40 Fall 2015 • The Literary Homeschooler www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
Here’s a fundamental truth about the universe: the homeschool parent never has enough time. Adding the
obligations of a classroom teacher to the
obligations of a spouse, a parent, a friend,
a neighbor and an employee is a crazy
idea, and if your decision to attempt this
feat in the coming year fills you with fear
and trepidation, you are not alone.
There is a solution, however, that effective homeschool teachers rely on every year. In fact, I encourage everyone to
try it. It involves being realistic about the
demands on your time and setting reachable goals for yourself and your students.
When it comes to reading and literature,
Simple, right?
But what if you only have time to read
one book with your student this year?
Should you throw your hands up in despair and enroll him in the local government school?
Well it’s up to you, of course, but let me
suggest that you might be missing a great
opportunity. You would be surprised at
how powerful that one lesson can be. In
fact, a well-designed discussion of a sin-
gle story can dramatically affect the way
your student reads all other stories for
the rest of his life.
This is because a good discussion focuses not only on the content of the book
at hand, but also on the structural and
stylistic elements that the book shares
with every other book in the world. This
means that engaging in a good discussion of a single great book can equip a
student to grapple with dozens of others
unassisted.
Remember the adage, “Give a man a
fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to
fish and he’ll never go hungry?” In a way, a
good literature discussion teaches students
to fish. By asking thought-provoking questions about the basic elements of fiction,
Making One Lesson Count
In fact, a well-designed discussion of a single story can dramatically affect the
way your student reads all other stories.
