Sarah Mackenzie (00:10):
Hello, hello, Sarah Mackenzie here, and it’s time for a party. The Read-Aloud Revival is 10 years old. Can you believe that? 10 years. That’s a long time to have a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh.
Sarah Mackenzie (00:28):
And you know what? We’re not slowing down a bit. We’re having way too much fun for that. Today on the show, I wanted to celebrate with you. So we’re doing a 10-year celebration, and here’s what we’re going to do. First of all, I’m going to count down Casey Kasem style.
Casey Kasem (00:46):
Welcome to America’s Top 10.
Sarah Mackenzie (00:48):
Our all time top 10 episodes of the Read-Aloud Revival in the first 10 years. First 10 years. Don’t you like that optimism? The top 10 episodes from our first 10 years, and cue the celebration. I hope our audio producer, Sean, has some fun with the sound effects in this episode. Knock yourself out, Sean.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Oh yeah.
Sarah Mackenzie (01:15):
I am in a party mood today. I also have a fun celebratory giveaway for you. We are giving away 10 exclusive Read-Aloud Revival book bags. You know you love them. They’re beautiful, they’re lined, they’re sturdy. They have an inside zipper pouch for your library card.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Practically perfect in every way.
Sarah Mackenzie (01:37):
They’re also not available to purchase anywhere currently, but we’re giving away 10. To who? Well, 10 people who leave a podcast review. And if you think, oh no, I already left one six months ago, don’t worry, you can enter. You left a podcast review. If you haven’t left a podcast review, you can do that by April 30th. Whether you did it before or you’re doing it fresh, if you want to enter for a chance to win a book bag, go to readaloudrevival.com/review. You’ll see all the directions there for how you can enter to win one of those 10 library bags. Okay, readaloudrevival.com/review. Okay? Head there and that’s where the directions are.
(02:23):
Without further ado, let’s get to our top 10, shall we? Coming in at number 10 of our top 10 episodes in 10 years, is Read-Aloud Revival episode 145 with Alan Jacobs, The Importance of Reading at Whim and Developing your Own Taste.
(02:45):
Now, my guest for this episode was Alan Jacobs, the distinguished professor of humanities in the Honors Program at Baylor University. He’s also the author of a book I love called The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Several others that I really enjoy as well, How to Think, Breaking Bread with the Dead. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, though, I think remains my favorite.
(03:08):
It was such a delight to have him on the show. We talked about all the shoulds that often trip us up as readers and parents and educators. So in this episode, Alan invites us to read at whim and develop our own reading taste, and then to raise kids who do the same. Here is a little snippet from the episode.
(03:32):
I just finished rereading The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction for, I think it was my fourth or fifth time, I can’t quite remember. I loved it as much as ever. And I would just love to start our conversation with this idea of reading at whim, which is, of course, central to the book. So can you tell us what you mean by reading at whim?
Alan Jacobs (03:51):
Sure. It’s actually a phrase I get from a poet named Randall Jarrell, who says that in one of his essays. It really stuck with me. I think the main reason it stuck with me is I’ve taught literature for more than 30 years now and had so many wonderful students. And more times than I can count, I’ve had a student come into my office, usually in his or her senior year. Let’s say she. She’s anticipating life after college and she’s so worried that she won’t know what to read. That she’s had all of these years in which she’s had teachers to tell her what to read and then now she’s about to graduate and she’s going to be on her own. Oh no. So she would say to me, “Can you give me 10 books that every intelligent person should read, or 20 books, or 100 books?”
(04:53):
I would always say, “Read at whim. Read what you want to. You’ve had all of these years of being told what to read.” And the answer would almost always be something like, “Yeah, but what if I read junk? What if I read stuff that’s not really good?” I said, “Well, do that for a while. Read stuff that’s of no literary value for a while. If you care about the books that you’ve read in class, you’re going to come back to that, and you won’t exist on a diet of junk food forever. But give yourself a chance to take some of the pressure off and just go and read.”
(05:33):
It was so funny because their first response would be, “I can’t do that.” And then their second response would be, “I’m now so liberated.”
Sarah Mackenzie (05:43):
Yes.
