Narnia Studies - Once Again!

We have re-started our Narnia Studies.

Over a year ago, my then barely 6 year old saved up his money for the Narnia Unit Study Guide: Further Up and Further In. I'd heard it might be too academic or too dry - several families had used it after using their Little House on the Prairie Study and found that Narnia didn't live up to the same expectation. Since we've not done Little House, I thought we'd be ok.

Well, nope.

My son, though young, could DO all the work; it just wasn't what we anticipated. We thought there would be more activities corresponding to the activities in the book, and while these are certainly present, it just wasn't what "enough" - the activities are GREAT - it's just SO much conversation, rather than doing. Maybe it's because we're doing the books in order (having read them at least 10 times through in publication order already!) and Magician's Nephew is sort of "Eh" on the interest scale. It is interesting in that it is a precursor to the rest of the storyline, but it does by itself hold the same magic as the others stories. (Sorry Mr. Lewis - we still love the story - just not the same way!).

Anyway, we're back at it again with more tools at hand. We have the downloads from Currclick for all of the books (a series of workbook pages with some activities like letter-writing from a character's point of view, etc) and we have the lapbook for Magician's Nephew from In the Hands of a Child (some of their items can also be purchased at Currclick for a lower price *and* I get affiliate kickback if you click on the Currclick link, then order HOAC items from Currclick).

I've already listed out resources ahead of time; so we can spend our library time looking up and reading related books. We're making a list of food as we go and adding those foods to our menu plans; and he's creating a binder with all sorts of goodies. Lots of artwork and timelines!

My son is also putting together a timeline of his own based on his reading - Earth timeline versus Narnia timeline. When we're done we'll check the "official" timeline in our book Companion to Narnia (our cover does not match this one, though we got it from them - it's been updated and revised).

How does this fit with Montessori? The Montessori elementary is a framework with a LOT of meat within it - and it allows so much time and freedom to utilize outside resources as are appropriate to the situation - not every child could or should study Narnia the way we are, so this pertinent for us; other children should study the literature that fits with their families, their culture, their interests. Rich literature should be a part of every child's life - and how that plays out will look different for every family.

We could study Narnia without any of these study guides. We just choose to start with them and adapt. This is also how we are taking "outside requirements" and learning how to adjust to them, something that is a key component of every good Montessori environment: sometimes we have outside requirements to fulfill, and we learn responsibility to fulfill them in a healthy manner, so that we can live within our society.

All this to say - I'm excited :)