- Don't have time to pre-read your students' schoolbooks?
Here are some ideas.
(gentle music)
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast,
I'm Sonya Shafer.
In a Charlotte Mason education,
pre-reading the books that your students
are going to be reading
can really add to the narration
and the discussion that follows them.
But how do you find time to do all of that pre-reading?
That's a struggle a lot of us have,
and I want to discuss that today
with my friend, Amber O'Neal Johnston.
Amber, we've talked about this before.
You do pre-read your students' books, correct?
- I do pre-read, especially when I'm not going to be reading
aloud with them, or we're not reading it as a family.
So now that I have a group of independent readers
who are going to be off reading their own material,
I do make sure that I've read those books-
- And you have how many kids?
- I have four children, three of them
are independent readers.
- Okay, so let's talk first about
why we should put forth the effort to do this
because it is an effort. - Yes.
- It's not an easy thing. - No.
- What are the benefits of it?
- I think there are several.
First of all, just from a family perspective,
I think of all the discussions
and the rich conversations
when we're all reading the same things.
Or when I'm reading the things that they've read.
Inside jokes that we have in our family,
references when we're out and about,
little things that a child may say
that I'll understand.
And my children are speaking those same languages.
A lot of times, they're reading the same books,
maybe one, a year after or two years
after the other sibling.
They're like, "Now I know what you meant!"
And I also would like to participate
in those conversations, it's part of our family culture.
So I think that's one reason.
Also, it helps me with the narration
when I'm listening to a narration.
I feel like I can listen and generally tell
how my child's doing, even probably
if I hadn't read the book.
But I like to be able to actually enjoy the narration.
It's not just an exercise, or just something for them to do.
But I feel like it's giving them the respect
of an audience who understands what they're talking about,
and following the narration we often have discussions.
And sometimes the children ask me questions.
And I think that for my kids,
they know that I understand what they're reading
and have read it,
and I think it helps them see that I value
what they're doing, and what I'm asking them
to spend their time on,
that I value it enough that I am preparing for them.
- Yes, so I think Charlotte
talked a lot about mental sympathy-
- Yes. - Between the teacher
and the student.
And what you're describing there
is the picture of mental sympathy.
Yeah, I'm feeling the same things you are,
I've walked that same path. - Definitely.
- And what you're talking about.
I also, that reminded me of a concept
in the book, "Know and Tell" by Karen Glass.
- Yes. - And how she emphasized
that narration is a relationship-building activity.
- Yes. - Not just a test.
- Yes, that was, a friend of mine gave me that book
for my birthday one year,
and that was such a good birthday gift.
But yes, I agree with you.
I think that that's what I feel,
and that's kind of what I'm describing.
So I see it as a gift to my child.
Also, pre-reading has been a gift to me.
So we often talk about moms receiving this second education
as a home schooler.
So I delight in those books
that they're reading, I enjoy them.
A lot of them, I never read growing up.
Some of them I did, but I'm seeing them
through new eyes now.
And so part of it is pleasure for me,
and even though my time is limited
and it can be a little bit stressful at times
to try to pre-read,
it is still something that is good for me, it's nice.
I enjoy it.
So that's another thing.
One other thing that I think is very important,
when the children are off reading books on their own,
I also want to be aware of things
that could be problematic- - Yes.
- That come up, things that could be disturbing
or confusing for them.
Things or messages or ideas that may not align perfectly
with what we believe as a family.
And I don't necessarily want to throw the book out
because there are other valuable things about that book,
but I do want to be able to have a conversation with them.
And sometimes it's not even to warn them,
it's just for me to be aware
of what my child now knows,
that perhaps they hadn't known before.
So I kind of had one eyebrow up,
like "Let me see what she's going to think about this,
or what he feels about this."
And also training the children
to be able to say what you read in this area,
if you were to ever encounter that
in a book that I hadn't read,
that's the type of thing that I would want you
to bring to me.
- As you bring up, "If that's in a book I haven't read,"
those situations do occur.
I mean, we don't read everything.
- No.
