5 Things We Love about Readers in Residence Homeschool Curriculum
Need a homeschool reading curriculum? Readers in Residence uses great books to teach strong reading skills and encourage a love of reading.
Books are my love language. Thankfully I’ve been able to pass on that love for reading to my daughters through homeschooling. We spend a lot of time reading living books in our homeschool and enjoying great discussions about them, so finding a homeschool curriculum option that supports that kind of learning is perfect for us!
Disclosure: We received this curriculum free for the purpose of review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own. I was compensated for my time to write this review.
Readers in Residence is designed to encourage the love of good books, along with reading comprehension skills. Written by Debra Bell, a well-known name in the homeschool world, it’s geared for students in 4th grade and up to increase vocabulary, recognize literary genres, and more in the area of language arts skills.
Using the books Sarah, Plain and Tall, Charlotte’s Web, Because of Winn Dixie and three books of your choice (a historical fiction book, an animal fantasy book, and another free choice book), kids will:
- understand the author’s craft, choices, and intentions
- recognize the literary elements authors use to create fiction and nonfiction
- make inferences from the details in the text plus their own prior knowledge and experience
- decode the meaning of unfamiliar words from context clues
- build a rich and varied vocabulary
- identify and understand figures of speech such as personification, metaphor, and hyperbole
- notice how expert writers employ the conventions of the English language (punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and usage) to achieve clarity
Note: the books to read aren’t included with the set, but they are easily found at the library. We happened to own all three titles already.
Why We Love This Reading Homeschool Curriculum
Great Books
Readers in Residence is built on a foundation of great books and encouraging a love of those books. Three of our favorite books (listed above) are part of this curriculum and we get to choose the other books to use. We have plenty of books in our own collection and there are always great books to discover at the library. This also means you don’t really have any other supplemental expenses to go along with Readers in Residence.
Great Discussions
Readers in Residence encourages book discussion and book clubs. They can be family book talks, which I love to have with my daughters, or online or in-person book clubs. There are ideas included for discussion and group activities.
Biblical Worldview
Like other Apologia resources, Readers in Residence supports a Biblical worldview. They have sections called “Sowing Seeds” that correlate to events in the stories. There are scripture references and questions/suggestions on how they apply to the characters in the books and in the student’s own life.
Reading Comprehension and Analysis
So many times after spending time and money on reading curriculum to teach our kids to read, we don’t follow up with solid curriculum to make sure they comprehend what they’re reading. Readers in Residence does this and supports kids in their reading choices so they can distinguish genres, literary techniques, and begin to recognize quality reading material.
Hands-on Projects
One of the projects is creating your own book cover after you study how to discern clues about the book from its cover. Another unit project involves creating a storyboard to show inciting incidents, rising action, and resolution. There is also a project to draw historical scenes from Sarah, Plain and Tall, after imagining you’ve traveled back in time with a time machine. These are engaging projects that really reinforce the lesson concepts.
Although we haven’t completed this curriculum yet, I looked it over thoroughly and am very impressed. I know my daughters will enjoy it as we begin it this year and work through it together. Readers in Residence is comprehensive in itself, but combined with Writers in Residence, it is a full year of language arts curriculum.
How Does Readers in Residence Work?
Take a look at this video to give you an overview of the basics:
This reading homeschool curriculum is comprehensive and enjoyable. I highly recommend it!
If you would like to take a look at the writing homeschool curriculum by Debra Bell, Writers in Residence, you can read my review here.
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Thank you for introducing me to this resource! Do they offer a promo code for this?