How to Teach Language Arts Using Real Books

Have you ever found yourself thinking “I think I’ll go back and reread that textbook again?” I didn’t think so either. When it comes to homeschooling, there are usually two areas that stress homeschool parents out the most. The first is math and the second is language arts. When you think back to your childhood school days, what do you remember from your language arts classroom? I guarantee one of the items that will always make the list are the books you read! You can use REAL books to teach language arts in your homeschool classroom instead of relying on a textbook. Here’s how to teach language arts using real books.

Use books to teach your children about different time periods

One of the greatest parts of living in our world today is that we have access to works of literature that were written hundreds and even thousands of years ago! Beowulf and other early pieces can still be found at your local library and even some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. The style of these books compared to the young adult literature of today are very different. You can use books to teach your children about different time periods and even how words were written and spoken.

Use books to give your lessons meaning

Having a bunch of random sentences on the whiteboard isn’t going to help your children practice writing full sentences, or even learn how to spell words. Instead of having them try to piece together phrases that have no meaning to them, use books to give those lessons meaning! Use sentences from books to teach them about where commas go, and how words are used in a real-life scenario.

Use books to read aloud in your classroom

Reading passages from a book is a great way to practice your child’s reading skills! Have your children read actual books to practice what they’ve learned, and challenge them to use the sounds and words they’ve learned through books. They are more likely to remember what they’ve learned if it was out of a book then just throwing together a bunch of sentences for them to read back.

You can still get a curriculum guide!

You don’t have to come up with all the lesson plans yourself! There are a ton of great resources and curriculum suppliers that focus on literature-based language arts. These lessons usually focus on the classics and other real books that your child can read. Rather than using small passages of random stories in a textbook, these guides will have you open up a real book instead!

As you can see, you don’t have to rely on a textbook to teach your kids about reading and other language arts skills. You can incorporate real books into your language arts study and still teach them all the skills they need to know. The best part is that if you are short on time or resources, you can still use a curriculum guide to make your life easier!