storytime with Beyond

[mae357]

We started school last Monday and are enjoying beyond so much! We've been reading the bio of Helen Keller which my dd just loves. She is begging for me to keep going even when we come to the end of a chapter so some days we're doing 1 if not 2 chapters a day. She's able to retell the story so she's learning and eagerly asking questions. We're going to finish up WAY before that allotted time frame for bio's. Should we just move onto the next read aloud or should I slow the pace down?

[twoxcell]

We just finished our biography Squanto and my ds loved it too. I just stretched it out to fit the 20 days. I think it was good to keep the reading short for ds it really helped is narrating. I think later in the year if he is enjoying the book we could finish early and fit in two choices from the list.

[frankesense]

Both of my children really enjoyed the storytime with Beyond last year. Because of the comments that I had read on the board here about really taking time to read through a book; to really think about it and savor it we only read one title in each genre during school time. We took the full 20 days to make it through each book. My kids would ask to read more but I would just tell them we would read more tomorrow and it really helped them to look forward to it the next day. Doing it this way really helped us to spend quality time with each storytime book and to keep our school time to a minimum. It's not that we didn't do any other reading though. We actually read through several of the books recommended in each genre - just not during school time. We would pick one of the books to read the 20 school days and then we would read others at different times throughout the day, like afternoon tea and bedtime. I never put a page limit on those extra times. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Beyond; I hope you do too!

[my3sons]

Those books are so awesome it's tough not to race through them! However, I'd resist the temptation in books to come (and it will be tempting, as they are wonderful ), because much of the intended learning can be lost in switching books so often. CM was a lover of the short lesson, and savoring books. I've come to understand the beauty of those ideals. Character development and plot development are lost when a book is read quickly, so it's important to linger with books for the purpose of school. Now, if dc want to race through independent reading books outside of school - so be it - that is the time to do it. Not every book is meant to be savored, but the ones HOD has chosen are. Here's a past thread thay may help as you consider this too:

Why not to read ahead with DITHOR books:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5851&p=43061#p43061

So, wonderful your dc are loving living books, and no real harm done with reading one so quickly - but as a general guideline, spreading them out, sitting with characters for a bit, and savoring them as characters and plots develop is a better route to go on the whole. HTH!
In Christ,
Julie