Saturday, September 30, 2017

Book Club

One of my favorite things in homeschooling (well, in life, but I am thankful for the extra opportunities homeschooling provides) is connecting with my kids through great stories!  My older son is a project kid and loves to make or draw things connected to what we read, and we all really enjoy making food connected to the books we read and sharing inside jokes or tidbits from the stories.
When I first found Greta Eskridge online, I was really struck by the wonderful book club she started with some friends to do together with their kids.  Living overseas, I am often tempted to think that we can't pull off things like that here, and I wrestle with sometimes feeling a bit extravagant in things that don't make sense to those around us.  But, I really felt inspired by Greta's enthusiasm, and I want to celebrate good and true and beautiful things with my kids and take delight in great stories and the wonder with which kids can engage them.  So, I decided to just jump in and go for it, whether anyone else enjoyed it or not.  Thankfully, I am privileged to have good friends here who have also delighted in this with us, and we have had a wonderful time celebrating books together!

Our efforts are far from professional, but we're having a great time!  We can't get some supplies or ingredients here, but I do have an amazing woman who works for us in our home who is a wizard getting things back in shape in our home after one of these club meetings.  I share here just so that some others might figure out what could work for them and work with what they have to just enjoy and celebrate great books!

I plan five per year (with one being actually centered around picture books so that the youngest are more directly targeted and engaged for one).  We do a couple of activities (an art project or some kind of game or "quest"), have some fun food, and discuss the book.  We don't diagram plots or anything that is very formally academic; our discussions center more around ideas and themes and thoughts and experiences with the books.  One thing that really struck me from Greta's posts was the depth of discussion the kids have and that they believed and expected to happen.  I was, admittedly, a little bit skeptical, but I have been absolutely amazed at the discussions we've had, even with the bulk of the kids being in lower elementary school!  It has been a true privilege to share together with these kids and moms as we discuss and connect about these stories!  I try really hard to be open and flexible and adjust to where the discussion takes us, but I do always jot down a few thoughts and questions ahead of time to get the discussion started or in case we hit a lull. I always let the kids start by just sharing favorite parts from the book, but then we jump in with some discussion.  I have found Sarah Mackenzie's Quickstart Guide (free for RAR members or available for purchase) to be a really helpful jumping off point for our discussions.

So far, we have done the following books for book clubs (links to the post for each book club meeting):

The Green Ember

Mary Poppins

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Wingfeather Saga

Henry and the Chalk Dragon by Jennifer Trafton

I'll add to this post as we do others, or you can use the tag "book club" to find posts for other club meetings.
Coming up next:
Christmas Picture Book Club

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