Alan Jacobs (05:43):
And that was always wonderful, to be able to say, “No, it’s okay. It’s okay.” And so many students have written back and later said, “That was the best advice anyone ever gave me. Read at whim.”
Sarah Mackenzie (05:54):
Oh, wow.
(05:55):
Listen to the whole episode and you’ll hear why it’s important to develop your own taste and to let your kids do the same. You’ll hear the value of reading books that don’t bring you joy. Why should we do that? Why should we make time for that? And Alan’s answer to the question, what is reading for? Oh, man, that part was really good. So scroll in your podcast app to episode 145 to find it, or just go to readaloudrevival.com/145.
(06:36):
Okay, ready for number nine? Number nine on our top 10 list. Number nine is episode 162, Why and How Reading Aloud Will Change Your Children’s Lives Forever. In this episode, the Australian icon Mem Fox joined me to talk about the unique gift that reading aloud can offer us. This chance to read together, to connect, to help our kids fall in love with books, what does that afford our kids? Why does it change their lives?
(07:14):
I’ll tell you, Mem Fox is Australia’s most celebrated author. She’s the creator of many books, too many picture books to count, honestly. She’s a giant advocate of reading aloud, as you’ll hear, and she was someone I wanted to talk with for a long time. So on this episode we talked about how and why reading to our kids changes their lives forever. Here’s a little taste from the episode.
(07:41):
In the book you talk about how as parents, we don’t need to be reading teachers to help our kids learn to read. And you say this, “It’s precisely the laid back, hang loose, let’s have fun, relaxed, and comfortable role that is so powerful in helping children first to love reading, and then to be able to read themselves.”
Mem Fox (08:03):
Exactly. My dad was a very fine educator. I adored my dad, but I also admired tremendously the way he taught and the philosophy that he had about learning. One of his little sayings that he used to remind us of, was, “A laughing child likes learning.” One reason why a laughing child likes learning is because you can’t be tense and laugh at the same time. If you’re tense, you can’t learn. If you’re laughing, you can’t be tense. So if you’re laughing, you are much more able to learn, and there’s so much laughter and sweetness and relaxation and fun and humor and gorgeousness around reading aloud that children pick up in enormous amounts. They hear the words at the same time as they’re looking at the words. They’re picking up the combinations of letters that make different sounds, but it’s not being picked apart in a boring fashion. It’s just happening.
(09:07):
I’m not saying that every child learns to read by just being read to. I would never, ever, ever say that. But what we as parents and grandparents and carers are doing for the children is making them open to the things that teachers will later try to teach them. The best thing that my grandson has had happen to him in math, which is not his strongest point, obviously comes from a very language rich family, so that’s fine, but the math is not good.
(09:40):
He’s about 10 at the moment. Prior to this, it has been a terrible struggle because of the tension associated with it. The absolute best thing that his divine teacher has done for him this year is to remove the tension. Make him relax. Just go with the flow. Enjoy. See what you can do. Don’t get uptight. And the learning is happening because of that, because the tension has gone.
Sarah Mackenzie (10:07):
Okay, you can listen to the whole episode at readaloudrevival.com/162, or just find episode 162 in your podcast app. You’ll hear the magic that happens when kids and parents curl up to read together, what reading aloud does for parents, not just kids, and of course, Mem’s favorite books to read aloud. It’s a good one.
(10:36):
Okay, moving right along. We’re at number eight in our top 10 of the first 10 years. Number eight is episode 219. Yes, you should read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter. Listen, when a book is this good, I’m compelled to make a whole podcast episode about it. The Long Winter is the sixth book in the Little House on the Prairie series, first published in 1940. It’s an autobiographical novel based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s experience in Dakota Territory during the severe winter of 1880 to 1881 when she was 14 years old.
(11:21):
This book is, I think, one of the best children’s novels ever written, and I think it gets short shrift in the Little House series. Such claims, right? Well, if you haven’t even read the rest of the Little House books, I still think you want to read this one, but you probably want to read them all in order, honestly. Anyway, allow me a chance to convince you in this episode of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast. Here’s a little snippet from it.
(11:50):
“It was indeed a blizzard, the first of many. The winter of 1880 to 1881 was in fact one of the worst winters on record in the Dakotas. The first blizzard came in early October, and by Christmas the trains had stopped running.”
