Opinion Poll: Storytime for the new book (after Preparing)

[mom2boys030507]

Hi Carrie,

As I read through the other responses, I am realizing that I like both options. I love to read about history yet I can see where it might get to be to much for my boys. I love the fact that I have multiple books to choose from in Beyond for story time. I am wondering if it would be possible to do the same in the next book. My thought would be that there is at least one book about the time period, with a warning if the content is intense or not God honoring, and then two or three others that would be good literature to read. I know that I find myself drawn to the books you have choosen as read alouds when I am looking for something to read to the boys out side of school time. I know that I can trust your choices and they will be good literature.

I will continue to pray for you as you are making this and so many other decisions about the new book.

Karen

[holyhart]

This one is hard....I absolutely LOVE history, and even when I'm reading novels, I generally read those that take place in historical settings, so my first thought is that I would love to see books that will tie into the history period that are still good reading without glorifying false gods or violence. However, if there are not, then of course I would prefer to have just good reading. Maybe it would be possible to add a few history tie-ins and have some that are not related? So that both sides of the coin are covered so-to-speak?

I also wonder if we should be sheltering them altogether from the knowledge of false gods. Please don't read that in a way that means we should expose them to anything that glorifies false gods and idols, far from it. We absolutely SHOULD shelter them from that. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, the bible is FULL of talk about false gods. How His own people repeatedly turned to false gods and idols made from their own hands. Infact, I was reading from Isaiah this morning and in the 5 chapters I read, I think all of them talked about false gods and the need to turn away from such things and turn back to GOD. So if God is not silent on these things, then I wonder if we should be silent on them? Of course I am talking about reading about them in a context that doesn't glorify but rather points to the need of the one and only TRUE LIVING GOD! At what age does that become appropriate? However, that might be the problem? That there aren't books written (for this age group at least) that convey that? I hope that this makes sense out of my own head.

I will also add that I am only on the Little Hearts program, so I have a long time before I get to the program you will be writting (at least it feels like a long time now...I'm sure once I get there I will think the time flew by!). And like others, I love the stuff you have choosen so far so I feel confident that you will again choose great stuff.

I will pray that God gives you wisdom and discernment in choosing your materials.

[momof2n2]

Kelly,
one of the choices in Beyond included "Missionary Stories with the Millers," and we chose that and it is a wonderful, wonderful book. There is exposure in there of groups that worship false gods and it was delivered in a fantastic way as it demonstrated how Christian missionaries ministered to them.

On a side note. We went to WDW this past fall and in Animal Kingdom they have the Asia section decorated as if there were shrines, idols, etc. My 7 year old picked up on it and wondered at our being there. It was a great discussion and I saw his convictions and honestly, he planted seeds in my heart where now I am wondering if we would ever go back. I love seeing God Word come back, definitely NOT VOID!

[crlacey]

I love the idea of having history read alouds as a tie in, but being in the middle of Little Hearts where the read alouds don't tie in is good too. Maybe like another one mentioned wither give the option with a warning for parents to decide which book to use. Or have a few that tie in where you can and have the other ones be fun. I'm noticing that Katie learns and retains more when it's tied together where she can make those connections. Then of course, doing the extra reading program would give her the choices of other not tied in books to read. Again, we are only in the middle of Little Hearts, so my opinion might be different when we get to that age.

[pjdobro]

Since we're just starting I can't speak from experience, but my gut feel is that we'll enjoy having storytime be an unrelated, fun story. I can see the benefit though of having the historical reading as well. I love the idea as having both as options and letting the reader choose, but I know that is more work for you to search out two sets of books. You do such a wonderful job of picking out quality literature that is a joy to read that I'm sure whichever way you decide to go, we'll enjoy the books

[jessyb26]

We have also just started with LHFHG. I love the fact that in my busy life I don't have to worry about appropriate literature for my daughter to read, Carrie has already picked out material that follows our convictions. So my suggestion is to make the story time non-historical (since there are more of these) and add in the appendix a list of appropriate historical books (for us history lovers). Then on the weeks there is a book that follows the history that is appropriate you can choose to add it that week or stay with the non-historical.

[holyhart]

Kelly,
one of the choices in Beyond included "Missionary Stories with the Millers," and we chose that and it is a wonderful, wonderful book. There is exposure in there of groups that worship false gods and it was delivered in a fantastic way as it demonstrated how Christian missionaries ministered to them.

On a side note. We went to WDW this past fall and in Animal Kingdom they have the Asia section decorated as if there were shrines, idols, etc. My 7 year old picked up on it and wondered at our being there. It was a great discussion and I saw his convictions and honestly, he planted seeds in my heart where now I am wondering if we would ever go back. I love seeing God Word come back, definitely NOT VOID!

That's exactly what I was trying to get at! In the book you talk about, it would obviously portray the false gods/idols as meaningless and empty, pointing them to where they need to look. Which could be a great catalyst to a conversation about what we, in this culture, tend to turn into false gods/idols and how careful we need to be NOT to do that.

Where as at WDW (I'm a bit slow...even with the mention of Animal Kingdom it took me a minute to figure out where you were talking about. ), it is sensationalizing their idols. Making it look like something "cool". Not the idea we want at ALL! But again that too could be a great conversation catalyst as to being careful what to 'sensor' ourselves from. So much in tv/movies and books (since that is the point of this thread) desensitize us to the worldly influences and make them look harmless and attractive instead of the vile junk that they are. Of course seeing something in the world is different from purposefully reading about it.

