It’s Monday morning. My seven-year-old was up at 4:30, which
gave me plenty of time to think about my public-school friends as I prepared
for business as usual this week.
You see, we can take self-quarantine in stride. We have the
curriculum and schedule in place. We already budget for three meals a day at
home. But maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re dealing with bored children at home or
scrambling for childcare. Maybe you’re a friend or relative suddenly dealing
with children in the house when you’re not used to it. I'm guessing you don't want to go out and buy curriculum for full-blown school at home.
So, what advice would I offer to my friends dealing with school
closures?
It’s actually pretty simple—read and cook.
And when I say read, I mean read, read, read.
Reading isn’t only about reading. Reading can open so many
worlds and fill in so many gaps. If you give your children access to good
literature during this time, their education will be enriched instead of suspended.
In case you don’t know where to start, here are a few ideas
that changed our lives:
Read aloud.
Sarah Mackenzie’s Read-Aloud Revival turned my world upside
down when I discovered it. It’s such a simple idea—read aloud as a family. Yes,
even if your children are old enough to read for themselves. Yes, even if your
children are tweens who roll their eyes at you when you suggest it. Pick a good
book and carve out some time every day. To make it simple, Mackenzie offers reading lists on her site. The experience will not only educate, but it will
strengthen family bonds that may have been stretched by going in too many
directions.
Open the world.
Another discovery that blew my mind was Jamie Martin’s book Read
Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time.
Martin has organized reading lists by country, region, and age range, allowing
you and your children to explore world cultures one book at a time. It’s
easiest if you buy the book, which is available on Amazon, but Martin also
offers lots of insights on her blog, simplehomeschool.net. Use these resources
along with crafts and food to further experience the cultures from your home.
Discover history.
For this, I love YWAM publishing’s hero biographies. They
offer a wide variety of biographies geared toward children, ranging from heroes
of the Christian faith to more secular heroes of history. (A couple of years
ago, we used YWAM’s bio of Milton Hershey as a read-aloud. His life is about so
much more than chocolate!) I’ve used these biographies with history studies and
as a launching pad for cultural studies. They also offer audiobooks and unit
studies.
Press play.
Audiobooks. Seriously. If your children aren’t inclined to
read and you don’t have time to read to them all day, there are so many amazing
audiobooks out there. As I mentioned, YWAM offers many, but there are also
general sources like Amazon’s Audible. If you don’t want to spend the money,
you can borrow many titles through library apps like Overdrive and Libby. My
daughter has used our Libby account for everything from classics like The
Hobbit and Little Women to modern favorites like How to Train
Your Dragon and Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Another free source is librivox.org,
which offers public domain books read by volunteers—not always professional
quality, but definitely worth a listen if you’re looking for older titles.
Think outside the reading box.
Okay, I know that’s a cliché, but do you know how many
topics you can discover through reading? Not only the obvious ones like history,
social studies, and science, but also subjects like math. Math? Yes, you can
discover math concepts through whimsical books like The Adventures of Pemrose—the
Mathematical Cat, Times Tales, and our personal favorite, the Life of Fred books.
This post has turned out to be pretty long—and possibly disjointed, since I'm on my third cup of coffee and feeling a little jittery—so maybe I’ll
cover cooking another day. I hope it’s helped give you a few ideas of where to
start with the precious gift you’ve been given—the gift of time with your
children.
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