- That our children do, that's the ideal.
- Yes. - But sometimes we don't
attain to that. - Right.
- So let's give some tips at least as to,
I don't want us to say "Well,
I can't ever read all of them,
so nevermind, I'm not even going to try."
- Right. - We don't want to go there
at all. - Right.
- Because there are so many benefits-
- Yes. - To pre-reading the books.
So can we give our viewers and our listeners
some tips, some hope- - Yeah
- Some strategies as to how do you make this happen?
You know, the mom who has the two preschoolers
and the newborn. - Sure.
- Plus the three other school-age children.
How is she going to make this work?
- Okay, so I try to prioritize books
again, that I'm not going to be reading aloud.
If I'm going to be reading the book aloud,
those will be the first ones
that I put at the end of the list,
because I can kind of shift
and do what I need to do on the fly at times.
So I prioritize the books for me pre-reading
that my children are going to be reading on their own.
And I prioritize their school books,
their lesson books, first and foremost out of those.
- As opposed to- - Free reads.
- Okay. - Things that they're going
to be reading on their own
at night- - Leisure time.
- Yes, their leisure time.
That for me, I honestly can't keep up.
- Right. - And that's a good thing,
I mean, I wanted a literary household
and I got one. (Sonya laughing)
And so I cannot keep up
with all of their leisure time reading.
I rely a lot on trusted reviews.
And those come from friends
that I know who are like-minded,
I know they know what I kind of want to be alerted about
and I do the same for them.
Comes from people that I respect.
If you've read a book Sonya, I'm okay
with one of my kids reading it.
I'm like, "I think it will be okay."
You know, sources like Redeemed Reader
and their reviews.
And yes, I read reviews on Amazon and everything
but I find that I get the most value
out of reviews that have been done by people
who are raising children in the same way
that I'm raising the children.
I can just feel more confident with those.
So I do rely a lot on reviews.
I've also learned how to do a really good heavy skim.
So I may not be reading every word or every chapter,
but maybe the opening chapter, the ending,
flipping through, kinda seeing what the arc
of this book is, what are the main messages
in this book,
without reading every single word.
And I also have worked with training my children,
that if there's something I missed,
there will be.
There are things always that I'm going to miss,
that they will come to me.
They know exactly the things that might make them feel
a little uncomfortable, or that they're not certain about,
they'll bring those things to me.
And then I also pray about it.
I pray for covering that my children's eyes
and ears are protected against things
that I may have missed.
- Yes, yes.
And that, as you said, they will notice
and come to you with it. - Yes.
- So you can discuss it.
Because it's somewhat scary,
we've chosen to homeschool
because we want to be the prominent voice
speaking into our children's hearts.
- Right. - And now we're opening up
that control, if you will,
that covering, but as you said,
the Lord can oversee that much better than we can.
And he can see in our children's hearts.
- That's right.
- So we can trust him with that.
- Yes. - That doesn't mean
we're going to be irresponsible. - No.
- But we can trust him to- - We do our best.
And it changes from time to time.
There are times and seasons and years
where I can do a lot more pre-reading, 100%, sure.
It's a perfect year.
And then there are years where I'm just barely holding on.
I'm depending a lot on my friends
and their recommendations,
and curriculum that I've trusted.
And I just haven't been able to do it all.
So I think that that changes as we go.
- I was talking to a mom a couple weeks ago,
and she was addressing this very topic.
Asking "How do you read all of these books ahead of time?
What do you do?"
So I said, "How old are your children?"
And she said, "Three and five."
So I said, "Start now." - Now. (chuckles)
- Yeah! - This is the time.
- Yeah, and she kind of laughed at first,
she thought it was a joke, but it's not.
You've got to get a head start. - Yes.
- Or they're going to catch up to you.
It's like the "Indiana Jones" scene,
running ahead of that ball that's rolling behind you
you know? - Yes!
- So even if your children are older,
well let's start here.
If your children are younger,
start looking at curriculum you want to use,
the books you want to use,
and start reading them now,
and take notes. - Yes,
that's very important. - As you read.