Cherry Jones (12:16):
“The blizzard winds had blown earth from the fields where the sod was broken and had mixed it with snow packed in so tightly in the railroad cuts that snowplows could not move it. The icy snow could not melt because of the earth mixed with it, and men with picks were digging it out inch by inch. It was slow work because in many big cuts, they must dig down 20 feet to the steel rails.
(12:38):
“April went slowly by. There was no food in town except the little wheat left from the 60 bushels that young Mr. Wilder and Cap had brought in the last week of February. Every day Ma made a smaller loaf and still the train did not come.”
Sarah Mackenzie (12:59):
That blizzard kept those pioneers isolated in the West without trains until May. And the way Laura tells this story in The Long Winter is unmatched. Her pacing and storytelling are simply exquisite. You’re hearing snippets of the audiobook here on the podcast, that’s narrated by Cherry Jones and produced by Harper Audio. I want to tell you, those audiobooks are by far and away my favorite way to read all of Laura’s books.
(13:31):
I didn’t actually read any of Laura’s books as a child. I didn’t know they existed, honestly. They just weren’t a part of my childhood. They were not a part of my world as a young reader, but that didn’t diminish the joy and love I have for them now as an adult, or the relish of reading and diving into the entire series with my own six kids. I’m not sure how many times at this point we’ve listened to the audiobooks. So many times. I love them so much, and I am not alone there. Listen to what some Read-Aloud Revival Premium members have to say.
RAR Premium Member (14:04):
I have such fond memories of reading the Little House books as a kid, and I remember The Long Winter being the one that I stayed up late in bed reading it into the night because I just needed to know what was going to happen. And then years later, I had a repeat on that. As my son was growing up I read the series with him out loud, and when we got to that book, we were loving it so much that the rest of the family jumped in on it and we just had to keep reading.
Sarah Mackenzie (14:35):
You want to listen to the full episode and you’ll hear what makes Laura Ingalls Wilder’s writing so uniquely masterful. Why rereading these particular books will uncover new layers. New layers of the story, but also new layers of yourself, and also, how to handle the troubling and problematic content in books. And yes, there are some in the Little House books. We talk about it. You can hear it all in episode 219. So scroll to that one in your podcast app or go to readaloudrevival.com/219.
(15:18):
Next up, number seven. 161, Becoming Your Child’s Mentor and Awaking Wonder. She’s an RAR guest favorite, we all love her. I’m talking, of course, about Sally Clarkson.
(15:39):
What would happen if you decided to be your child’s mentor rather than their teacher? If you awakened their wonder and curiosity so they become the kind of people who thirst for knowledge and understanding? And when you’re doing that, you fall in love with homeschooling your kids?
(15:58):
In this episode, Sally Clarkson and I discussed how she translated her own boredom with traditional education in order to find a different path for her own four kids, and of course, the rather fantastic results of those choices. So if you ever wonder whether homeschooling “works” or it gets good results, you probably want to listen to this episode. It’s an encouragement. It’s an inspiration to have a year of awaking wonder in your kids. Here’s a little bit from the episode.
Sally Clarkson (16:30):
I look at history, and Michelangelo was mentored. I look at history and I think, oh, God made us to be relational people, and when we can be in the company of somebody who loves me, believes in me, and is growing along beside me, I didn’t know all these things when I first became my children’s mentor, but we learned it together. Because as I was reading them books, I finally became educated. A mentor is somebody who understands that your relationship with your child and the way that you believe in them, speak to them, honor them as a human being, draw out their unique strengths, that is really what we are called to do as parents. It’s really based on, who are you? Do you have excellence to draw out of? Are you filling up your cup? I’m always talking about tea parties, you know?
Sarah Mackenzie (17:33):
Yeah, I know.
Sally Clarkson (17:35):
When you put something inside of a teapot, what is inside of it is what is going to be poured out. A mentor is focused on the action, the energy that it requires to speak forward to garner this trust to coach.
