When my oldest reached kindergarten age, I decided it was time to formally design our family’s curriculum. I knew the topics we would focus on would fluctuate, and I purposely wanted to create the space to embrace the unpredictable nature of each moment. Setting a stable base helps facilitate that. I began with the family bookshelf.
I had months and months of Alaska’s dark winters to curl up by my theoretical fire and read. So read I did. Popular books come and go, so I wanted classics. I poured over lists of classic children’s literature. I read book after book, determining which ones taught the ideas that would be most important for our family. I bought piles of books, selecting our favorites, replacing editions, and donating perfectly lovely books if I didn’t feel quite fit. As the children grew, their tastes and insights helped fill out and cull the shelves.
The books on the shelf make up our daily educational fare. We don’t mandate which books the children should be reading for homeschool. Sometimes we make suggestions. The bookshelf is set up so that if the children are familiar with the books on the shelf, they have a solid foundation to pursue whatever path God has in store for them.
Our bookshelf is purposely and purposefully limited. We only limit our reading during school hours. Additional, seasonally-approved resources are also available to use at that time. After specified school hours, selected kindle books and library books are fair game.
I’ve heard it said that it doesn’t matter what children are reading, as long as they are reading. I could not disagree more. I feel that it is better for children not to read than to read an unworthy book. Emerson would agree with me. In The American Scholar, Emerson shares that nature is our first course in life. Books share the accumulated wisdom of the past. Our own action and experiences complete thought into truth. It’s a beautiful cycle.
Our books are organized into graduating degrees of depth. Picture books are at the bottom. Charlotte Mason gave me the idea that children should not have more books than they can learn to truly love, that fewer is better and I have found it to be so. Children that are actively reading, that eight to twelve-or-so stage, need a variety of topics in many broad fields. These books are on the next shelf up. As children mature academically, they start to narrow down their interests and talents to a few more select realms that require more in-depth study.
The whole shelf isn’t accessible to every child. Here the line is drawn a little more loosely. My twelve-year-old daughter knows that I love Pride and Prejudice. While Jane Austen sits right next to Anne of the Island on the shelves, my children know they need to save her for when she can be fully enjoyed. My daughter is fully capable of understanding the words in Austen’s books. The emotional and social nuances, however, are so beautiful to me, I ask my children to wait on this and other similar books until we decide together that they are ready for them. There is nothing like the magic of a first time read.
Having our core knowledge in one fairly stable set of shelves helps us take advantage of new learning opportunities that come along, knowing that we’ll come back to shelves before long. Each of the books on the shelf is like a trusted friend. We need to continue regular contact with our friends and our books to retain and build the relationship. Our children read and reread these books to deeply internalize them. I feel like this base is what gives them the love they have for so many other books beyond the shelf.
I am currently reading The Secret Garden to my nine year old. It’s one I used to read myself every spring since childhood. Reading it aloud with him has been such a joy. The older children were around when we read it as a family years ago. They have read it too many times to once again endure my attempts at broad Yorkshire, but I am having fun. Reading it to my son is a special time we enjoy together.
I love the books on our family bookshelf. My children love the books on our family bookshelf. I hope you have a collection of books you love as well. I hope you savor them. I hope you can’t wait for your children and friends to reach the stage when that perfect book can come into their lives and you can develop that mutual friendship, a circle of friendships that just keeps growing. Happy reading, friends!
Read more about our bookshelf, picture books for children, and books for readers.