The Greatest School Resource Around

School is back in session. I think our kids are receiving a decent education. But there is one area in which I want them to get more help. Unfortunately, our school district has adopted a reading program which, while it is great at teaching kids the basics of reading, falls short in the area of giving our kids great literature to read. I want my children to hear Aesop’s fables, or read a classic like The Velveteen Rabbit. Unfortunately, there seems to be little time available in the classroom for this. So, I researched and found a solution that is working for my family. I pass it on as a resource for your family.

            Last Winter, I searched for reading material that would engage our son. He does not like the prescribed reading material used at school. Also, he enjoys non-fiction, science, and history. So, I searched for reading resources. I stumbled upon Ambleside Online and it changed our reading life. You can see the materials and curriculum used at www.amblesideonline.org.

            Ambleside is a homeschooling site based on the teaching methods of Charlotte Mason. It is worth taking some time to read about Mason’s strategies, whether or not you homeschool your children. While I read about Mason’s homeschooling methods, and found them helpful, what I was most interested in was the curriculum. Since my son was in the first grade, I started looking at that curriculum. I liked that the kids were able to read (or have read to them) some of the great tales of literature. We have been able to read Aesop’s stories, James Herriot’s Treasury for Children, James Baldwin’s 50 Stories Retold. My kids have heard classic tales such as Androcles and the Lion. My son has enjoyed the history stories of Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln (one of his favorites), Pocahontas, George Washington, and Christopher Columbus as told by Ingri D’Aulaire. We have learned about geography by reading the amazing Paddle-to-the-Sea by Hollings C. Hollings. We have read The Velveteen Rabbit, Little House in the Big Woods, Kipling’s Just-So Stories, and so much more.

            I get excited as I look at the curriculum and see some of the books and stories we will be reading as a family. I love that my kids are exposed to these classics. I fear that if we do not read some of these works, they may not get to read them in school. We have also read some great works that I had never read before. And I have greatly enjoyed exploring these new-to-me works.

            Most of the time, I read the stories to the kids and they listen. In an ideal world, they would listen intently without interruption. The truth, however, is that there are times when one or both of the kids does not listen or grows bored. So, I have modified some of the reading, or dropped some of the selections, because my kids were uninterested, or the reading was too far over their heads at this time. But, that brings up a great point about the material in Ambleside; most of the reading is a challenge to our kids. The writing is at times above their heads, and the vocabulary is mature. We will often have to stop reading a story to explain the vocabulary or define a phrase. But that is alright. It shows that the kids are engaged in the story, and learning. There are times when the kids will tell the story back to me so that we can practice their narration skills. Sometimes, we have referred back to a story in order to reinforce a moral lesson we are trying to instill in our kids’ lives.

            All of the curriculum on Ambleside is free for downloading. What is even more amazing is that most of the reading material can be downloaded for free on a Kindle or other reading device. And I have been able to find all the books that are not free downloads at our local library (or through library exchange).