Sarah Mackenzie (17:54):
So you said a teacher is going to cover a certain amount of material or a certain topic. What I think I’m hearing you say is that a mentor uncovers it, so it’s like uncovering it together. Instead of saying, “Okay, this morning, it’s Tuesday morning at 10:00, which is when we do history, so I’m going to cover the causes of the Civil War. That is what we’re going talk about today.” Instead, a mentor sits on the same side of the table, metaphorically speaking, and says, “Let’s find out together.”
(18:24):
It’s a good one. In the full episode, you’ll hear how we can raise lifelong learners who are not afraid to tackle big questions, big obstacles. You’ll hear how to make your home a place of a resource for your kids, and you’ll hear the difference between being your child’s teacher and being their mentor, and that’s an important shift to make. That’s episode 161. So in your podcast app, look for episode 161, or just go to readaloudrevival.com/161.
(19:03):
All right, we’re on to episode number six. This is number six from our top 10 episodes in the first 10 years. Read Books, Go Outside: Simple Homeschool Nature Study. This is episode 222.
(19:22):
Homeschool nature study can be an intimidating subject. It often carries a lot of expectations. I think it’s something most of us want to do, but it’s also really easy to push it to the side because we don’t always have the energy to tramp around the woods with a watercolor set. So in this episode, a couple members of the RAR team and I asked, how could we simplify homeschool nature study and make it more likely to happen? Could it really be as simple as reading a book and doing an activity? Yes. The answer is yes. That’s the spoiler. We made a brand new book list and activity guide that is killer, and you totally want it. Listen into a little part of this episode.
Kortney Garrison (20:10):
So I was wondering, how could we simplify nature study? Because if it’s simpler, it’s more likely to happen. Could nature study be as simple as reading a book and doing an activity together? This brand new book list came right out of those questions.
Sarah Mackenzie (20:26):
Yeah, we were going to make a book list, and then you said, “I wonder if we could pair it with a very simple activity?” And this idea of simple, but bookish, this is 100% my love language. This is all the things that I want to do. So actually, what we did is we selected 12 books for each season of the year, and each book is paired with a very simple activity. I really think the simplicity is where this book list and activity guide shines, because it makes it really obvious that we really can keep things super simple. Like you said, Kort, “We don’t have to go water coloring in the mud.” Exactly. You can if that’s your jam, but you don’t have to to make these meaningful memories and give our kids a rich educational experience.
(21:10):
Yeah, you really want that book list, by the way. It’s a book list and activity guide. You can go to the episode readaloudrevival.com/222, or just find 222 in your podcast app. You can also just text the word nature to the number 33777, and I’ll send that guide to you right away. You want to listen to the whole episode to hear why we chose 12 books per season and why you don’t actually need to read them all, how we paired books and activities and why we chose the ones we did. For example, if you’re not gifted at jam making, we have some simpler ideas and we talk about it, and also how the guide brings the framework of know, do, and love to homeschool nature study. We talk about it on that episode. It’s a good one. So go take a listen.
(22:08):
Okay, we’re moving to the top of the list. We’re at number five in our top 10 from the first 10 years. Episode 164, Our Favorite Way to Read Through History. This one is similar to the last, actually. In the last one we are talking about nature study. In this one we’re talking about reading our way through history using primarily picture book biographies.
(22:38):
Now, this episode has a pretty enormous and pretty amazing book list and printable. It includes tips for using picture book biographies in your homeschool with kids of all ages. It includes open-ended questions to discuss them. It includes ideas for how to use these books even with older kids and high schoolers. It is an amazing resource. Have a listen to a little sample from the episode.
Kortney Garrison (23:07):
You might be wondering why we would use a picture book biography. Well done picture book biographies contain several different components. The text, of course, but also the illustration, the design of the book as an object itself, how it’s shaped and what it looks like, and then something called back matter.
(23:24):
Let’s talk about each one of those in turn. Let’s start with the text. Picture books are written with quality language that elevates the text above what we normally find in research or in our everyday speech.
Sarah Mackenzie (23:37):
I don’t know, this is one of my favorite things about a really good picture book biography, is a lot of times they’re delicious to read out loud, the language is so playful and interesting. Okay, so I want to give an example. This is a new picture book biography. I’m going to hold it up. I know our podcast listeners can’t see it, but you two ladies can. This one is called Jonas Hanway’s Scurrilous, Scandalous, Shockingly Sensational Umbrella. It is a picture book biography about Jonas Hanway, who was the first British man to use an umbrella in England. Just consider this. I’m going to read the first few pages.
