Virtual Homeschool Coop Assignment #3 | How do you use a Reading List in Your Homeschool? | #VHC

This response is my part of the Virtual Homeschool Coop Channel Collaboration. You can find out more at www.virtualhomeschoolcoop.com. The goal of the Virtual Homeschool Coop is to build the homeschool community of knowledge with collaborations to give voice to all experiences in homeschooling.

We have been all over the map when it comes to book lists in our homeschool. When I first began I wanted to make sure we added in some of the classics but as my children grew that was not their idea. First and foremost I wanted each of them to have a love for books. So, if it was Captain Underpants that caught there attention then so be it. Amelia Bedelia was another all time favorite along with Mrs. Piggle Wiggle in the beginning.

How and where do you get your book list? How big is it and how do you assign reading?

Through elementary years, we pretty much purchased the books on the Sonlight reading list per grade. I used them as a guide and often bought the reading guides to go along with them to have the comprehension questions handy.

During the middle school and high school years I pulled books from the Classical Conversations book list for the challenge years. Our curriculum, My Father's World, also includes/included wonderful books as well. Their read aloud books are some of my all time favorite books.  We especially love the series of books from YWAM publishing. Be warned if you choose these though - I ended up in tears while reading almost every one!

All of the above book lists I would normally follow the guide which told you how much to read of each book in order to finish by the end of the school year.

We also add in interest led books to our curriculum. Some of my children's favorites over the years are the Magic Treehouse Series, the Narnia Series, the Lord of the Rings series, the Little House on the Prairie Series, and the Anne of Greene Gables series. For these books, we go at a much more relaxed pace because they are reading these on top of their other lists. If they wanted to read more, they were certainly allowed to do so but we usually stuck with 1 chapter per day.

Do you reward and give incentives to read?

As far as rewards go, we always participated in the Pizza Hut BOOK IT program until each one aged out of it. I really wish it went past 6th grade because all my children would still do it if it did! Who doesn't love free pizza?!? I guess I should have continued it myself but I didn't. We also always participated in our library's summer rewards programs too.

Book Adventure is a place we used for a little while where you can offer rewards for reading.

Do you quiz for comprehension?

As I mentioned earlier, when we used Sonlight we did quiz for comprehension. As I began to just pull the books from the list and not buy the guides I would google comprehension quizzes per book and usually had pretty good success. I have also purchased an annual membership to abcteach.com and used their comprehension guides. 

So what does reading look like your homeschool?

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