Literature-based lessons are some of the important strings that tie our families together. As modern 21st century homeschooling families, with parents working from home, you’d think that we are together all the time and building strong family bonds. Not so.
There are days where we are at risk of being in the same house together, but never actually interacting meaningfully, as each one is busy with his or her own work, study, or entertainment (aka screen time).
We have to make an effort to have shared experiences where we actually interact face-to-face with one another. Because of some of our children’s sport commitments, we are not always all together for meals during the week and so that string is often left “undone”.
Reading aloud is one of the activities that we do to relax and to learn and build connections between us. Sharing the adventures, struggles and victories of the heroes and heroines in our stories gives us interesting matters to talk about, gives us a shared frame of reference and sometimes sparks visits to interesting places to continue our learning as a family. We are creating a treasury of shared memories.
Instead of dry, boring text books, filled with (redundant) facts that children are expected to memorise and repeat on test papers, we read historical fiction, biographies, colourful non-fiction books and scientific magazines. We use Google to find more details or pictures of any topics that are of particular interest. Sometimes we watch the movie version of a book, if there is one available and so extend the shared experience in that way.
Reading aloud helps us to spend time together, offers us teaching moments about matters of character, etiquette, morals and values. It has given us opportunity to be sympathetic to the plight of the less fortunate and to talk about challenging contemporary issues like prejudice, racism, sexism, colonialism and other -isms.
We might not be able to rattle off facts, names and dates verbatim but we are learning more valuable lessons that can’t be learned parrot-fashion, off-by-heart heart, as they are lessons that change the hearts of us all and tie our hearts together at the same time– and to us that is more precious and more important.
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There are also other benefits of investing in a carefully selected literature-based programme
1.Security for new homeschool parents
2. Quality resources provided – no need to sift out the twaddle or ‘junk-food’ for the mind!
3. Homeschool-friendly – many homeschool programmes are written by homeschoolers and are thus better suited to the homeschooling lifestyle than a school programme
4. Simplifies your life – all the ideas and planning has been done for you. Some even provide all the extra resources you might need.
5. Saves you time and research
6. Allows you to focus on your children instead of hours planning lessons
7. After-sales support from homeschool veterans/curriculum providers
8. Support groups with families using the same products
FOOTPRINTS ON OUR LAND – LITERATURE-BASED LEARNING
Footprints on Our Land is a literature-based South African homeschool curriculum series in unit study format for multi-level learning.
Little Footprints – South Africa in Stories (ages 4-8)
Footprints On Our Land – South Africa’s Heritage (ages 8-12)
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