(24:13):
“London was a rainy place, no matter which way you said it. On some days it drizzled, on others it mizzled, on others it pelted and showered and spat. When that happened, the only options were to stay indoors, travel by coach, or just get wet.
(24:32):
“By 1750, the people had gotten used to it. ‘It’s just what we do,’ they said. Jonas Hanway did not agree. He was a grumpy man who disliked change as a general rule. When something became popular that he didn’t like, he was never quiet about it. But there was one thing that Jonas liked less than change, and that was getting wet. On rainy days, he would pull on his thickest boots, button up his sturdiest coat, and throw on his largest hat. Yet no matter how fast he walked or which route he took, when he arrived at his destination, his socks were soggy, his shirt was soaked, and his wig looked like a wet cat. ‘This simply won’t do,’ he said. So he left London and traveled the world searching for a place where it never rained, until he came to Persia. And there, in the court of the Shah, he saw something strange. It was scurrilous, scandalous, shockingly sensational. Or was it?
(25:39):
“In reality, it wasn’t so strange. Umbrellas were ancient. They could be found in cities all over the world, but not in London. The people of London thought they were silly and foreign and frilly. ‘It’s not what we do,’ they said. Jonas Hanway did not agree. So on one particular mizzling, drizzling, pelting, showering, spitting day, a scurrilous, scandalous, shockingly sensational thing happened. Jonas Hanway stepped out of his house on Queen Square with an umbrella.”
(26:14):
In the full episode you’re going to hear what makes picture books special, what makes them a unique learning tool. You’re going to hear the best ways to read them and use them in your homeschool. You’re going to hear how picture book biographies help us answer a very important question, so what? It’s a really critical question and we talk about it. We unpack it in this episode. Where do you listen to it? Well, it’s episode 164. So find episode 164 in your podcast app, or go to readaloudrevival.com/164.
(26:59):
Okay, for number four in our top 10 list… he’s back. A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind. This is RAR episode 163. Alan Jacobs is back. That professor at Baylor, he got two spots in our top 10. Of course he did. I love Alan Jacobs so much. This time he came to talk about a tranquil mind. Any chance you want one of those? I do.
(27:33):
On this episode of the Read Aloud Revival podcast, Alan and I talked about how readers can give themselves the gift of a more tranquil mind by reading old books. Wait, reading old books? Yes. Yes, in fact, I have a feeling this episode is going to challenge and expand your own expectation for what reading old books can do for us in the here and now.
(28:02):
I like to describe Alan Jacobs as one of my favorite thinkers. If you listen to this episode, you’ll know why. He talks in this one about why we can benefit from reading old books right now more than ever, and I think his reasons will surprise and delight you, especially if you’re feeling a little frayed by everything in the world demanding your attention. Here is a little sample from the episode.
(28:27):
Well, even your subtitle of your book, which is A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind, there’s not a single person listening to this podcast who doesn’t long for a more tranquil mind. And you name the opposite of that tranquility in your book as twitchiness. You write, “That constant low-level anxiety at being communicatively unstimulated, which seems so normal now that we may be slightly disconcerted when it’s absent.” And I’m thinking about the way that you’re talking about being blown by the storm of social media, and we all feel this way. In fact, in the margins of my book, I drew a little sketch note of a woman trying to hold onto this flagpole while she’s being blown by the wind because that is exactly what you feel like when you’re on social media. You feel like you’re tossed by the wind and this temporal bandwidth. Or this personal density that we need is a way… I think you called it a port in a storm.
Alan Jacobs (29:22):
Yeah. The phrase about a tranquil mind, about having a more tranquil mind, actually comes from the ancient Roman poet Horace. Horace wrote that while he was living more or less in exile in the countryside. Horace was someone, he was a Roman, and he loved Rome and he loved the hustle and bustle of it. He loved the energy of the city, but he found himself at some point in political disfavor. He had a patron who bought a farm for him out in the countryside and he moved out there. He really didn’t have much of a choice at first. He just needed to escape. And then once he got there, he thought, wait a minute, I’m actually happier than I was. He starts thinking about the fact that he doesn’t have as much stimulation, but he has more tranquility. And he says that one of the ways that he gets tranquility is by sitting in his farmhouse, and he says, “And consulting the writings of the wise.” He’s got his books.
