All About Prereading

We started our Term 2 two weeks ago. A great way to prepare before starting is thru prereading.

Prereading is not a must in a CM Education but it is a helpful tool in teaching our children. It is part of being prepared for the lesson. Having prepared in this way is really empowering to us Mommas!

I don't always preread, but I'm actually driving myself to it. I like to be more self-disciplined in my time management and get to it all, but I'm still working on that habit. Prereading is so important yet so time-consuming, to be honest. :)

Let me share what I've learned about prereading and how I do it in our homeschooling.

HOW TO PREREAD

Basically, I just read ahead of my student. I read a week's worth of reading schedule. Ideally, I would love to have it on Fridays since that is the last day of our homeschooling. But if I'm not able to do a week's reading, I read at least a day ahead of him.

I usually have a notebook with me where I write notes. I document key facts, names, places for mapping, vocabulary words and timeline entries. I also record quotes that speak to me and later use it for either dictation or copywork. It's also a time for me to divide the reading if it's too and to make discussion questions. During narration, I just pull out my notes and refer to it. 

Some books are read alone by my son, so I need not preread those. I read aloud difficult books and I started my son to read aloud a book to me, these greatly help ease the load.

WHY PREREAD?

Prereading can help to engage with narrations. I noticed if I don't preread, we do not have a valuable conversation.

Part of a CM education is the idea of The Grand Conversation or to have e meaningful conversation. Prereading helps you to be prepared for the lesson and have questions ready. Of course, you do not want to lose the opportunity to share those grand conversations with your child. I also get to enjoy and benefit from those books as well.

We are not doing prereading to see if a certain book is for us because the work of book selections has been done for us by the AmblesideOnline board. Aren't we blessed?

WHAT IF I'M NOT ABLE TO PREREAD?

At times I am not able to do it, I need to read aloud the book to my son. We discuss, address any "concerns" and discover things together as we read.

Don't worry, I myself continue to have a difficult time staying ahead of my student but that's ok. I learned from other CM/AO Moms to trust the curriculum, so be gracious to yourself if you are a struggling Momma.

So there, I hope you learned from this post. If you have other ideas, feel free to share by leaving a comment below.