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I love Classics, I should rephrase that. I love some Classics, Dickens still causes me to shudder with horrible memories of reading Great Expectations.
But, I love the vocabulary they expose my kids to. Reading higher level books is why my kids will say something is “hilarious” not funny. Or tell you they find an item amusing.
That or because I talk from a century earlier. You take your pick.
I often wonder how to adapt classic books to younger children, so here is my best stab at it.
I’ve been having a blast using our Early America Library from Heritage History. As part of our preparation for studying the Civil War I wanted to make sure they understood how terrible slavery was, and how books were used to show this.
So we read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” This was such an iconic book to its’ time and made such an impact that over 100 years later it’s still used to represent the evils of slavery. As you can see from this clip from the King and I.
It’s not a book for young kids, there’s scary scenes in it, and the language is complex.
So I broke it up into shorter segments and stopped often to talk about what we were reading. We read a very abridged version.
After each time we stopped they drew a picture as part of our discussion. I could have required writing, but I wanted to know comprehension, not writing technique. My kids’ writing skills are still rudimentary and they tend to get overwhelmed easily. I want to set up where they can succeed with writing, and the vocabulary and words would have daunted them.
They each came up with different pictures for each section. They were also true to their personality. Princess concentrated on the relationships. She showed Tom being happy with his first owner, and sad in chains with another owner.
We also used this as a chance to learn about newspapers of the time. They used pictures to help tell the story, just as ours today do. Only then they were illustrated. The illustrators would put their initials or name in their picture, trying their best to make it naturally part of the picture. The boys loved this part of the challenge.
Do you adjust books for your kids reading level or read books to them? My kids loved this assignment, and I have to say it was a great fit for them.
When you order from Heritage History if you order any curriculum sets add the “Spanish Empire” library and put the coupon code TICIAJOY in and receive the Spanish Empire Library for free.
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I was wondering about that very issue when I saw the titles that Heritage History has. I love the works, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t sure they were for lower elementary grades. It sounds like you have done a great job of working around the problems. Our boys have been enjoying Lamb’s Stories of Shakespeare, which also has some difficult language as it tries to keep to Shakespeare’s own words much of the time.
I’ll have to check that one out. There’s so many adaptations of Shakespeare for younger kids, but it’s hard to figure out which ones are actually GOOD.
Having the kids do an illustration for the scenes in the books is a great idea. I’m pretty interested in this topic right now since I’ve been compiling my classic children’s book lists.
If you’re compiling Classics, than I’d check out Heritage History for sure. I love being able to get a whole slew of books for my Nook for $20. I have more resources for American History than I could use this year thanks to this CD set.
Your kids’ illustrations are great!
My parents always read the classics to us – from when we were really young. And I never had a hard time understanding an English class book. I need to start doing it with my kids!
We just started this year, slowly but surely we’re going through different favorites, and now I’m incorporating it into our school studies, and loving it.
Thank you so much for linking up to The Children’s Bookshelf. I really enjoyed reading your post. I love the classics too myself. My husband is actually doing something similar with my son by reading him a couple pages from The Hobbit each night combined with telling him the story.
My husband read this comment and is now REALLY itching to try the Hobbit with my kids.
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I especially loved reading about the language that your children use.
Symbols and pictures are such an important tool in communication and comprehension. I love that you highlighted that. I have featured this post in this week’s Children’s Bookshelf round-up. Feel free to pop over and grab a button: http://www.mylittlebookcase.com.au/reading-tips/the-childrens-bookshelf-book-and-reading-posts-from-around-the-web/
Out of interest do you like classics that have been adapted for children in the format of picture books? I’ve come across quite a few in the past year and I am a big fan. My little girl is a lot younger than your children though.
Thank you for featuring me!
I like some of them. There’s a series of Little House picture books called “My First Picture Books,” that we’ve read from time to time when it applied to my studies and my kids really enjoyed them.
There’s some good illustrated versions, I’ll have to see if I can dig them up from my mess of a bookshelf, or I should say bookshelves.
We have a few abridged classics that Tyler read when he was younger. Our reading time has been seriously lacking lately. Sigh. I need to work on that.
I wonder what could be causing problems with your reading time lately……..
It’ll come back, you just need to adjust to a more mobile one year old than the relative calmness of an infant.
I love the illustrations your kids made. I agree with you on importance of classics and I introduced some of the works (Jungle Book, Around the World in 80 Days) already in abridged form. I wouldn’t touch Uncle Tom though – I found this book so terribly sad when I was 10 – I couldn’t get over that he died.
Thanks for reminding me of Jungle Book! I used to read that over and over and over when I was in elementary school. I loved it.
PS – thanks for joining WMCIR/New Bookshelf
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