(30:40):
And it’s not just being in the countryside, it’s also being able to read these people who are not from his own time and his own place, and they settle him down and they give him a little more perspective on things. He’s still interested in Rome. He’s very interested in what’s happening. He writes to his friends who are still in Rome and he says, “Hey, tell me what’s going on.” But he’s not as vulnerable to the sudden ups and downs, the crazy mood swings that he went through when he was in the city and constantly either climbing the political ladder or falling off the political ladder. And I thought, boy, that’s Horace. He’s kind of our model. This is what we need.
Sarah Mackenzie (31:24):
In this full episode you’re going to hear more about your own tranquility versus our own twitchiness. You’re going to hear how to read books that contain troublesome and problematic ideas, because frankly, old books tend to do that quite a lot. And you’ll also hear what it means to read with generosity. It’s an excellent episode and it’s episode number 163, so you know what to do. Go to readaloudrevival.com/163.
(32:01):
Okay, we’re at the top three. Are you ready?
Speaker 12 (32:04):
Fantastic.
Sarah Mackenzie (32:06):
The top three RAR episodes of the first 10 years. Drum roll please. Number three is Read-Aloud Revival episode 220, Essentialism for Homeschoolers. In this episode, we talked about the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown, especially as it relates to homeschooling. What might it look like to pursue essentialism if you’re a homeschooler? How can we do less and get better results? I’ll tell you what, this book is easily one of the few books that I can say has completely changed my life. I would list it in my tippy top favorites or tippy top most formative. Okay, here’s a sample from the episode.
(33:00):
That reminds me of something that my husband, Andrew, and I were just talking about, and that is… What you were just saying is we don’t give ourselves enough credit for the progress. And kids even. We don’t give our kids enough credit for the progress they’ve made. And I don’t remember where I heard this or what I was reading, but the idea was you should compare to your baseline, not to your ideal. So when you’re trying to assess how are we doing with fill in the blank, whether that’s handwriting or it’s reading, like phonics, or it’s essay writing, or it’s math, or whatever it is, we tend to go, well, compared to where we, in our imagination, think a 10th grader is supposed to be in their essay writing, based on no actual human 10th graders that we know, by the way, we always will fall short.
(33:45):
We can do this in our own lives too. I can say, “Well, based on how good of a homemaker I think I should be, I’m doing not so great of a job at keeping up with the laundry.” But if we compared ourselves to the baseline instead, like where we came from, then I can look at my twin nine-year-olds, for example, and I can listen to them. Last night we were doing a family prayer and Beckett was reading out of the family prayer book, and he read, “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few,” without a hitch. Without even looking at me.
(34:15):
I was like… I know I was supposed to be praying, and I was praying, “Thank you, Jesus. This child can read. This is so amazing.” But if I was comparing to where I thought he should have been a year ago, I would’ve said, “Oh, this is terrible. It’s taking so long. We’re not getting anywhere.” But if I can compare him to where he was six months ago, a year ago. If we can do that with ourselves. So you’re not the queen of laundry, fine, but are you folding one more load a week than you were last week? Are you making a one small, tiny amount of progress? But if we can compare, I wouldn’t say down, I don’t think that’s fair to say down instead of up. I just think it’s like taking stock of where we came from instead of constantly looking about where we want to be so that we’re never satisfied with the progress we made because there’s always somewhere else we could be.
(35:05):
In the rest of the episode you’re going to hear what is essentialism? What does that even mean? And how can we do less? How is doing less, but better, how does that help us set better priorities in our homeschools and avoid decision fatigue? You’re also going to hear more about comparing to the baseline, not the ideal, and I think that’s a really incredibly freeing concept. It’s in your podcast app, folks. It’s episode 220, and it’s also at readaloudrevival.com/220.
(35:43):
We need another drum roll. It’s our top three, and we’re looking at number two in 10 years at Read-Aloud Revival. The number two spot goes to episode 201, The Surprising Value of Reading Fewer Books.
