“Too Hard” Books

Have you ever run across the “perfect resource”, perhaps a primary source document, but knew it was just “too hard” for the ages/reading levels of your children? You search and search for something “on their level”, but you just can’t find anything that conveys the ideas like “this” resource. What’s a mom to do?

Well, what we don’t have to do is give up and use an inferior resource. We especially don’t have to resort to “twaddle”, just to get “on their level”. We have at least 2 options. Which one to use depends on how “too hard” the book is and our children’s own learning levels.

The first and best option is to Read it to the children. It is easier to understand difficult writings when they are read to us by someone who does understand them, and can read them more fluently and coherantly. If you aren’t able to do this with your resource, can you find it in an audio format that you can all listen to together? The other advantage to this option is you can explain the vocabulary to the children as you go along, if it is still not understood in context. And it will help increase your children’s abilities to understand “hard” books.

The second option that can be helpful, if even reading it to the children is still way over their heads, is to Narrate it to the children. Read the resource yourself and then tell the story of it to your children. It may not be the same “quality” of literature as the original, but it will help you develop your storytelling skills, and will ensure that your children are getting the great ideas that you chose that resource for.