As we ended our 4th week of total CM, I found that I still don’t have all the kinks worked out yet. I became aware that I wasn’t all together comfortable with Jake narrating historical fiction. Both the books Year of the Pilgrims, 1620 and Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims I enjoy him reading and narrating but all the other “fake” books I’m struggling with. I call them “fake” because the characters and many of the events are fictional, the other two actually have real people and real events. All of the book choices are considered living books and I do want him to read these great books, but I’m having trouble with them being narrated. For me the purpose of narration is so he can assimilate and digest the information given as well as being able to retain it long-term. I realize that the Squanto book is also fictional but it does contain real people, so I’m ok with that. I realize I’m rambling and my thoughts are not coherent but I’m still trying to grasp what my problem is. For instance, while Jake was narrating part of The Sign of the Beaver, I began to ask myself why. Why was he narrating this particular book. What did I wanted him to retain from it and was that happening. Why was it I had included it for his History class. This is obviously a living book and he would gain literary quality, vocabulary and a love for literature by reading it but was it fueling my History class. This is how it began and as it started spriralling around inside my head I realized there were other books that I could have used for History that were still ‘living’ but contained either a real person or a real event and given a choice I would choose those books. Since I do have that choice (and a supportive DH) I am altering the rest of the year to reflect my new insights.
For Term 2 & 3 I am changing things up a bit. I will be using 3 – 4 good living books for history (more about them later) and then have him read about 20 – 25 books as independent reads. I’m going to try to separate the subjects a little, kinda like an extra literature class but this one for independent reading only. This will actually work great for my goal; that in 5th grade he would be reading almost all of his subject books on his own. The independent reading books that I’m choosing will be mostly living biographies with one or two historical fiction that will ether contain a real person or a real event. I will be using books that are one reading grade level lower so he won’t have any problems starting out. I will still require narrations on all these and the Historical Fiction books will be on the shelf for free reading time.
I’m confident I am making the right choice and really how can I go wrong when they are all living books. 
