Adding Variety

I worked on our plans for next week.  I realized last week that Laura was just doing too much.  I also realized that I didn't want to try to work with two children when one of them was overloaded.  So, I set down to see what needed to be trimmed off.  Sadly, some of the reading has to go.

I love books.  I love reading.  It's easy for me to schedule too much for my daughter.  She then proceeds to get burned out and then doesn't want to read on her own time.  I realized we do a lot of reading for school using a literature based curriculum like Heart of Dakota.  So, I took their suggestion about extra reading.

Heart of Dakota splits up books into different genres.   I went quickly through the books we have read this year and realized that we have read A LOT of historical fiction and biographies.  We've neglected the other genres like mysteries, humor, folk tales, and adventures.  Some books are a bit of a combination of more than one genre, but we still have not balanced things very well.

Heart of Dakota has a wonderful samples book list where they have split up some excellent literature into the different genres for their Drawn Into the Heart of Reading program.  They also have tons of wonderful recommendations on their website's Book Shop.  I don't want to overwhelm Laura, but I do want her reading and I want to be reading to her every day.

So, I am planning to cut back the number of books Laura is reading independently.  Usually she is reading two or three on top of her reading for school.  Now, I am limiting it to one.  What she reads on her own does not count in this.  I am also going to pick one book to read to Laura at a time on top of the reading we do for school.  By mixing up the genres better, I am hoping that it peaks Laura's interest in reading a little more.  I think it will also keep her from burning out on any one area.  I can easily see her burning out on history with all the historical fiction and biographies we have read.  It's time to vary things a bit and have a little fun.

I was happy to discover that some of the books on the Sample book list were already in my home.  Some I can find at the library because they are classics.  I will probably buy some here and there to build my library for my family.  Either way, I know that I have discovered a vital clue here for our homeschool.  Keep a lot of variety in education so things don't get boring.