is there a way to tell which ages the books mentioned work best for?

[Sara in WA]

The activity guide, which you purchase separately from the SOTW book, has all this info - titles, grades/ages for the titles, read alouds vs independent reading. It's up to you if you want to go the borrow or purchase route. I usually picked a couple gems to purchase and used the library for the rest.

[Mallory]

We usually just use the library.

 

I also use the lists in the Activity Guide as a jumping off point, chasing all the other links availble on the library website. One of the library's I go to automatically puts up a list of books you might also be interested in, all of the library's have the subjects linked. So if I put in a book from the AG then I can click on the "ancient china" subject and get more easily.

 

(I usually end up with two regular libraries- the itty bitty one in the small town we live by and a bigger one farther away.)

[Jennefer@SSA]

Each summer I pre-read the volume of SOTW we'll be using. After each chapter I stop and look at the AG, check the board here, and do an amazon search; then I come up with our booklist. I try to pick one book per chapter that is a must-read and maybe one or two others that are "if we get to it". Then once I have my booklist I start checking Paperback Swap, Half-Price Books (I have learned those are not all over the country but if you have one they sure are wonderful!!!), and our local used book sales. What's left I rank in order of importance (as deemed by me ;)) and only buy full-price what will be used for multiple chapters, classics or books that really cover well an important period in history.

 

I don't use the library too much just because our local library is too small to usually have the titles I want and the larger library in Houston means I am sharing with literally 1000's of other homeschoolers who all get to Columbus at the same time. :tongue_smilie:

[NanceXToo]

If you use SOTW, how do you do read alouds? I love how Sonlight has read alouds corresponding to the time period. How do you do that with SOTW? Do you just go to the library for book mentioned in the Activity Guide? Do you buy some of them? Is there a way to tell which ages the books mentioned work best for?

 

I look ahead to the next chapter (when I know I'm getting close enough to the end of the current one) to see what books are recommended in the Activity Guide for supplemental reading, and then I go on my library's website to see which ones they have.

 

The ones they have, I reserve online, and they call me when it's ready for me to pick up.

 

The ones they don't have, I email the interlibrary loan librarian and ask her to order them for me. She does, and then either emails me or calls me when they are ready.

 

Once I receive the books, I look through them and determine whether they are interesting enough and/or age appropriate enough to want to read. In most cases they are (as my daughter is 10 and not like 6 or 7) but in some cases I decide against them, and they just go in my "return to the library" pile.

 

I do not buy any of the books, that would get ridiculously expensive. :D