Homeschool Book Club (for kiddos)

[Melissa in St Louis]

Is anyone involved in a book club for homeschool kids? I'm thinking about starting one, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about it...

 

My questions:

Where do you meet? A library? A church meeting room? Someone's home? I'm happy to host it, and the underlying goal of the whole thing is "like-minded friends," so a house might feel more personal -- but then again, would I be comfortable taking my kids to someone's home that I didn't know? Would a neutral location be better?

 

How do you handle getting books for everyone? Most of what we'd want to be reading wouldn't be carried at the library/wouldn't have enough copies, so people would probably need to order. I'm happy to collect money and order in bulk, but would $10-ish a month for a new book be a deterrent for families. I know there've been times that it would have been a stretch for us.

 

I'm thinking the families could read the book at home during the month, and then meet up and talk about it. (What did you like best? How is this family like/unlike your family? Those kinds of things.) Perhaps the older children could present something. Then, we'd do a related craft or snack and be able to mingle. Does this sound appealing? Or have I lost my mind again? :tongue_smilie:

[lilbean05]

We did a home school book club once and instead of having one book for everyone to read, there was a theme or genre selected. Then the kids could read something within that genre, share it with the group, kids could ask questions, compare and contrast the books, and then do a related craft at the end. It wasn't exactly like a typical adult book club, but the kids really enjoyed it.

 

We met at a community location, but there are lots of other home school classes/events that parents are holding in their homes around our area (metro DC) so I think that would be just as acceptable of an idea.

Edited January 16, 2011 by lilbean05
Forgot to mention where we met!

[Michelle O. in MO]

We also did a book club. The woman who ran the club limited the size to 6-7 kids (and their families). She felt this would facilitate greater discussion and give everyone a good opportunity to participate. It would also keep the club manageable. Too many kids, too much chaos. She ordered the books in bulk from Scholastic ahead of time. I think she would plan out the entire year well in advance including any arts/craft projects she had in mind. We met twice a month at the library, sometimes the book would warrant a field trip, and occasionally we met at her home. Families paid a very small fee, something like $15 per 4 months (I'm not sure how she pulled that off, but she said that's all the cost was when she ordered in bulk).

 

HTH! It was a lot of fun. My daughter had a great time and made some long lasting friendships.

 

Michelle

[Sarita]

We did a home school book club once and instead of having one book for everyone to read, there was a theme or genre selected. Then the kids could read something within that genre, share it with the group, kids could ask questions, compare and contrast the books, and then do a related craft at the end. It wasn't exactly like a typical adult book club, but the kids really enjoyed it.

 

My daughters participated in a group very similar to this one last year, and it went really well. They'd have a theme for the month, and the kids were able to choose any book they wanted to read that we felt fit that theme. (That meant that the group was essentially free because we were able to use books from the library!) The kids who participated ranged in age from K to 3rd grade...this setup allowed them to read books at their own level and be able to talk about them. They'd give a brief narration of the story and answer a few questions that the leader had provided ahead of time. We met in homes, and the host each month provided the theme and the questions. After all the kids shared, they'd do an activity or craft having something to do with the theme for the month, and then they would have a snack. The meetings usually only lasted an hour or an hour and a half.

 

Have fun!

Sarita

[kwg]

The theme is a neat idea! I think I will suggest it to our book club.

 

Our is a work in progress :001_smile: For now, each family takes turns picking the book, location, and if they want to do a craft or activity. The kids have jobs-we got them from another source but some of them are Word Wizard (new or unusual words), Discussion Director (comes up with questions), Summarizer, Illustrator.

 

We do try to choose books that are at the library; ours is a good system though.

[Lady Florida.]

We've done 2 book clubs. One was for ages 9-12, and the current one is a homeschool teen book club. They're both run in a similar fashion, very similar to adult book clubs. The teen group is given a bit more freedom in choices of books.

 

Each month a different child signed up and chose the book. With the younger club, parents helped guide their children in the choice. Everyone was responsible for getting a copy of the current month's book. Some chose to buy it, other got theirs from the library.

 

The child who chooses the month, also chooses the location. We have had meetings at people's homes, restaurants, and parks. If it's at a home or park, everyone brings a snack to share. At a restaurant, the host child (or child's parent) makes sure we have a room or at least an area of the restaurant reserved.

 

Also, the child who chose the book facilitates the meeting. With the younger club, there were often activities in addition to discussion. When ds was a part of that book club, there were scavenger hunts, word games, crafts, and other activities related to the story.

 

With both book clubs, there's no obligation to read every book. You could come this month, skip the next few months, and come back again for a few months, etc. The only requirement was that they had to actually have read the book. Yes, we had to make this a requirement b/c some of the kids just came to see their friends (this is more of a problem with the teen group than with the younger one).

[MomOfOneFunOne]

We have a book club. I started it, gosh, quite a few years ago now.

 

It's a mother/daughter book club which means that we all, moms and daughers, read the book and discuss it.

 

We started out meeting at the library but when the meeting room closed for renovations we started meeting in each others' homes. We immediately noticed that the girls b/c more comfortable and began to participate in the discussion more and had more fun. We never went back to the library.

 

We divvy up assignments. When the girls were younger we just had one family lead discussion, one provide a snack related to the book, and one provided an activity related to the book.

 

Now that the girls are older we just divvy up more assignments. We have -- discussion leader

-- historical context: this mom/daughter research what was going in history in the years preceding and during which the book was written, not during the period the book takes place). They don't write a paper or anything but come prepared to help us understand what was going on.

-- Author bio: this duo comes prepared to discuss the life of the author especially anyting they read that seems to impact the book.

-- Elements: briefly discuss the theme, characters, plot, et c.

-- one family hosts

And of course, someone still brings a related activity and a related snack.

 

We meet at 6.30 so dads have time to get home to keep the siblings and we run a bit late for a school night but it is just once/month.

 

The moms and girls all love it and look forward to it every month. I think we've probably been doing it for 4 years, maybe more.