5 Ways NOT to Use a Living Book

I think the problem is that most of us went to school, where "binge learning/memorizing" for the test and spending a long time on material and then promptly forgetting it after the test is over was the norm. We also live in this world where we are told that more is automatically better. More material at once, more hours spend on it etc. etc. etc. As a language learner I see so many people bragging about how many hours they spend on x or y, especially during the lockdown. Then when homeschooling, you have many people, sometimes even traditional "school at home" homeschoolers tell you that your kids aren't studying enough if they aren't doing at least 6 hours of work every day. I had to learn the hard way (thankfully in my own personal studies, not homeschooling) that slow and steady really wins the race.

I thoroughly enjoy listening to your vlogs. Thank you for the wealth of knowledge you share on educating with the Charlotte Mason Method!

Sometimes I need a reminder and this was a great one! I have been completely forgetting the pre-reading reviews.

All very good points, just seems like good skills to follow for good learning.

Thank you for this. I have been struggling with narration with one of my children. Now, i know what I've been doing wrong

So glad I saw this I didn't know about previews luckily I'm on week 7 of our first year or doing charlotte mason so hopefully I didn't mess them up too bad .

Thank you for yet another succinct, helpful video.

Thank you for this! One question I've always had is what to do if my children can't narrate what we just read. In general, they pay good attention, but some days are harder than others. Neither one is doing their reading independently yet (my oldest will start with some of it next term), and I know we're supposed to require their best attention. But what about those hard days when their focus is on everything and everywhere else but our history lesson?

This was very helpful! Thank you! I was just wondering, how long should a passage be before I require narration from a 7 year old who isn’t used to doing narration? He doesn’t want to do narration and just wants me to read. Also do you have any tips to get him to do it without a fuss? I’m afraid he won’t want me to read to him as much if he knows he has to narrate.

Thank you for sharing!! Could you please go in more detail of what a CM exam week would look like for multiple ages/grades? Thanks!!

#3 was deep

Is it still important to summarise in some way at the end as a separate exercise, alongside regular narrations?

I thought you had a video on living math books (supplemental, not looking for a new curriculum). I know there are books like the Sir Conference series, but I'm looking for more. Do you have a list? Thanks!

Thank you for this video, it has been really helpful. May I ask, in doing narration for a portion of the book, should I read the portion to my child or should she read the passage on her own? She is an avid reader and however, the latter choice requires me to pre-read her books and often I don't have the time to do that before lessons due to other commitments. Many thanks.

When reading something like the Little Bear books, how often would you ask the child to narrate please? After every page, or a couple of pages or at the end of the chapter?

What about if you have an 8th grader? Do you read everything to them? Do you start with oral narration or should I have him do written? Not sure where to start with my older kiddos.

What do you recommend for me to add or be more consistent on with my child with memory disability? She really struggles with narration and retaining what we read.

Are there any living books available in other languages like Russian ?

If am I doing homeschool with two or more kids... How can I ask them to narration?

What do we do if they pay attention but don’t always understand what they read or what was read to them? We are fairly new to CM and some of the books are tougher reading than others. My son is 14 and sometimes struggles with understanding the concept or information with the harder books.