A Pile of Books

[CrunchyGirl]

How feasible is it to just make a pile of books each week (science, history, geography, literature, artist study, composer study) and then just work through the pile a little each day? Maybe even letting each kid choose a few books each day. I am concerned that if I say history is Monday and Wednesday, Science Tuesday and Thursday, etc. that I'm going to seriously stress myself out. Our lives are chaotic during the week and some days I can only get math and LA done and a couple of books read. I'm thinking we'd set aside time for nature study on Sundays and a "project" on Saturdays (could be an experiment or fun history project, etc.). Has anyone tried this? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? I really want to simplify things or at least make it all pretty error proof.

[Farrar]

That's basically what we do.  I check out books from the library (and occasionally have some I've bought).  I have ongoing books - books with lots of topics.  I just keep working through them.

 

I think the benefit is that some topics have lots of books and others don't.  You can read more for science when there are more books, less for history when there are less, and so forth.

 

This works fine for us, but I'm pretty good at responding to this sort of thing - eyeballing the pile of books and being able to let a couple go, or take a little extra time one day and little less another, etc.  I know some people can't play it by ear like that or things will go wrong, so you have to be someone who actually finds a system like that easier.

[Another Lynn]

I think it's a great idea.  I think it could work well for read alouds or free reading, either one.  You could make a reading log and add a column for "subject" or keep a separate reading log for each subject, depending on your own preference.  You could also make a Wall Chart of some kind where they get a "star" or "sticker" for each book (thinking about "free reading"), just as a visual encouragement. 

[duckens]

This sounds like it would be a brilliant plan for your crazybusy life right now.

 

When I free-read to the girls, I have a stack of (library) books. Unless a book is due at the library on that day, I will hold up two books and let someone choose what we read. Then one book goes into the "we have read" pile, and the other goes into the "discard" pile. Then the child chooses from two new books. When we have gone through the original list, we return to the discard pile, and I hold up two new books, creating a new discard pile. We take turns choosing.

 

It is also okay for Mommy to have a turn choosing a book to read. Often this is the library book that has been in the house the longest.

 

Warning: if you have library books, watch the due dates. Kids do not always choose the oldest library books in the house.