Bigger Storytime Question

[girlboygirlboy]

I am about to start Bigger next week my 7 & 9yo. I saw that we are supposed to read our Biography for the next 20 days. I have selected Ben & Me(my ds LOVES mice - he's going to love it!). In looking over the book, it only has 13 chapters that seem to be pretty short. What have you done for books that don't seem to want to fit in the 20 day box? Do I just skip the activities for the 7 days? Pick another short book? Do the activities w/o reading? We will be doing Dithor too if that makes any difference...
TIA for your insight!

[Busymomma1]

Hi!
We're going to start in a couple of weeks with a 7 and nearly 9 y/o, as well! As for doing the Storytime Box, what I did last year was to pick more than one book. We often did more than one book in the 20 day period when doing Beyond, depending upon the length of the books. We'll usually do a chapter a day, and that often allows for 2 books in that time-frame. Or, you can divide one book up into even smaller chunks. Looking ahead, I know switching books will impact some of the activities (like activities in Units 3 and 4 refer back to something started in Units 1 or 2, I think). So... I'll just modify somewhat on those days. I know the idea is to slow down and savor the books, so we try to slow down as much as possible, but even at 1 chapter a day, my kiddos usually still want more! So, we're slowing down the best we can!

That's just what we do. Hope that helps! It's nice to know someone is on a similar journey as we are this year!

[MomtoJGJE]

I just split the books up where they take 20 days... Whether it's the end of the chapter or not...

But my dd doesn't like to sit and listen and when we are reading more than about 5 pages each day she just zones out.

[my3sons]

The Storytime books are intended to be read slowly over the span of 20 days, and were chosen with that thought in mind. I know the amount of pages is small, but this is intentional and in keeping with the CM style of short lessons, savoring books, and sitting with characters/plots/author's style to internalize them. I divided out the books and saw the rewards from it, as my ds learned the ins and outs of character and plot development, as well as the many other benefits of CM style of learning. This showed in our discussions. I definitely would not skip the follow-up activities, as they are preparation for PHFHG. Here are the skills taught in BHFHG's Storytime box:
*Day 1: introduce and study different types of literature
*Day 2: model narration to foster comprehension
*Day 3: identify and analyze a different story element for each genre
*Day 4: relate personally to one Godly character trait, compare Biblical and book characters, and make a bookmark as a reminder of the trait
*Day 5: practice narration by retelling the story

Often times if dc have struggles with LA skills in PHFHG it is because they did not do the above skills in BHFHG. Good question!
In Christ,
Julie

[daybreaking]

We're using Beyond, but we're in a similar situation, in that I chose "Sword in the Tree" for our adventure storytime and there are only 14 chapters for the 20 days. Last unit, I chose Helen Keller, but since we read a chapter a day, we were done in 10 days and I ended up finishing with Louis Braille, also by Davidson, for the next 10. For the most part it worked well, except for the activity of drawing the character and then later adding to the picture, since by then we were reading the next book. I guess where I'm unsure is how to break up a book that already has short chapters. I tried with Sword in the Tree, but it seemed I kept stopping before anything significant happened or else right in the middle of an event. I can't seem to find a good stopping point and ds is quite disappointed when I just abruptly stop, as he wants to know what happened. Today I explained to him about savoring the book, about letting it become a part of him and about not rushing through it. I compared it to getting a bag of maple candy for Christmas and eating a little each day for weeks vs. eating the whole bag on Christmas. I'm not sure he really understands, though, as it still seems frustrating for him not to be able to continue the story when he's "really into" it. TIA for any suggestions.

[my3sons]

We're using Beyond, but we're in a similar situation, in that I chose "Sword in the Tree" for our adventure storytime and there are only 14 chapters for the 20 days. Last unit, I chose Helen Keller, but since we read a chapter a day, we were done in 10 days and I ended up finishing with Louis Braille, also by Davidson, for the next 10. For the most part it worked well, except for the activity of drawing the character and then later adding to the picture, since by then we were reading the next book. I guess where I'm unsure is how to break up a book that already has short chapters. I tried with Sword in the Tree, but it seemed I kept stopping before anything significant happened or else right in the middle of an event. I can't seem to find a good stopping point and ds is quite disappointed when I just abruptly stop, as he wants to know what happened. Today I explained to him about savoring the book, about letting it become a part of him and about not rushing through it. I compared it to getting a bag of maple candy for Christmas and eating a little each day for weeks vs. eating the whole bag on Christmas. I'm not sure he really understands, though, as it still seems frustrating for him not to be able to continue the story when he's "really into" it. TIA for any suggestions.

In general, I think it's most important to be reading the genre that matches the plans, as each of the activities, story elements, Godly character traits, and discussions are paired with the best matching genres so they make sense. For example, biography is paired with the story element "character", which makes much more sense than pairing it with "nonfiction" as your nonfiction book may be about sharks. To keep these good connections going, we sometimes break up chapters. We may do 1/2 of a chapter a day if they are very long, or we may do 1 1/2 chapters if we want to read more pages a day. You can easily do this to choose a pacing you like for your books. For example, we just started Understood Betsy for Storytime, and I divided it out and decided that we'd do this book the whole 20 days, reading around 8-10 pages a day, which allows me to break it up where I can see there are more natural stopping places, and yet still finish it in 20 days. I stuck a sticky note in that says '8-10 days' so I remember this as I read (I'm getting older ya know, and my memory can be quite short term ). If you like to read more pages, you can easily choose 2 or 3 books to read, and as long as the discussions still seem to be showing growth, and you finish them in 20 days, it would probably be fine. I wouldn't get into racing through a book a week though, as plot and character development is lost, and discussions just don't have the depth that they do when you "sit with a book" for awhile. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[daybreaking]

Thanks, Julie, that does help. If it were up to my ds, we'd read the whole book in one day! I think as long as I can read the whole chapter, my ds will adjust to only reading a smaller portion of the story. (I've had to be firm about the stories in "Stories of the Pilgrims," as well, as he's wanted to continue reading more each day.) He's getting used to the short bits, but it's been a process. I must admit that it's a great problem to have ... ds begging and begging for more school! HOD has been so good for our family and has completely changed my ds's attitude. Often last year, it was a struggle to get my ds working. This year he literally jumps for joy when I pull out the HOD manual.

[my3sons]

I'm so glad your ds is excited about his schooling with Bigger Hearts - that is wonderful to hear! I know all dc go through ups and downs with homeschooling, but when they are enjoying it so much, it is equally enjoyable for us moms. You are so right that this is a good "problem" to have. May your ds continue to love the books he's getting to use - from having done Bigger Hearts previously, I can reassure you they are that good the whole year through.

In Christ,
Julie

[Mommamo]

We're doing Phyllis Wheatley and my kiddos love it, so it's hard. But I'm not wanting to read more than one book, as we'll do a different one when the next set of kids gets there (they're listening in now so I want something fresh for when it's their turn). We're big chapter at a time readers too, so what we're doing is I took a look and there are 13 chapters (I think?). So SOME days we read an entire chapter if it makes more sense to do it that way. But most days we're going to have to just read half the chapter. We just finished our 6th day with Bigger and we finished Chapter 4 in the book. This is HARD for us. We are voracious readers in our family, and the kiddos remember things really well. C remembers us reading The Borrowers when she was 3! So I don't think they wouldn't remember it or would lose anything, but I really do want them to learn to savor books, like Julie was saying. I am a book devourer, and I just cannot savor the book, no matter how good it is. I just can't slow down, and I want to help them learn how to do that. Anyway, hope that helps a little.