{"id":10407,"date":"2017-02-17T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clonlara.org\/hu\/2017\/02\/17\/bringing-learning-to-life-through-living-books\/"},"modified":"2017-02-17T15:00:03","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T15:00:03","slug":"bringing-learning-to-life-through-living-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clonlara.org\/hu\/2017\/02\/17\/bringing-learning-to-life-through-living-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Learning to Life Through \u201cLiving Books\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Shari Maser, Off-Campus Program Advisor<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m 49 years old. I don\u2019t remember everything I learned in school, but what I remember most isn\u2019t information I studied in textbooks or was exposed to via what my daughter describes as \u201cconsume-information-and-regurgitate-it\u201d activities. Instead, everything I remember was rooted in a story of some kind\u2014a story that touched my heart; captured my imagination; inspired deep, reflective thought; stimulated my curiosity enough to motivate me to do further research; or spurred me to write stories or poems of my own. My deep knowledge of the Holocaust was inspired by how close to home Anne Frank\u2019s story hit me as a Jewish teenager, and my scientific understanding of the space-time continuum was triggered by my utter fascination with the time travel concepts in A Wrinkle in Time<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Educational pioneer Charlotte Mason coined the phrase \u201cliving books\u201d to describe the types of books that might have this kind of lasting impact: books that convey \u201cworthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told\u201d (Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children<\/em>, p. 263). She explained, \u201cThe children must enjoy the book. The ideas it holds must each make that sudden, delightful impact upon their minds, must cause that intellectual stir, which mark the inception of an idea\u201d (Charlotte Mason, School Education<\/em>, p. 178). In an insightful comparison of living books and textbooks (PDF)<\/a>, educator Chip Denton discusses how these books bring learning alive in a way that textbooks can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Kids today are lucky to have easy access to an extensive selection of living books about every subject under the sun\u2014biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, historical fiction, creative non-fiction picture books, pop culture non-fiction, science fiction, and more\u2014in libraries, bookstores, downloadable formats, and even audiobooks. They also have great stories available to them in other formats, including<\/p>\n