Kindergarten Literature (Child #1)

As I mentioned in my previous post, reading literature is one of the hallmarks of a Charlotte Mason (CM) education. So the choice of lesson books for the subject is one of great importance.

I have also mentioned previously that I would be following AmblesideOnline‘s (AO) curriculum when my dear daughter (DD) starts Year 1. But even if my DD is still in Kindergarten, I decided to start her with three of the five books AO has listed for their Year 1 Literature (though technically, we only used two because the fables we used is not the exact book recommended by AO).

I did this because (1) we are required to do a formal Kindergarten in the Philippines, and (2) I want to finish ahead with some of the AO books so we can lighten our load in Year 1 since we still need to add local subjects like Filipino and Philippine History and/or Araling Panlipunan for school.

While my DD is still in Kindergarten, she is already six years old so AO Year 1 books are already appropriate for her.

Curriculum/Book list

So here are the books we used for Literature for Kindergarten:

Poetry

Poems and Prayers for the Very Young. This is a small collection of rhymes that are short and sweet, perfect for very young kids, indeed. This is actually recommended by AO Year 0 (but it is not a formal AO year, though). I only used this because I chanced to buy a copy of it from Booksale.
The Real Mother Goose. Also recommended by AO Year 0. A collection of our childhood’s classic rhymes. I think Mother Goose or nursery rhymes are the perfect way to introduce poetry to kids. My DD enjoyed them, for sure. I think it gives them a very good foundation to develop an ear and appreciation for poetry (and I’m sure there is a science to prove this, but I just couldn’t point to a link to it right now). And I can’t remember who said that Mother Goose is actually a rite of passage for kids.

poems and prayers for the very young and the real mother goose books — Kindergarten poetry books.

Literature

The Fables of Aesop. A collection of short fables by Joseph Jacobs. This is a perfect text for beginning narration as well as for reading practice.
The Classic Fairy Tales. This is a book I just happen to buy in Booksale. It claims to “give the texts of… the best-known fairy tales as they were first printed in English, or in their earliest surviving or prepotent text…” Furthermore, the stories are written “as it appeared in the original work” which means “there has been no modernizing of the texts, the original spelling and punctuation has been retained even where faulty, and the only alterations have been the correcting of obvious printers’ errors in the original publications.” We read only two stories from this book for school but read the rest as a free read.
Jack and the Beanstalk: A Book of Nursery Stories. While this book doesn’t claim to include the original version of fairy tales, its text is written in a fairly classic style. I also just happen to buy this from Booksale. We read only one story from this book.
Just So Stories*. These are English alamats. My DD didn’t like Filipino alamats so she didn’t like this Kipling book either. Personally, I find the first few stories interesting but the later ones were a bit dragging, at least for me.
The Blue Fairy Book*. We started and used this book late (maybe starting only at the 2nd term) as I wasn’t able to buy a copy of it early on (and I always prefer to read from a physical book rather than from a device). We followed the stories recommended by AO, consisting of nine (9) selected tales, but were only able to finish five (5) by the end of the school year.

*From AmblesideOnline.

the classic fairy tales — Without the dust jacket, this book’s front is just a plain blue cover, so I’m showing a pictures of the inside instead.

Beginning narration

Before we used The Blue Fairy Book, we started with some easy or popular tales first to ease my DD into narration and to make her a little more familiar and comfortable with English.

Our mother tongue is Filipino/Tagalog and whether you would believe it or not, my DD had a really hard time when she first started school (owing that most of our school books are in English) because we (my late husband and I) never spoke to her in English, except, of course, in using terms that have no Filipino translation.

My DD actually told me before that she cannot understand her playmates then because they were speaking in English. And she actually complained to me that she couldn’t narrate because she couldn’t understand what I/she read.

But I don’t think she does not understand English completely because, in a way, she has been exposed to picture books, though I have to admit that before she started school, I did not read to her as often as I wish I had. When she began school, though, I read to her more regularly.

But, as they say, children learn and adapt foreign languages easily.

Besides, narration is a skill to learn. And no matter how much you’ve been enamored with the “kids enjoying narration” image or vision as CM always says in her volumes, learning a skill is always difficult at the start.

I just told my DD to try to narrate what she understood and narrate in Filipino/Tagalog.

the fables of aesop, just so stories, the blue fairy book, jack and the beanstalk nursery stories books — Kindergarten literature.

So, as I was saying, we started with three popular nursery tales first, namely, (1) The Story of the Three Bears, (2) The Little Red Riding-Hood), and (3) The Story of the Three Little Pigs.

We read the first two stories from The Classic Fairy Tales and the last from Jack and the Beanstalk.

After the three, we commenced The Blue Fairy Book following AO’s reading plan.

For fables, I used The Fables of Aesop because I was trying to save and was avoiding unnecessary purchases for school. So I just downloaded a copy from Internet Archive and printed and compiled them in a binder.

I was able to buy Just So Stories in Booksale years before my DD even started school. Book hunting in Booksale has actually been a pastime for me ever since I got to know CM.