LITERATURE LOGS | How I teach Literature WITHOUT a Curriculum in our Homeschool | Lit Logs

[@rachelsaunders3800]

I would love to see a “Lit Log” series or something similar - examples, updates, books, etc.! This is something I want to implement in our homeschool.

[@rachelbarnes5340]

Have watched this video multiple time, soo good...we are planning to utilize this year !! THank you

[@katiacleroux7376]

It is funny you brought this up. I grew up francophone in a french school and my English was horrid. In senior year (12th grade) our English teacher did this for our free read. I remember vividly walking into our classroom that day and it looked like a beautiful bookstore. She had gone out of her way to purchase beautiful books. We did similar projects. And at the end, she gifted us the books as we graduated. I still have it, and it opened my love of reading English lit.

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

That’s amazing!

[@timothyhelm437]

Love this idea! Will implement this into our upcoming school year. My middle school child is basically a reluctant schooler, lol. Every year, i research & try something new to try to help him not "mind" his schooling. I'll be using this for my high schooler as well! Looking forward to it! ~Liz

[@TawnyC123]

Found your video through the algorithm! I do something like this! My kids have an "everything binder". Within that binder is a section with a Reading Log and Narration Sheets. The sheets are different for different ages. There is a place for a short Narration and a Doodle or Illustration! This has helped me soooo much when a child wants to do a written narration or when Mom is too busy or an Oral Narration. These sheets also make a great place for Copywork for really young kiddos too! This is a printable so it's easy to just print and go! For Upper Elementary and Up - At the Beginning of each term I also create an attractive list of reading/book options for each subject. Kiddos know what the goals and expectations are for each subject. They have freedom to choose within the framework provided. If they would like a book or project or whatnot that's not on the list, they just need to bring it to me for approval. Super easy. Super convenient. Lots of flexibility. Lots of Project Based Learning and Child Directed Learning within a frame work!

[@cheriek3872]

It cracked me up when you were talking about a fun project being able to get in front of the class and talk about the book vs doing a book report. That would have been my nightmare in school lol! Is much rather do a book report than stand in front of the class 😂

[@bestlandhomeschool]

I know I already said it a year ago when i first came upon this video but, I’m rewatching it because this is such a good method. I implemented it in all our subjects, with all my kids and had wonderful results. Once again, thank you for sharing this.

[@BookclubwithB]

This video was a game changer! I can’t wait to utilize this in our homeschool! We are headed into year three of homeschool and I’m itching to ditch the box sets and no dive into good literature!

[@bestlandhomeschool]

New subscriber here. I’ve been homeschooling for 11 years and it’s hard to come by a really good video of something to help improve something or something really good to start doing. I really love this idea. Thank you for sharing.

[@SummerMeyers]

I'm going to watch this again and take notes. I have always had a selection of books that my kids can pick out throughout the year (besides the books they borrow from the library), but I haven't done much beyond that. This captured exactly what I have been looking for! Thank you!

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

Aw thanks so much!

[@homeschoolingthroughhighschool]

@@EverydayHomeschooler I will echo Summer. Saving this to watch again and take notes. You have some tips that I'd like to incorporate into what I'm already doing. Thank you very much. 👍

[@Libra10guti]

I almost spent unnecessary money on literature study curriculum, THANK YOU! 🙏 ❤

[@abbigailgutierrez6880]

This is making me rethink my way of literature. My daughter thought she couldn't read when she came home in 7th grade. She was always in the struggling class because she didn't test well. so I told her to just read whatever but she had to read. and now she is my most avid reader.... Im trying to do literature books with my son who just doesn't want to read but this is giving me ideas of how to change that up. Thanks!

[@mommykate3911]

I just wanted add that Brave writer has my favorite book lists!

[@SarahLaughed777]

Soooooo helpful!!! My daughter will be a senior next year and we are going to use a guide for literature, but I was trying to think of different things that we could do instead using a curriculum. This is it!!! Thank you so much! 🙏👼

[@aprillauman]

This is amazing. We haven't started officially doing "literature" in our homeschool, as we're still working on nailing down our foundational reading skills, but I can see how this could be started slowly and built into our homeschool as we continue to grow and develop! I am looking forward to using some of these ideas in our school time in a relaxed capacity, and hopefully seeing those things become a part of our literature/language studies!

[@karlyw.b.4125]

I highly suggest implementing while you’re learning to read. They can tell you about the book and you write it for them so they have great examples of writing and then the can illustrate.