(36:02):
I’ll tell you what, I was delighted to see this one make the top three because it’s a personal favorite for me, especially if you or your kids feel overwhelmed by a long book list. In this episode I share how reading fewer books can help our kids love reading more. What could it mean for your kids reading lives, and yours, in fact, if you were to focus on reading fewer books and making the time you spend reading them more enjoyable? Maybe even to have a reading life that is rich and relaxed and leisurely? Sounds pretty great, right? Listen in to this sample.
(36:44):
I had this experience just this school year with my 16-year-old. We read The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis. We actually listened to it on audio, which is a slower way to read any book, by the way. So if you choose to listen to the audiobook, it’s going to be a slower reading experience because pretty much everybody, except for maybe a developing reader, can read faster with their eyes than they can with their ears because we skip words when we’re reading with our eyes. We skip all those little connector words and our brains make all kinds of connections. So if I handed you a sheet of paper and said, “Read this page quietly to yourself or silently to yourself,” you could read that faster with your eyes silently than you could if I asked you to read it aloud. Okay?
(37:29):
So we decided to listen to the audiobook of The Screwtape Letters. And yes, that took longer than if I had just assigned him to read a certain number of chapters every week. But I wanted to enjoy it, number one, together, and I wanted to make sure we took time with it, because if you’re not familiar with The Screwtape Letters, it is a satire. It’s an epistolary novel, so it’s written all through letters, and it’s basically from a demon to his underling, his nephew, who is a demon in training, whose main course of life, his main purpose in life is to keep his pupil or patient, I can’t remember what they call them, from getting to heaven.
(38:08):
It’s so good. I’ve read it multiple times in my life, but I listened to it with my 16-year-old, and we really enjoyed it. And then when we got to the end, we started it over and listened to it again. And when I did that, and I told my son, “Okay, now we’re going to listen to it again,” he looked at me kind of strange at first and said, “We are?” And I said, “Yeah, I think there’s a lot of things we might’ve missed the first time around, and I just think we’re going to catch more. I think it’ll be really enjoyable to listen to it again.”
(38:37):
So we got out a puzzle and we would listen to it again. We listened to it twice in a row. Now, if I was concerned about my son’s 11th grade year and making sure we were reading a large stack of books, I would not feel like I had the time or freedom to do that. To do it on audio, because that takes a long time, and to do it on audio twice. But I’ll tell you what, there were so many things that we both missed the first time around, and it wasn’t even my first time around. I’ve probably read it something like eight times now. It was amazing to me how much we missed the first time. It also amazed me, our conversations, even though they were great the first time we listened to it, they were even better and richer the second time around.
(39:21):
And this is something that I would not have been able to give my 11th grader if I was worried about getting through a whole bunch of books this year. But because I picked three, I picked one per season that I really wanted to dive in and enjoy with my 11th grader. And that’s his literature education, is we’re reading three books well. And then he’s got reading time. He’s got a reading hour every day and he reads on his own lots of other books, business books, literature books, fantasy, all kinds of stuff, historical fiction, all kinds of stories and nonfiction books. So that’s for his own personal independent reading time. But for our main literature time, what we do is we share three books over the course of the year. And The Screwtape Letters was one of them.
(40:09):
Again, if I had a big long list, like a lot of those high school curricula I look at, a lot of that homeschool curricula is very overwhelming to me. I would not have felt like we had the time or luxury to really sink our teeth into The Screwtape Letters, and we would’ve missed out on a very memorable experience. I can almost guarantee that 10 years from now if you ask my son, “What did you read? What’s some of your favorite books you read in high school?” I can nearly guarantee that’s going to be one of them that he’ll name.
(40:40):
It’s a good one. Listen to the rest of the episode to hear the difference between reading a book and completing a book. Two different things, reading a book and completing a book. We’ll talk about it. Also, why my own kids do not track the number of books read, and how you can make time for quite possibly the best kind of reading. What kind of reading is that? Some of you might know. It’s episode 201, so find it in your podcast app, or go to readaloudrevival.com/201.
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The number one episode, and not by a little, by the way, by a lot. This podcast episode has more downloads than many of our episodes put together. Some of you know what it is already, I bet. It’s episode 209, with none other than my esteemed guest, my lovely daughter, Audrey. We talked all about what worked and what didn’t by looking back on homeschooling.
