Using Fiction in Homeschooling
Guest post by Rachel Harris
Hello, my name is Rachel, and I am a bookaholic. There is
nothing I love more than losing myself in the world of story. Okay, maybe that’s
not true, I do love chocolate….and Diet Mt. Dew. But seriously, how awesome is
it that I can simply break the spine of a new book-- or power up my lovely pink
Kindle—and transport myself to another time, another country, another age, or
even another gender?
Along with being a bookaholic (and an author), I’m also a
homeschooler. My princesses are six and seven and we’ve been homeschooling them
since they were one and two years old. They both taught themselves how to read
by the age of four and now they never leave the house…or their bedroom…without
a book in hand.
I love being able to pass along my love of reading to my
children, and I do that by stuffing our shelves with books filled with rich
words and settings, characters that exude strength and imagination, and stories
that challenge their minds. My six-year-old has worked her way through the
entire Ramona series and she loves reading collections of poetry and pretty
much any book that has anything remotely to do with fairies. My seven-year-old,
on the other hand, is my Greek mythology buff. She reads Percy Jackson and
Goddess Girls and collects collections on all the myths. She’s my own personal
resource on all things mythology.
Another way I encourage their love of reading is by not only
feeding their interests and encouraging them in everyday life, but by using
story and fiction in our day-to-day homeschooling. Instead of using dry
textbooks, written by several people regurgitating tired, boring facts, we use
books written by one or two authors who are wildly passionate about the
subject. Then, we follow those readings with visual-heavy encyclopedias from DK
and Usborne. We listen to songs to help memorize facts and bring the material
even further to life. And we always have read aloud time.
Yes, the girls have their individual books they read daily
(most likely hinting on our school theme/topic), and they have private reads
that are totally delight-directed, but along with that we gather together every
day on the sofa—regardless of Mama’s writing deadlines—and I read a chapter…or
two…or three from a book. These are the classics that no child should be
deprived of, books like The Cricket in Times Square, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Gooney
Bird Greene, Homer Price, Tales of Robin Hood, and The Door in the Wall, along
with fun, new books like Detectives in Togas, or books about real people who
did amazing things like Gladys Aylward and George Muller. And yes, these are
just some of the books that will make up our upcoming school year.
What has all this reading and exposure to great writing done
for our family, besides making us a household of readers? Well, it made me a
writer. After rediscovering my own love of reading two years ago, I decided to
write my own book. And my debut hits shelves this September, My Super Sweet
Sixteenth Century with Entangled Teen, and I have two more books coming in
2013, A Tale of Two Centuries and Rearview Mirror.
My children are also storytellers. My oldest writes poetry
and is forever coming up with complex stories to tell us at dinner time,
prompting her father and I to issue the constant suggestion to take out a
notebook and write it down. And my youngest, though she has a vivid imagination
in her creative play, prefers not to write but to use her spare time to act out
all the stories we read together. She is never without a literary imaginary
friend in tow, and she loves dressing up like her favorite characters.
And finally, reading has seeped into other areas of our
lives. My girls can never just watch a movie or television show. They want to
discuss the black moments and turning points, the inciting incidents and
climaxes. And our debates on motivation and character arcs are nothing if not
entertaining.
I’m so grateful for the written word and all that it has
brought into my life, and I am passionate about kindling that flame in my
children and then fanning it to a burning inferno that will last for the rest
of their lives. Great fiction does this. It brings families together, it
expands imaginations, and it helps us explore things otherwise impossible.
About the author:
As
a teen, Rachel Harris threw raging parties that shook her parents’
walls and created embarrassing fodder for future YA novels.
As
an adult, she reads and writes obsessively, rehashes said embarrassing
fodder, and dreams up characters who become her own grown up version of
imaginary friends.
When
she's not typing furiously or flipping pages in an enthralling romance,
you can find her homeschooling her two beautiful princesses, hanging
out with her amazing husband, or taking a hot bubble bath…next to a pile
of chocolate.
MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY is her debut novel. She did have her own fantabulous Sweet Sixteen in high school. Sadly, it wasn't televised.
On the precipice of her
sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an
extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and well-meaning
father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy,
is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers.
But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . .
. right into Renaissance Firenze.
Thrust into the
sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future
items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and
protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist
Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat
realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an
unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore.
Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?
Rachel Harris grew
up in New Orleans, watching soap operas with her grandmother, and
staying up late sneak-reading her mama's romance novels. Today, she
still stays up late reading romances, only now she does so openly. 
