Update about our use of this method. Yesterday, H. turned out to be pretty resistant to listening the full time, and I was thinking we’d have to give it up. I’m not going to make him sit there if he really doesn’t want to. Today, though, he was paying good attention again. It was our first day of listening to material from a week ago, but I only recorded about one thing a week ago. He was fascinated to hear what he had listened to a week ago (actually, what we read a week ago and listened to six days ago). It was more interesting because it wasn’t quite so obvious as yesterday’s stuff, but it was rewarding to listen to because it wore down those neural pathways, as Dr. Jones says–i.e., it re-awakened memories that we otherwise would have forgotten. Repeating these old facts is often inherently interesting precisely because it is like revisiting “old friends.”
Tomorrow is a big test, when we listen to 7.5 minutes from a week ago and a similar amount from today–it will be the first day in which we will have listened to two days’ worth of full-length recordings. Another big test, if we make it that far, will be in three weeks when we start listening to month-old stuff.
I like to be realistic and I am 90% sure that within a week to a month, we’re going to either give up on this or completely change it. Maybe, instead of summarizing all of our non-fiction (and Norse myth, too), we’ll pick a few and focus on those. Or maybe I’ll greatly reduce (like by one-fourth) the amount of information I put into these summaries. As it is I tend to spend one minute summarizing about eight minutes of reading. Another option is to start highlighting instead of recording and then systematically reviewing the highlighting of old books, according to some schedule.
Most of our books are paper and not on Kindle. We could get ebook versions of some of our books, but most books we buy are not available yet that way.
seastar and others are talking about this if we were discussing college study methods. I hadn’t really thought of applying my old college study skills to my reading to my five-year-old son. Maybe there is some sense in that, but it requires a great deal of thought. For example, I understand perfectly well why I might want to highlight for my own consumption. (I completely marked up my books when I was in college.) But I weigh the costs and benefits when it comes to highlighting for H., as I am reading to him. Of course there are benefits. But the costs, especially the time/opportunity costs, seem significant. Our reading time at the meal table is already interrupted constantly by baby, Mama, and H. himself with his observations and questions and distractions. Not reading at the table is still not an option–H. would be hysterical if we stopped, and we learn so much this way. There are also already interruptions when we read together in the big comfy chair–I usually consult the iPad heavily to look up words, locations on maps, pictures, and videos. Anyway, ultimately the core purpose of my highlighting the text for H. as part of Dr. Jones’ method is so that I know what to record. But I can easily figure that out on the fly. Unless we are going to return to the text itself, especially repeatedly, highlighting seems to be redundant, interrupts the flow, and is time-consuming. H. often gets up and wanders off when, as we finish a reading, I make the recording. This seems best for everyone. He can take a break and give me the peace I need to think about exactly what to put into the recording.
I find that it is very important that I speak loudly and articulately into the microphone and that I think carefully about what I want to say. It has to make sense, and the delivery has to be somewhat dramatic, or else it can sound very dull, like a dry lecture.
And it certainly wasn’t a fool proof method, leading me to have many grade fluctuations.