We've started our first family read-aloud novel: Harry Potter (HP) and the Philosopher's Stone. CKW had started it on his own this year, but I'm a little bit nervous that the books may quickly get too dark for my comfort level, so I was able to successfully lobby for a 'one HP book plus film per summer' schedule, with a HP movie marathon at the end. I'm not sure how many summers I've bought myself here, but I do think that seven years old is too young for the disturbing themes in the latter novels in this series. I may have to revisit the schedule again in a few years though... Something tells me CKW isn't going to wait until he's fourteen to finish the series!
We are taking turns reading aloud and then discussing the novel using both the Novel Ideas Unit Study and the Literature In Teaching (LIT) study guide. The Novel Ideas guide is right about CKW's level, but the LIT guide is a bit advanced for him at this point in time. However, we both love HP and I can see us returning to the same book series again for more in depth study at a later date.
Visiting you from SHS :)
ReplyDeleteI agree - I'm not into censoring what my kiddos read, but the last couple of Harry Potters are quite on the darkish side, and I wouldn't be reading them to my 7yr old either. I like your 'summers solution'!