Posted in Reading

I get SO caught up in reading books in series.  The longer the series, the better. 

 

My favorite book series is The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  But I've been lost on the prairie with Laura Ingalls Wilder, wandering Hogwarts with Harry Potter, travelling through Asia with James Clavell, and nursing sick lambs with James Herriot, among other fictional and biographical individuals. 

 

In fact, I find that I really don't like reading books that aren't either historically based - fiction or non-fiction - or aren't part of a series that I enjoy.  (Crime fiction doesn't fit my list - sorry Sue Grafton!)

 

Right now, we're reading Harry Potter aloud.  My daughter, who is six, really enjoys these stories.  She doesn't get all the nuances, but the characters are appealing to her.  Her most vexing problem about Harry Potter is his situation with the Dursleys!  She feels so sorry for him having to live with such abusive people. 

 

She's also just caught up in the fun of another world.  We went through this when visiting Narnia last year.  During these series, each cat in our house gets renamed for a character from the books.  Bits of stories are acted out.  Right now she has a fairy wand, a cape, and a handkerchief of "Gringott's Gold" that she carries around.

 

But all this involvement in another world got me to thinking about why I myself, and apparently my daughter too, prefer reading serial stories or historically-based books? 

 

The answer came to me as an epiphany of sorts. 

 

The characters in these books have a history.  If they aren't truly historical characters, they "fit" into a known history that is either created through the series, as in the Harry Potter books; or they illuminate "real" history, like the James Clavell stories or Dicken's tales.

 

After making this realization about my reading preferences, it was easy to see how this affected the way I've chosen to teach my daughter.

 

This same impetus lies behind the premise of a classical education, including a Latin-centered classical education - to teach the origins of the "big ideas" in Western thought.  This extends to the classical novels that form the reading lists for most classical programs.  They illustrate the "big ideas" in ways that make these ideas come alive.

 

The Christian Bible is one of the big books of most classical programs because of the way it illustrates the big ideas of both God and humanity.  In the Bible, God provides His word for humanity, and humanity passes on the wisdom it has gleaned from living in obedience to Him.  It tells the story of Everyman living in the world we've created through our fallen state.

 

As a scholar, I understood the method and premise of a classical education well.  What I hadn't connected with is why it seems to work for our homeschool. 

 

Providing the context and the "why" is the reason we do etymology at times, talk about the origins of phrases, idioms, and ideas, and read biographies and folktales around the world.  It's why we add living math and science texts to our studies. 

 

I don't know that analyzing one's reading habits necessarily reveals something about one's teaching style. 

 

But, just as what we read reflects within our lives, how and when we choose to read is a reflection of our learning style.  And how we learn is often what we reflect in our teaching.  Enthusiastic learners often make enthusiastic teachers! 

 

What we take into our hearts is what we have to draw on to give back to others.  What we take into our minds is also what we have to teach to others. 

 

Selectivity is important, so that what we have to give to others is of a quality worthy of children of the Word.