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How do you keep your children from reading ahead so that the material will be fresh and not "old news" to them when you get to the point in the guide that introduces the material? Or, do you just let them read the books as they come into the house?

Thanks!

If it's something we will be reading for school or something that we're reading for bedtime story time, I hide it or my 7yo reads way ahead.

Yes we have to. They go into what we call the forbidden cabinet. But I do have other books around that I connect or support what we are studying or just what I want the to learn in general in what we call our school room. Others have it as a dining room. They are free to browse these any time they are awake. I think that helps to keep them out of stuff a bit. I also put the read alouds there after we have finished them so they are free to read them again on their own if they wish.

I hide them. (Not the ones for LHTH though...for the little ones, I don't think it spoils anything to have them looking at the pictures in their Bible or the pictures in the devotional.) Anything else is off-limits until we use it with school.

Kathleen

Yes, absolutely! Otherwise the surprise isn't there and it would be just another book!

How does this work if your kids have ALREADY read (many times) the books? We are new to HOD, but I will need to buy VERY FEW books in order to do the program and most of the books my kids have already devoured and know well. They have talked with me about them, absorbed the facts, researched related topics, gotten additional books from the library, found MORE biographies about "supporting characters" in the books, etc...

Will it still be interesting to them?

I haven't gotten to the point of having to hide the books yet but they are up out of reach.

MommyMc - I think the activites will put the stories into a new light and context for your kids and it will still be very interesting for them.

MommyMc wrote:How does this work if your kids have ALREADY read (many times) the books? We are new to HOD, but I will need to buy VERY FEW books in order to do the program and most of the books my kids have already devoured and know well. They have talked with me about them, absorbed the facts, researched related topics, gotten additional books from the library, found MORE biographies about "supporting characters" in the books, etc...

Will it still be interesting to them?

Have your kids read all the books in Bigger, Carrie gives more choices for each genre in the appendix than just the Boy/Girl/Classic sets online. I saw 5 choices for one of the genres. Most have 4 choices I think, so hopefully you could find one they haven't read.

I keep most of the kid's books out on their bookshelf. I like that the children pick them up and enjoy reading them on their own time (of course my little one enjoys looking at the pics while big sister reads to her). Of course we still read our assignments for the day as scheduled, and dd sometimes ends up telling me the story - lol!
The only books I hide are those designated for dd's reading time, I'm afraid she will have dh read them to her and then I will not be able to accurately test her reading comprehension. These books go out on the shelf as she completes them, then she may re-read them if she wishes to.
I have a separate shelf upstairs where I keep teacher manuals, workbooks, etc...

water2wine wrote:Yes we have to. They go into what we call the forbidden cabinet.

I am just laughing out loud here picturing the "forbidden cabinet"! I cannot drink a Diet Dr. Pepper these days without staring at Indiana Jones riding on a rope across my can, and I couldn't help but imagine you, w2w, covered in cobwebs with khakis on, cracking your whip as the dc attempted to break into the "forbidden cabinet"!

We also have a forbidden cabinet, and as shown by my Eggleston Getaway post, we perhaps need it under lock and key this next year (or else I need to don a khaki outfit and arm myself with a whip... a very scary thought). I do think that it's nice to hide them away, just to keep the suspense there.

Oh, and great question MommyMc! If you've read some/many of the books before, I think you'll still enjoy them with HOD due to the freshness of the activities planned. Also, great books are just great to come back to... I've read my best-loved books many times over, often with only a small break between them - so if they're great books (and the ones in HOD are) I think it'll work out just fine revisiting them!

In Christ,
Julie