Never Too Old for Picture Books: Using Picture Books in High School

 

YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD FOR A GOOD PICTURE BOOK!

We are in our first year of My Father's World High School and have used MFW since Kindergarten. My kids have always read the book basket books. The book basket was my favorite aspect of My Father's World curriculum family cycle because my kids learned so much from the many extra books we get on each subject. Every day the told me facts we didn't read in our structured history family reading.

My biggest issue with the MFW High School curriculum so far is no book basket list! but I have always used the book basket as a jumping off point for my library search, so I would get several books that aren't on the list too, but this year all the reading about half a dozen chapter books, most of which my children had already read.

A high schooler's main reading should of course not be picture books, and I am working on my own high school level reading list to go along with this year (coming soon to share), but I believe you are never too old for a good nonfiction picture book.

Students do not suddenly stop being visual learners when they get to high school, and non-fiction picture books are great for visual learners.

Even most adults retain information longer when presented in visual form. Don't believe me?  James Holzhauer won over 2 million dollars on Jeopardy. When asked how he prepared for his appearances on the show, he said he would go to the public library everyday and read a stack of children’s picture books. Instead of being frustrated with MFW for the whole year, yesterday I picked up 20 great Egypt books from our library to supplement our Ancient Egypt study. We got several non-fiction picture books and historical fiction living books.

This morning my boys spontaneously played Senet because of this beautiful Egyptology book!

Do not be afraid to go to the kids non-fiction section in high school.! Who knows, maybe they will win millions on Jeopardy!