How to find a living book

[Guest triniity]

Hi there,

 

I am pretty new here, lurking for a couple of month already. I am afterschooling my first grader, sort of.

 

I cannot really figure out how to find and use a living book. We are not english, therefor I cannot just take a curriculum like ambleside, I did have a look into the books and tried to find something similar, but did not really succeed.

 

For example, I want us to learn about the moon. Would I go looking for a book about the moon and then read it to them? and how accurate should it be? Like a fairy tale is not really accurate, if you know what I mean. Or is this more like to dip into the subject?

 

I tried to read a book about ravens to them, it was an adult book, and they were totally not interested.

 

And the narration part: Should I really read 15 min before I let them narrate? That is a lot of information, isn't it?

 

Can somebody help?

 

thank you!

 

Trin

and three little bouncy bally

[Jpoy85]

I dont know about living books specifically. However, i can answer the rest of your question.

 

If we were going to learn about the moon, id gather some different materials. Id check online for some projects (for example Oreo Moon Phases), then id check our encyclopedia for basic general info (what is the moon?), lastly id check out the library. Id gather some age appropriate books from the childrens section. Discovery Kids, DK books, Etc.

 

You could certainly read to your DC, but sometimes its best to have a general lesson and then let them explore beyond that.

[asmall]

If your child or children are young or have never done narration before you start out slow. At first you may have your child just narrate back a paragraph or two. After they get used to that make it a little longer. The goal is to have short lessons so as to keep their attention, so the whole lesson would be 15 minutes which would included the child's narration. But remember start out short and build up to it. As for living books everyone has their own opinion. This is how I pick, open up to the first page and read the page if my kids want me to keep reading we keep it. :D

AL

[lilbean05]

A living book is any book that has some form of redeeming educational value that isn't a textbook. There are a lot of books out there that tell stories with kids being rude and no real plot or teaching point. There are also a lot of books that teach about so many different subjects. Check out Autumn is Here, for example. This is a book written by a current author that shows about the changing of the seasons. You can read this book to your kids, talk about the pictures, see if you can spot any of these same changes of the season where you live, etc. You can also use it outside of season just talk about preparation for hibernation, colors, seasons, etc.

 

With young kids or inexperienced narrators, ask them to describe the pictures or tell what they think is happening. Encourage them to use complete sentences by starting the sentence for them, etc. Learning with living book is tons of fun and provides an endless opprotunity to learn things that you wouldn't ordinarily find in any text book. We are learning about the arctic now, for example, and one of my sons went to the library, poked around a bit, and learned about a short tailed weasel... ?? Who does that?! It was pretty neat.

[sagira]

The Let's Read and Find Out series has a moon book. So does Gail Gibbons. Seymour Simon has some stunning pictures in there. Check those out, they are all living books.

[Farrar]

Just go to the library and find some books. :)

 

As for narration, I think you can play it by ear, but remember they're not repeating everything word for word so 15 minutes of reading is hardly a huge amount to try and recall. There are different conceptions of it, but essentially they're summarizing or telling what they remember.

[Guest triniity]

Thank you so much everybody.

 

It makes it really difficult, that I cannot really just take a book from one of the curriculums, since mostly they are not in german - not available in german I mean.

 

Perhaps I should have a look in an actual textbook, to know what it looks like :)

 

I am wondering how much time that takes, if you read a whole book for every subject. Like a book about an Astronaut for the moon theme.

 

And what would the "Magic Treehouse" be - I think it is fun for them to read, they have fun, but it's not really a lot of information in there, is it?

 

I am going to try, I tend to overthink a little :001_smile:

[aug17girl]

Here is a homeschooler's blog with that might be helpful for finding examples of german language living books.

 

My german reading level is pretty low and I don't know the ages of your children, but I hope this is helpful for you:

 

http://buntmond.wordpress.com/

http://buntblume.wordpress.com/

 

There is a post about learning about the solar system, there might be something about the moon.

[Guest triniity]

thanks, i already follow that blog on my reader and like it very much :D