So back to the poll....I'm all for history stories pertaining to the lesson, even if they mention false gods as long as they don't exalt/glorify/make appealing the false gods. SInce that might be hard to find (not so much in adult christian fiction, but probably in adolescent fiction), then other books are great too. Fostering a love of learning and reading is also important.

[Mommamo]

Keep in mind that I only have little ones, so I don't yet know from experience, but I *think* I'd like a little bit of both. Some read alouds that are history related would be nice, but I think it's so important that they read some of the really great children's literature out there. I know that the earier levels and DITHOR cover a lot of the great books that are written for children, but there is so much fabulous children's literature that I would like to see that in this new guide as well.

[Jessi]

Even though I am only starting out, I feel that having literature choices that are unrelated and related to the historical topic would be good. Then parents can choose if they want to dig deeper into history or learn about something else. I completely understand what Kelly is saying about exposing them to false gods, not glorifying false gods. My husband and I constantly talk about how we want them to be grounded in faith and to grow up knowing that God is the one and only. But to do that we also have to show them the false gods of this world so that when they leave our home, they will see the lies for what they are and be able to do their best to avoid those things. Does that make sense? I like the idea of a disclaimer. No one could fault you for putting a disclaimer on some selections. We as the parents ultimately have to be the discerning factor in what exactly we feel our children should or should not read. Only we know if our children are old enough to handle the more difficult subjects like false gods and religions at 4th-5th grade, so putting some responsibility back on parents for choosing between selections isn't such a bad idea.

I trust your judgement on not including those things that will glorify other gods and false religions. You have such amazing selections for each program so I know no matter what we will not be disappointed.

But if you decide on only one or the other...I'd err on the side of UNrelated selections, just to spice things up. I am always looking for a little more spice in my life.

Carrie, thanks a million for all you do. Not that I'd ever want to do what you are doing, but I'd sure love to be a fly on your wall this year as you create this new program. This is so fascinating to me.

God bless!!!!

[Kathleen]

I think I would vote for unrelated here. But, I can see us absolutely loving it either way! We love all you prayerful work so far Carrie, and I'm sure that we'll continue to. I would say I agree with the other ladies that both would be good...but I'm not sure it would. I'm afraid that I'd want to read them all!

Kathleen

[holyhart]

I'm afraid that I'd want to read them all!

Me too!

[water2wine]

Carrie,

I would love related ones but I know what you are saying. I have looked deeply on my own for books of this time period when we were doing it on our own. Kids at this age should be doing DITHR and get the genre study there, so I would vote that if it is unrelated that maybe it could be themed instead (this may not even be a choice but I'll put it in anyway). Would it be possible to match the Bible portion of the study and or history in the Bible in some way either by actual story or character study or even just leading them closer to God in ways others turned against. In that way I guess it could be a mixture of both but they would still tie into the theme of the study. You could use the things that worked to tie into the history as well and tie the rest into more biblically connected things. I maybe was supposed to give a yes or no answer but I am just thinking in this time period because there is so much that goes against God that having more of what teaches them to know God more intimately would be nice as well. I think the ancients are an excellent opportunity to make them see why we need Christ so why not take advantage of that.

I know whatever you do will be great! And whatever you do we'll be using it. Thanks for letting us give an opinion.

[Allison TX]

Carrie, I have been thinking about this for a while. While I think it's nice to have history related read alouds, I also feel that we then miss so much really good literature that is unrelated to history. And when I consider that we may be using three HOD programs this year, I think having one read aloud that we could all enjoy would be a lot easier than trying to do three different ones that each relate to the history cycle. Just a thought.

Allison

[eazbnsmom]

I definitely want what my children read to be God honoring! I think that maybe you could do both......if you do find books that fit the time period and also meet your standards add those and when you can't add the unrelated books....then you are not always necessarily reading just about the period, but neither are you missing the truly good books that would go well with the history. Just my thoughts and $.02

K

[melzy71]

I have used the CM method of homeschooling for 11 years now and this is my first year of HoD.... that being said if you want to go the CM route with storytime she advised using books, stories and biographies from the same time period. I think that using books that go right along with history is ok for the history text but story time is for fun reading. Not saying that the history text isn't a fun read , I just think that storytime should be for fun adventures into the time period. My oldest son has read all of the Greek and Roman myths and loves them all but we know these are fairytales and veiw them as such. I think as children get to the 8-9th grade they need to know what the world believes and how it differs from us as Christians. This way when they grow up or hang out with friends that aren't Christians they know where the person is coming from and can witness to them accordingly. As for violence, as long as it isn't details gore, I don't have a problem with that either. After all the Bible has some horrific stories in Judges and 1&2nd Kings. We read through these when my oldest was about 14ish. I think that it is a good idea to have 2 sets of books maybe with a warning or maybe add 1 book here and there that is a little bit about the pagan gods and goddesses. I know every child differs and I will see how sensitive my other 2 are when they get to this age... they could be completely different and unable to handle things like this. I do think that we should talk and discuss other cultures and their beliefs with our children when they are old enough.

Thanks Carrie for all your hard work on such a great curriculum.