[@hollytucker6463]

I absolutely love this idea!! I have a kiddo that hates reading and answering questions from your typical curriculum!

[@eneidafernandez4613]

I love this idea so much. I originally heard it from Homeschool of Belaire and thought it was so amazing. I have tried other things in the past and I feel like it just didn't work for what I wanted. Definitely doing this for our fourth-grade year. Thanks for sharing

[@ashleyruedy8670]

I love this idea. 😀 I want reading to be a joyful experience for my daughter. I struggled and hated reading for years. Will have to brain storm of how we want to implement this.

[@gr82bloved43]

I love your Lit teacher class story! This gave me a lot of great ideas !!! Thank you!

[@MyHomeYourHomeOurHome]

I used this in my first school classroom! My EL students LOVED the freedom to choose books, and it was a super easy way to differentiate according to reading levels. Applying this to homeschool sounds like it is working so wonderfully for you! ❤

[@thenapqueenohana661]

Amazing ideas and suggestions - thank you!

[@xTheresaVCx]

I LOVE this idea so much!!! We will definitely be adding this to our homeschool. I have been trying to think of ways to get my reluctant reader to love books again and I really think this will help. Thanks so much for the idea, Sarah! :)

[@MominTX]

Just what I was looking for thank you! Wanted to find a way to add literature but I’m a simple, student led way. Thanks for sharing!

[@garlandofbooks4494]

I’m so glad that you personally had success with reading after such a terrible introduction. I have been learning about the history of government schooling, and that “whole word method” you were taught with is actually not a new program, it’s been around for over a hundred years, and is repeatedly re-introduced under different names purposefully, as if it was a new program. You should look into Alex Newman and Crimes of the Educators - he has a book about it but also there’s KZbin videos of him summarizing some of the findings. He talks about the brain damage that can be measured on brain scans of using this method first rather than teaching children phonics - truly astounding! John Dewey was a huge supporter of this poor method or teaching reading, for reasons Newman expounds on. How wonderful you are teaching your children a better way! Your lit logs sound awesome, really very similar to Charlotte Mason narration that we’re doing :)

[@pianogirl345]

This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

[@jerilyn-ourhomeschooltable]

I love this! We use Sonlight readers, but I don’t make my daughter read in any certain order. She gets to pick and I just tell her to read a chapter during Quiet Time. She usually can’t stop at one chapter. 😂 She then switches to the book she picked on her own. 👍🏻

[@SmithsInTheMaking]

Same! She never follows the schedule, she wants to read more than what the day says to read. She is doing level 3 and 4 readers this year and I have had to buy her about 20 other books in the mean time. We looked at other companies for readers and have now added readers from Build your library level 3 to finish out the spring.

[@Nina.177]

I really enjoyed hearing about this method. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@jaclynbannister1877]

Wonderful video! Thank you for this. It was just the inspiration I needed ❤️

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

That’s great! Thank you!

[@bretannialeach7985]

Thank you for all the details. I think this method will fit our family so well!

[@lisalewis2456]

A wonderfully informative and inspiring video! I love your approach and am so excited to start using lit logs this week!!!

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

Aw thanks Lisa!

[@HomeSweetHomeschoolLife]

Your reading teacher sounds like a fabulous lady.

[@HomeSweetHomeschoolLife]

Thank you so much for this video. We are definitely adding in more narration this year.

[@aprilla7985]

I LOVE this! Thank you for sharing this.

[@cm6037]

This was SO helpful, thank you!

[@TK-jr1km]

Homeschool of bel air has a similar structure to reading logs. I'm trying out this method this year.

[@BaileyAcademy]

Thanks I plan to include more narration or notebooking.

[@FamilyStyleLearning]

I love this! We're planning on doing something very similar this year. Thanks for sharing.

[@ourevergreenhome]

Thank you for sharing, and such a thorough video of it too, it is really inspiring and helpful! ❤ I’m now a new sub!

[@anet8311]

This is gold, thank you for sharing!

[@cheriek3872]

Wonderful video! I really love the way you approach it!!

[@rmechelle4230]

Great idea! Thanks for sharing!

[@rrichards1210]

Great video, just what I needed to hear. I will start implementing this this week. I always loved reading but my daughter, although a good reader and will devour a book if it catches hers attention, would do other things if she had the choice - drawing being the main one. This is a great way to combine these things. Many thanks.

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

So glad it was helpful!