Because five years from now when you get there,
you're not going to remember all the little nuances
and exactly where that one incident was.
- Yes. - That you might
want to discuss, it's like I remember movies
that I enjoyed 20 years ago.
And when I go back to watch them, it's like,
"I didn't remember
that was in there." - Yes, same thing.
I know I've gotten caught a couple times with that
with my kids.
I want to show you this movie I loved growing up
and I'm like "Wait, pause, stop!"
- Yeah! (chuckles) - Uh-oh!
- Forgot about that. - Yes.
- So the same thing can happen
with books. - Sure.
- Do you keep notes? - I do.
And they help me immensely.
And it's not like, this big formal outline or whatever.
Honestly, I usually am just writing in the margins.
I also have a notebook that's one notebook.
If I lose everything else,
this one notebook has all my good notes
for homeschool over the years.
But I do write in the margins,
where I'll give a heads up, or in the front cover,
maybe I'll say "Let's read chapter six together."
So if my child's reading the book on their own,
I know that there was something,
I don't even always remember why,
that I wanted to read chapter six aloud together.
So it could be probably most likely for me
the introduction of something,
a topic that my children may not have
a lot of experience with.
So like, "The Family Under the Bridge."
We hadn't talked a lot about homelessness yet,
or that they knew about it
but the fact that children could be without a home.
And so that was a note I had in there,
let's talk about that before I hand this book over.
So my notes are valuable, they're golden.
- Yes, yes.
And it doesn't mean that you sit down
and read all day every day. - No.
- A lot of times, even if you can do,
well I calculated this out. - Okay.
- If you can read 15 minutes a day,
just Monday through Friday. - Okay.
- Not even weekends, or you know, another five days a week,
whatever it is, if you can read 15 minutes a day,
at the end of the year,
you will have accumulated 65 hours of reading.
- Wow! - It's amazing how those small
constant touches add up. - That's true, it's true.
- And you can read a lot of books in 65 hours.
- Yes! That's amazing.
- Or do heavy skimming in 65 hours
and taking those notes.
So even if you can only stay one term ahead-
- Yes. - You're still ahead
of the rolling ball. - Yeah.
- And use your breaks,
use your holiday breaks, use your summer breaks
to just keep that habit going
and maybe you can nudge it out and do a half hour a day
during the breaks.
But it's important.
- Yeah, those are definitely ideas.
I mean, I do, even the week between our terms,
I do a lot of reading.
And sometimes I'm not going to lie,
I'm reading for that next term
and I'm just like, right ahead of them,
my head's right over water. (Sonya laughing)
But usually I hopefully am reading out further on.
But between terms, holiday breaks,
yeah, like you said, the summer.
I also use my car time,
time when we're commuting back and forth in the car,
I was reading, listening, I say reading,
listening to an audiobook on the way here today.
So I do rely a lot on audiobooks in the car.
- When you're alone. - Yes.
- Or when the kids are with you?
- Usually when I'm by myself.
But I take every minute, you talked about
those 15 minutes a day. - Yeah.
- So even just going to the grocery store
and it's right up the road,
I still put my audiobook on,
and you'd be surprised, just those little snatches of time,
here, there, everywhere.
If I go for a walk around the neighborhood,
I'll just put my earpiece in
and 10 or 15 minutes here or there,
it really, I mean, I finish books.
I go through a lot of books on audiobook
through the year.
I also am an early riser.
So I get up really, really early.
And I read in the morning,
I have a nice cup of tea, I do other things too,
I'm not just reading, but anything that I need to do
that's concentrating without the children,
that's my time to fill myself up.
And I pre-read a lot in the morning.
- And see, that works for you
but that would not work for me.
If I got up early, early in the morning
and started to read, I'd fall asleep.
- And that's me at night.
So I'm like "Okay I'm going to read for tomorrow,
we're going to do something," and I lay there
and I'm like "Uhh, I'm out,"
you know, at night. (Sonya laughing)
So once the kids go to bed, I really,
I might be able to squeeze out a blog post
but I can't usually read a book.
