Anyone Have Challenges With A Book of Discovery?

[Lynn3ggb]

My dd is working through the WG guide this year. She has enjoyed most everything within the program with the exception of A Book of Discovery and The Sign Above the Door. With A Book of Discovery being one of the main resources used this year, it has been a constant, "fly in the ointment", so to speak. She dreads starting the WG Box when it is assigned. I thought it was just not her cup of tea, however my ds is starting to work the guide now and I am hearing the same tales of woe from him as well. The main complaints are that it is written in a disjointed an choppy way so they feel unable to narrate because by the time the reading is completed they seem to have no cohesive thoughts to put together.

It has become such a distraction that I found myself looking through the next guides to see if there may be similar books assigned in the main history threads which could cause similar discord. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this experience.

Also, If anyone has had input from their children about the Constitutional Literacy course in the US History guide, I would like to hear their thoughts on it. My dd is a senior this year and is working through it. She seems to think it presents less like a curriculum and more like propaganda material. (yes, I made the mistake of asking for her honest opinion )

On a side note: My dd (the one doing WG this year) came to see what I was doing and read this post as I typed it. She said I could let anyone who reads this know that reading Pride and Prejudice was one of the worst experiences of her life and she thought it would never end. You would think I would learn to stop asking their opinions !

Not trying to be negative. Just keeping real . We love HOD and have no plans on changing. Guess I just need to know if anyone else shares our quirks.

[LynnH]

A Book of Discovery is a challenging read. I have actually read it twice . My son struggled with it a lot at first, but around week 9 it got easier for him to understand and by about half way through he was doing fairly well with it. When he had a narration assigned he would usually pick out a favorite section and narrate on that and not the entire reading. Maybe that would help your ds if you tell him to pick one part of the reading to narrate on instead of trying to encompass it all. One interesting thing was that since A Book of Discovery used such high vocabulary it challenged my son to use higher level vocabulary in his narration. This was huge because vocabulary is not his strength. My son loved A Sign Above the Door, but I read that one aloud to him so that might have helped.

The history spines in the WH guide are much easier reads than A Book of Discovery. My son has not had any challenges with reading those. The lit books in the WH guide are wonderful, but they are challenging reads. Oh and I read Pride and Prejudice a few years ago at the same time my dd was reading it and I thought I would not care for it and ended up loving it. She liked it more than she thought she would, but again maybe because we were sharing the experience.

[Kteni]

Jane Austin is a aquired taste. We are Jane lovers here and DD is stoked to read P&P eventually. She read Emma after watching the movie and it was a tough read. Watching several of the BBC versions of Jane Austin films helped us become more fluent in how English was spoken then. It is similar to reading Pilgrims Progress or even the KJV; we found our minds needed to become accustomed to interpreting what is being said into how it would be said now. Bare in mind, we are a bit geeky here and have listened to Pilgrims Progress on audiobook 3x now and are unearthing real gems as we understand the characters conversations more with each run. We are loving it. I have no qualms about allowing my children to experience various media with a book as it has always proven to nurture their relationship with the book. They love to discover details in the book that were not part of a film and that shed light on a character or plot line.i remember doing Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew in G10, reading it was hard, watching Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton set the play on fire and I re read the play with deep interest. Just some thoughts. The more you acclimatize to a language, the more you can understand and enjoy.
Jane is not for everyone, a dear friend of mine thought it was not worth her time. She also does not like poetry but excels at science with her children. Everyone has things that spark interest and things they just have to do. But often, the doing can be helped with a spoon full of sugar. so to speak.

[Lynn3ggb]

@ LynnH,

Thanks for your response. I am relieved to know WH will have a better flow. I believe the reading challenges we encounter will be good for both of my dc, I just need to accept that it will be accompanied with a little complaining (as most difficult things are ). I would like to share that I have used your blog for inspiration and ideas more than once. I appreciate you sharing your and your son's journey. It has been a blessing to me. I am thinking of doing the same. I think there needs to be more High School experiences shared here to encourage family's who are beginning to use the almost completed line of High School guides.

@ Kteni,

My oldest daughter loves Jane Austin and Charlotte Bronte and strongly dislikes Shakespeare and any form of poetry (go figure), however the daughter mentioned in this post cringes at the very thought of all the authors, but loves to write poetry. I am neutral on Austin and Bronte, I guess. I can take their work or leave it. Nothing there to draw me or repel me. I really enjoy poetry and Shakespeare, however. Funny how each of us has such diverse preferences. Your ideas are great and I feel sure I will implement some of them. Thanks for the heads up on Pilgrims Progress. I will read that soon since it will be assigned in our next guide.

Blessings to you both!

[FiveLittlePeaches]

We just received our WH order yesterday that included the history and living library. My older kids sat around the table as I unwrapped the books and checked off the list. Mind you, my oldest is drooling at this point. Everyone is excited until one of my girls turns over A Book of Discovery, and sees that it's published by Yesterday's Classics. She was so disappointed!!! I just had to laugh, because I remember reading this post and thought I should share the joy, haha.

My feeling is, when the kids get to college, they don't get a choice of what books they get to read, so they might as well prepare now.