Literature Question for those who have already graduated a child or children

[Melissa B]

In the end, which way worked best for your child - CM or WTM style?

 

Did your child remember more, get more out of and/or better enjoy reading literature slowly, taking a semester or more to read through and discuss a book, writing on different themes along the way

 

OR did your child prefer the WTM way of reading a book over two or three weeks writing a paper at the end of each book and then moving on to the next book?

 

I see merit in both ways and I know we could actually do both but I want to set my focus one way or the other. It is just difficult to try and determine ahead of time what will wind up being the better path. :)

[Beth in TN]

I've wondered this same thing. I've decided to combine CM and TWTM methods because some work better for our family than others. I love the idea of taking time to read several books at once over time with lots of narration (oral & written) and discussion. But my dd does not. She prefers to read one book over a few weeks, so we have to compromise when using both methods.

[Rachel]

I find that my son loses interest if we drag out a book too long so for us, WTM works better for us. He also likes specific tasks related to a book. Discussion is good, but he actually likes writing out his thoughts better and answering questions (he is very linear) so figure out your student's learning style and focus it based on that...

[Jan P.]

You probably won't like my answer, but my ds preferred reading his literature from a textbook (at least during his senior year). I think that was due to the fact that so much was going on (two dual enrollment courses and applying to colleges) that he was on the verge of homeschool burnout. Now he did enjoy his junior year reading Lord of the Ring books and C.S. Lewis's science fiction books for the Oxford Tutorials. I think he enjoyed the discussions since they were not between myself and him but between his peers and a teacher. So our strategy was a mostly WTM method but with a traditional textbook twist at the end.

 

Oh, my ds is not a discussion oriented guy. Thankfully Norm Lund is a great male teacher, so his perspective on things were a "breath of fresh air" to my ds. I guess I'm not very good with discussions.