A Required Reading Book List for your {Catholic} Child

Every summer, as part of my prep for the coming school year, I create a considered booklist for my independent reader (we’ve currently only one).  You will find history, faith, thought-provoking literature, and science among the pages of the books I choose.  I want to share with you today how I go about creating my Intentionally Catholic booklist.  Later, I’ll be sharing my favorite go-to resources for creating my list.

Why literature?

I consider literature a fundamental part of my children’s education.  The ideas they receive from reading good literature provides the foundation for all their other studies to rest upon.  We must choose the books we expose our children to with due wisdom, for the words and ideas on the page naturally become food for their minds and souls.  My love of literature was a large part of our decision to homeschool using Mother of Divine Grace.

 

When do we read?

In our daily routine, we have an established afternoon quiet hour has provided an undisturbed environment for our children to interact with books. I set the tone for them by having read aloud hour right before we head off in opposite directions to do our own reading.   Our children begin browsing picture books before they can read (as well as doing other quiet time activities) and slowly move on to real reading once they have the phonics tools and practice they need to make reading pleasurable.

1 hour a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year provides ample opportunity to cover many pages.  Often, when the book is extra enjoyable, my son will read an extra hour or two over the required hour.

There is also a half hour of free reading time before bed.  This is “free reading” time in my student’s eyes, but I am careful to place living and good books on our shelves.  It is a sneaky way of getting more good books into his literary diet.

The student binder helps my student know what he needs to be reading and also gives him a way of seeing exactly how much he has accomplished throughout the year.  He simply checks off the books as he completes them.

Developing an Intentionally Catholic Booklist

Many fabulous reading lists on the web and within the pages of books can be the source of great reading ideas for our children.  The task for the mother educating her child is to combine these multiple lists into one cohesive list to bolster her child’s education.

Here is how I go about doing so.

Tool 1:  Pinterest

Pinterest is one of my favorite ways to “file” ideas for our homeschool.  I have a board for general Reading Lists as well as a general History board.  Throughout the year, I pin reading lists to these boards as I come upon them.  In the summer, those pins are there waiting for me to use in creating our booklist for the year.

Of course, if you want to add Catholic flavor to your book list, you should be accruing Catholic book lists along the way too!  I’ll be posting some of my favorite resources for creating our own Catholic inspired book list soon.  Here is our family’s must reads for young Catholics.

Tool 2:  A Printer

If the book list I find on the internet is printable, I will often make a hard copy.  I much prefer to actually have the book lists on paper.  I find it easier to thumb through paper than click between browser tabs on the net.  I will corral all these loose papers in plastic sleeves in a folder labeled “Reading List”.

Tool 3:  Books about Books

I’ve slowly added book list style books to my bookshelves over the course of our homeschooling journey.  At first, I felt these type of books could be deemed obsolete by all the resources available for free on the web.  While, in some respects, that may be true, many books about books contain other valuable information you won’t find on the internet (reading level, history period, and other pertinent notes).  As always, I always find it easier to flip through a hard cover book than webpages.

Find out my favorite books about books here

And don’t forget to read along the liturgical year too!

Tool 4:  Excel

Excel is a friend of mine.  I use it for pretty much all my planning.  I have a new school file for every year, where I create “Sheets” for each planning page I need.  One of these “Sheets” will be titled “Student’s Name Required Reading” – i.e. “Jim’s Required Reading.”

I label 4 columns in my “Required Reading” sheet:  Done, Title, Author, and Location.  In the “Done” column I use the Excel borders feature to create boxes for my students to check off books as they read through them.  The “Location” column has abbreviations for where my student can find the book (O – We own it in hard copy, K – Kindle, Blank – Library book).  You could also add a column for a book rating (would you recommend this book to someone else on a scale of 1-5).

I section off the books by History, Science, and Literature so I can see at a glance I have a good mix of books.  Since we use the Mother of Divine Grace (MODG) syllabus, I include their suggested titles in a separate section of the required reading list as well.

Here is just a portion of the reading list for this year…

Tool 5:  Time to Plan

During the spring, I begin planning our next school year along with the booklist.  First, I refer to our Mother of Divine Grace (MODG) syllabus and plug the suggested reading in to my Excel sheet.  I have a section just for MODG required reading on our list (see above snapshot).

After this portion is filled in, I refer to all those lists I have accumulated through the year.  I begin filling in titles I think my student will enjoy or would be relevant to our studies.  I alternate difficult reads that stretch my student’s reading ability with lighter reading.  Again, I have a wide mix of literature in the list:  religious, science, historical fiction, biographies, and other good literature.

Obviously, if we want to create an intentionally Catholic booklist, we need to take some extra time incorporating books about the Saints, God, spirituality, and historical fiction with a Catholic stance.  Here are some of my favorite resources for creating an intentional Catholic booklist as well as our family favorite Must Reads for Young Catholics.

Tool 6:  A Student Binder

I print off the list and keep it in our individual student binder.  It is right there at my son’s fingertips everyday.  He can just move right through the list, crossing off titles as he goes.  I do like him to move somewhat sequentially through the list, but will allow him to jump around a little.

The list makes library day much easier too.  I just bring it along and try to check out or loan the next books on the list.

Want more posts to help you with your Catholic booklist?

Favorite Resources for creating a Catholic booklist

Must Reads for Young Catholics (my most popular post)

Liturgically appropriate booklists by month

Science Reading List

History Reading lists

See our student binder

Learn about our decision to school using MODG

Do you require your children to read certain book through the year?  How do you go about creating your list?