Five things to try in your homeschool this coming year- part 2

(I'm currently working on a series of five things to try in your homeschool this coming year. If you missed part 1, check it out!)

Now that you've chosen your online learning opportunity, it's time to look at what else you can maximize, change and create. The next idea is a challenging one for many parents and nearly every teacher I've ever met. Most of us grew up in a system of assigned reading, in books that the whole class read, including 45 minutes of read-aloud every single day for weeks on end to make sure "everyone was paying attention." I'm positive some great works of literature were utterly destroyed for me in this system. If you even mention The Great Gatsby, I shudder a little. So while this next idea will make many homeschoolers say "But but!" and dramatically raise skepticism, please give it a try. If you can't throw caution to the wind for the whole year, try a month or even two!

Let the kids read what they want to read

Seriously...

I said this before but I'm saying it again...

Do not assign another book. Or even genre. Or tell them to put away the magazines or comics.

Lifelong passionate readers are created by reading what they're passionate about. Not by assigning books.

There it is- the skeptical look and the "But But!!"

Research shows it again and again- let kids read what they want to read and they are far more likely to enjoy reading, pursue reading as a pleasurable hobby and to read outside of the classroom. Once you've made reading enjoyable, you can gently guide kids into other choices of topics or challenge levels.

If you cannot resist and absolutely must put some sort of assignment or requirement on it, I highly recommend The Reader's Odyssey: An Individualized Literature Program for Homeschooling Middle and High School Students as a way to help you choose great books, guide reading, writing and exploration.

Keep track of your child's pacing and reading. I keep a Google doc with the titles and dates he has completed the book. I also use this same doc to make recommendations to other families, to make sure I don't request the book from the library again and to compare how he's moving through genres and styles.

If you lose your motivation for this, think back to sitting in your dreaded high school or junior high literature class, listening to Billy read a paragraph as slow as possible in a book you hated. Remind yourself of the times you abandoned a book your friends all loved. That's your freedom as a reader! Give that freedom to your kids too!