[@manasikhandpekar2907]

ohh it was very helpful, interesting and guiding

[@Lindseyzackman]

Thanks for this! I’ve been wanting to do something similar.

[@Alexia-rq3mj]

What a great idea!

[@thecupcakehatter236]

Thank you so so much for sharing this. I have so much to say, but it’s probably more than anyone wants to know, lol. But basically I am going into my fourth year of homeschooling and I keep getting these “crazy” ideas that I can’t shake. Then, later down the road, I end up finding out that this is an actual thing, lol. For example, novel studies and learning history through fiction novels, and such. I found a cool book called refugee and I read the first two chapters to my son while we were at the library. Now I feel like we should continue reading this book with the whole family (my other kids weren’t there at the moment) and do more research on the Nazis and Fidel Castro and things like that related to the book. 🤗

[@CalmintheChaosHomeschool]

Thank you for sharing!

[@laurenrasmussen7997]

How would this apply in high school? How do they learn about the different things like setting, conflict, lit analysis etc?

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

Well we’ve just started high school, but so far my kids have been able to learn those things through our writing curriculum (we use IEW and love it!)

[@TodaysJoys]

Love this idea!

[@logosrhemalego]

You may have mentioned in the video and I may have just missed it but how long does it take to do a lit log (a book) on average? Do you expect a certain content to be written in their writing? I assume all of these would vary depending on the ability and age. Thank you for this wonderful idea.

[@kristimartinez3295]

After my children became good readers, I wanted to know what else I should do to help them interact with their books. I do love this idea but I was considering buying a literature guide so that literary elements are taught. Do you teach this another way or maybe it’s focused on more in writing? I have considered focusing on a few as I read aloud. Maybe they aren’t necessary as long as they understand the story. I don’t want to kill their joy of reading.

[@kristimartinez3295]

Thank you, I really want to simplify my homeschool!

[@tracyat3wisemenhomeschool29]

Love this. Thank you

[@jerilyn-ourhomeschooltable]

I love your caffeine protein drink! ❤️ Looks yummy.

[@mmhillard81]

I loved this video and I am just in the middle of trying to expand our Literature world at home…. But I have a question. How do you balance an individual reading plan with a family read aloud plan? Which lists are more important to your house? Or where do you put your energy? I really like how they have more individual pride with their own lists, but I want to bring them all together to join in a project of fun for the family read alouds. Any ideas? I have all boys 15, 13, 8, and 5.

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

Personally I read aloud to all of my kids (currently ages 3-15) as a group during breakfast. I read while they eat and clean the kitchen. My school aged kids work on their literature logs during our quiet time hour in the afternoon. (Sometimes these pair with our group read aloud or with their own individual lists). We also read aloud to the younger kids at bedtime and the olders do free reading until they fall asleep.

[@homeschool.pray.repeat]

How long are they reading their lit log books a day? In middle school and then in highschool?

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

My older kiddos spend about an hour on literature each day (this includes reading and working on their lit logs)

[@almablinn9755]

I’m a brand new homeschooling mom this year and I love this idea! Thank you for sharing. My daughter isn’t the best reader, but she loves drawing so I think she will enjoy this. For our first one would you recommend she do this with a read aloud book instead of her reader so she’s not doing double work? Does that make sense. She is in the 6th grade.

[@EverydayHomeschooler]

Yes I think reading aloud is a great place to start!

[@almablinn9755]

@@EverydayHomeschooler thank you! Also I add vanilla ice cream flavored protein to my coffee in the morning. 😊

[@Old994]

Do you have separate art lessons that build skills for them to use in the illustrations? Or do they just grow through the practice of studying and copying illustrations?

[@brianandamysmith438]

I'm really excited about this idea. I tried to implement it this year without watching your whole video, but I realize I'm probably doing it a little bit wrong. But a question I have, which could be contributing to not feeling like I'm doing it correctly, is about how many books a year. Are you assigning to a 7th or eighth grader to read? My daughter's had a hard time keeping up with minimal narration in a log and I'm wondering if I've assigned too much. Also, she reads a lot on her own so I'm not sure if I should be counting that or just what I assign for school/ classic reading

[@homeschooledaroundtheworld4660]

OMG I was thinking to do a book fair with my 9th graders today because we have to change curriculum….again 😢

[@Alexia-rq3mj]

I really think you could make some money if you created a notebook that was made just for Lit Logs

[@wcalli63]

Love this idea!