Using Humor for Learning Vocab

It's Not About The Teacher

A Book Club with Our Kids

I had a book club with my son all through elementary and Junior high school-at first because he was late to read, and then because I really wanted to discuss the stories,

and later because I wished to re-educate myself.  We had lots of conversations about symbolism, motives, personalities and plot. 

Our conversations went beyond the normal classroom discussion.  I was passionate that my son’s reading be a “talking” experience.

Would you have said that?  Would you have done that?  What do you think is going here?  Why do you think they going to do this? 

It offered a wonderful opportunity to share ideas, articulate different points of view, describe characters and review their actions-

in short, a great vehicle for exploring and learning about life.

The reading lists are coming home.  It might be difficult to read several books at the same time, if we have more than one child.  But we can still try to at least look through our children’s books and talk to each of our children about what they are reading. 

We can do it over dinner-go around the table and ask what they read that was neat, or boring, or take some incident from one of the books and discuss it. 

Our kids learn by talking to us. By talking they hear themselves think out loud.  By thinking out loud they learn to formulate ideas. 

By formulating ideas they learn to explain their opinions and form conclusions.  In short, they learn to write a coherent English paper.

Do not be concerned if your English isn’t good, or you cannot read as well as your child.  It is not about how much you know-

it is about getting your child to talk about what he or she has read.  All you have to do is be curious and ask how they feel about what they're reading.

I’d love to know. So, tell me part of the story.  And then what happened? Really!!?? Gee, how did you feel when you read that? Why?

How did that happen?  I can’t wait to hear what happens next.

A great way to start is simply ask about the title—even if they haven’t read enough of the book to have a full answer, they can suppose. 

Why do you think this book is called “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn”? Or, What do you think “To Kill A Mockingbird” means? 

They discover symbolism, and will start to look for it in other areas of their reading.

Discussing a book can be an excellent ice breaker, if you have a quiet child who does not verbalize a lot;

revealer, if you want to know what makes your child tick;

mentor, if you wish to communicate your values and philosophy.

And, it can be a lot of fun, especially if you pick out vocab words and use them in silly sentences!!!!

Have fun!

Margo@MomOpinion Matters

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