Inside the Guide: LHFHG’s Storytime Box of Plans
This “Inside the Guide” series provides a quick snapshot of Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG)! It’s a handy “how-to” reference, just one box of plans at a time. Have you ordered Little Hearts for His Glory from Heart of Dakota? Thank you – so fun! Are you getting excited to start? Totally understandable! Well, here’s your quick-start “Inside the Guide” for…LHFHG’s Storytime box of plans!
Quick Start Info
Time It Takes: 15 minutes
Days It’s On: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Description: LHFHG’s Storytime box of plans can be found on the “Learning the Basics” right side of the plans. Fourteen classic storytime books with beautiful illustrations are read aloud by the parent. The LHFHG daily plans tell which pages to read each day. Daily guided questioning matched to the storytime text and illustrations helps students recognize story elements like character, setting, mood, theme, and more! Furthermore, these questions teach reading comprehension through lively discussion.
They also provide a smooth transition between picture books and chapter books. The reading takes about 10 minutes, and the guided questioning takes about 5 minutes. This teaches excellent listening comprehension skills without adding too much time to the day. Fifteen minutes is in keeping with recommended Charlotte Mason short lesson format for young children ages 5 to 7.
A Handy How-To for LHFHG’s Language Arts Box of Plans
Begin each Storytime lesson by reading the assigned pages aloud to your child. Then, follow the plans to ask the provided comprehension questions and teach the follow-up skills. “Picture Walks” and “Picture Talks” help your child get the most out of each read aloud session. The guided questioning should draw your child’s attention specifically to storybook illustrations. This helps children learn to use visual cues alongside auditory cues to answer reading comprehension questions more fully.
Since many of the same characters appear throughout each series, your child should get to know each of the characters well. This should help your child learn to predict what might happen next. Inference, which is a key reading comprehension skill, involves making educated guesses about what an author is suggesting or implying, even if it’s not explicitly stated. This helps children learn to “read between the lines” by combining textual information with their prior knowledge and reasoning. Making inferences helps readers understand the full meaning of the text, and it is a fundamental part of developing deep comprehension.Â
Box Specific Notes
The purposes of LHFHG’s Storytime box of plans are for children to enjoy listening to excellent read alouds, to learn to use illustrations and text to answer reading comprehension questions, to recognize basic story elements, to begin to use inference skills to predict what might happen next, and to transition into applying these skills from picture books to chapter books.
Carrie and I always enjoyed reading aloud books such as these to our sons. Even after our sons were older, we kept these books on our shelves to read to grandchildren someday. From our conversations with other homeschool parents, we realized parents were struggling to find excellent books such as these to read aloud to little ones.
From those conversations, Carrie created this Storytime Set for LHFHG. This set of books and plans should be a delightful part of your day! These books will make a ‘book lover’ out of your child. Furthermore, the skills taught alongside these books will help your child begin to develop the mindset of a good reader.
It takes time to develop these skills and this mindset, however, so don’t be discouraged if your little one doesn’t get all the answers “right” at first! Be patient, and remind them they will be answering questions after the readings each day. They will improve given time!
In Closing
So, cuddle up on the couch with your little ones and make your way to Pleasant Valley Farm, farmstead with the Ingalls’ family in A Little House Picture Book Treasury, trek your way through The Big Snow, explore the nature world of Brambly Hedge, journey to the Celestial City with Little Pilgrim, make veterinary calls with James Herriot, travel to Thimbleberry Lane with Nigel Chipmunk, and more!
Tuck your little one under your arm and encourage your child to follow along as you read. The illustrations are often just as important as the reading of the words themselves, so they child needs to be right by you as you read to be able to answer the questions. Make this a time to enjoy! Little ones are only little for so long. Storytime read-alouds are meant to be savored!
You can order this delightful Storytime set of books by clicking here!
