Taking Time for Tangents

What Works!

Another “What Works!” post ~ where I share and encourage moms with some of my tried and tested homeschool approaches that worked from pre-school and all the way through high school! (If you missed the previous posts, please follow the links at the end of the post.) I found that using a literature-based curriculum is the most rich, rewarding and inspiring way to teach.

More importantly, living books open delightful “rabbit-trails” or tangents! And following these delight-directed paths made all the most important connections and enriched the book in wonderful ways!

Here’s some tips of enriching your literature study ~

Follow the spark of interest!
Chat, discuss, talk at the dinner table about the new ideas, characters’ choices, moral issues, those “why” and “what if” questions.
Read-up or “Google” it! (I love my smart phone’s wonderful reference apps loaded at my finger tips … but that is a post on its own!)
Explore it in other books. Find supplementary books at the library.
Do it! Go and build a real raft, make a Khoi grass mat hut, make a mould of an animal track … bake the cake, make the butter, tie sailor knots, make the corn doll, make Lego models, make paper models.Some of these activities became the cornerstone memories of many of our read alouds! My kids will never forget them!
Make interesting and diverse notebook pages
Create puppets and dramatize the story.
Add lapbooks, especially for younger and middle school children.
Travel to places in the story with your family. Go on the journey with your story as a family. We loved our real-life “Footprints on Our Land” journey when we travelled for 18 months looking for our farm.
Visit museums, art galleries, historical sites.
Visit real artisans, craftsmen, professionals, hobby enthusiasts, the elderly or veterans and learn from them. Let them show your family and make it real!
Don’t rush. Keep the pace your family needs.
Extend your schedule. You can safely extend any 12 month (1 year) schedule to 18 months without adding any more books. Just look for those hands-on activities that will enrich your studies. See your schedule as a guideline! This is my most important homeschool tip!