- So what I'm hearing
is that it really depends on the person.
You've got to know yourself. - Yes.
- As well as your family schedule.
- Sure. - When you can grab
those moments, but you have got to be intentional about it.
It's not just going, the book isn't going to just land
in your hand automatically.
You've got to be intentional about it.
- And I think having a list too
of where you're going.
- Yes. - So you don't even have
to think about it.
So I always have a book on audiobook,
I can access on my phone.
There's something on Kindle,
I'll have my book slipped into my purse.
I know where I'm going
and what I want to read next.
And so I kind of have a plan,
because if I have to think about it,
a lot of times, then it's not going to happen. (chuckles)
- Another thing you can do
is don't be afraid of taking a day or two midterm
and say "Okay, hang on,
mom needs a couple of days.
So we're just going to put lessons on hold
for a couple of days.
And I'm going to do what I need to do
and then we'll just tack a couple of days on
at the end of our term to make up for those
if we need to." - Sure.
- But it doesn't have to be just
calendar-related holidays.
- No, it's so true.
I was raised by two educators.
And so they, I remember very clearly
days where I didn't have school, but they had to work
for in-service days, they called them.
And so taking in-service days as a homeschooler,
that's really invaluable.
I like to do it when the weather's really nice
so we can actually go outside.
I can sit there on the blanket and read,
and they'll play, and play, and play, and play
and play, and play.
So the kids aren't complaining about that,
and those are days
where I can just take that time
and not feel like I'm pressured with time.
- Yes, that's a huge thing.
One other, not trick, but one other strategy
that might be helpful,
is to set aside you know, some moms might say
"This 15 minutes a day, I don't have that."
- Sure. - In my day.
And with some ages of kids- - I believe it.
- It's hard, yeah, very hard. - Yes.
- So if you can't just grab it here and there,
what can be very helpful is to say "All right,
in our schedule, I am going to institute
a 20-minute read-and-rest time every day,"
whenever it fits, maybe after lunch.
Maybe right before supper,
where it fits best in your home.
But that 20-minute rest-and-read time,
everybody is on their beds,
or in a designated place with quiet toys.
You don't have to sleep. - Yes.
- Because you know, you can't force your child
to sleep. - Sure.
- This we learn. - Yes, yes.
- But everyone needs to play quietly
until the timer dings,
and you can use that 20 minutes
to get in your 15-minute read
and still have five minutes to actually regain your sanity.
- That's a great idea.
And I think it's really good anyway,
whether you are using it to read or not,
to train the children to have a rest time every day.
Because you need that to be filled up,
to keep your cup full,
to be able to pour out for your family.
And I think that while you teach them that
while they're younger,
the older ones, it's just normal for them.
And I think they even look forward to it,
so that's a really good idea.
It doesn't have to be some extra time
that you don't have, but it can come from
the time that you're already giving to your family
as well. - And I think it's a gift
to the children, to give them the habit of solitude.
- Yes. - So many children
don't have that, they're just go, go, go, go, go.
Giving them time to sit and process
all the things they're learning,
I think is a good thing,
and then we can use that time
to grab our little 15-minute read.
- Sure.
- But it is important, pre-reading is.
What would you say to the mom who feels guilty right now?
"Oh, I'm not pre-reading my kid's books,
I'm a bad mommy, just give me the bad mommy trophy."
- No!
- "I'll put it on the shelf."
What would you say to encourage her?
- Okay, so there's no room for shame.
That only makes us dig a deeper hole.
I would just say that if that is something
that you feel that you want to implement,
just start small.
Pick one book, look at what your children are reading
or will be reading,
and maybe think of what might have
the meatiest conversations,
or could possibly have something problematic,
or just something that you may enjoy as a mother.
And just pick that one thing
and just start.
So it doesn't have to be all or nothing,
just something is better than nothing.
And I think that once you get the ball rolling,
that a lot of moms will find
that they're enjoying it so much
that it feels like less of a chore
and more of a joy.
- Good words, thanks Amber.
- You're welcome.
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