(41:50):
Early on, pretty much everyone in my world told me we were making a huge mistake in homeschooling. It was weird. It was unknown to them. And we’re usually afraid of things that are weird and unknown to us. I didn’t actually know a single person in my own real life who was homeschooling. I read blogs, I read books, of course, but I just had this really strong hunch that we should do this home education thing. And we did. And I’m so glad. I loved it. Not every minute of it, honestly, but once my oldest three… Now, I have six kids, and my oldest three are all graduated. We’re all homeschooled all the way through. And now that they’re young adults, I just realized how grateful I am for the time I got with them during all of those homeschooling years.
(42:39):
When we recorded this particular episode, 209, my oldest daughter, Audrey, she was 20. She had just finished her sophomore year at Franciscan University of Steubenville as an English major. Now she’s 22, she’s graduating from Franciscan this spring. She’s about to set off to grad school in Scotland at St. Andrews. Amazing. Like I said, Audrey was homeschooled her entire education until college, and there were some rocky years. When she was 12, so sixth grade-ish, I also had a 10-year-old, an eight-year-old, a one-year-old, and twin newborns. So three babies age one and under. I was homeschooling. It was a lot. Well, Audrey and I talked about it on this episode. Listen in.
(43:24):
One thing I’m thinking about as we’re talking, is that there were years in there, especially that year when I had three babies age one and under. That was a crazy year. Three babies age one and younger, 12, 10, and eight. I didn’t do a lot of teaching with you in the traditional sense that year, or the next, or the next, actually. It was audiobooks, it was online math. I was pretty terrified I was ruining your education, so I’m curious what you remember about school those years. And I’m also curious about the impact of those very light years. We all in homeschooling have a year or two or five where we’re like, “That was a struggle bus. That was a survival year.” So I’m curious about the impact of those struggle bus years on your education.
Audrey Mackenzie (44:17):
To be totally honest, I do not remember what school looked like during these days.
Sarah Mackenzie (44:23):
That’s because there wasn’t much of it. I don’t remember much from those days either. It’s all a little fuzzy.
Audrey Mackenzie (44:28):
I really have no particular memories of school or what we did at this time. But what I do remember is how much I loved having baby siblings and how much fun it was to take naps with them asleep on my chest, to read books to Clara, who was one at the time, to help you feed the twins and put them to bed. It was my favorite thing to come downstairs and to help you rock the twins to sleep. And while, yes, this was a couple of years, I really think I grew closer in relationship with my siblings and with you than I did educationally. And I found this to be just as valuable, if not more so in the end.
Sarah Mackenzie (45:03):
Oh, the whole thing is good. It’s just so good. There’s no wonder why this is the top listened to episode. So you want to listen to the full episode to hear what was most helpful for Audrey’s future, what she wishes I taught more of. I’ll tell you what, her answer totally caught me off guard. And how on earth she got a college degree in English when I never got around to teaching her grammar. It’s true. And spoiler alert, read alouds are really important. That’s episode 209. You can find it in your podcast app, or go to readaloudrevival.com/209.
(45:46):
Oh my goodness, wasn’t that so much fun? This has been the most fun episode to record. It has been a magnificent 10 years. I think we should do 10 more. What do you think?
Speaker 14 (45:57):
Yes.
Sarah Mackenzie (45:58):
I’m in. We’ve got some amazing episodes ahead. It’s going to be good. Don’t forget, we’re doing a fun giveaway for podcast reviews. So if you leave a review for the Read-Aloud Revival, a new one or an old one, that counts too, go to readaloudrevival.com/review. You’re going to find directions there for how you can enter to win one of 10 exclusive RAR book bags. But there is a deadline. You’ve got to leave a review by April 30th, 2024. Okay? And then go to readaloudrevival.com/review to enter. I cannot wait to read your review.
(46:42):
That’s it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for celebrating with me. I hope I just filled up your podcast queue with a bunch of good things to listen to while you’re folding laundry and making dinner. I’ll be back in two weeks with a fabulous guest. But in the meantime, you know what to do. Go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.
