Lunchtime listening: redoing Jack & Jill

We finished "A Little Princess" at lunchtime listening. I found myself getting a bit teary-eyed at the sad parts, even thought I've known the story for years.

Next I decided instead of moving on to a new story, we'd revisit one we've heard before. I figured that these stories are so rich that they bear listening to over again. The girls chose "Jack and Jill" by Louisa May Alcott. It has 24 chapters, so we're set for another month or more. Glitter picked it because of the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill went up the hill ...."; she didn't remember the story at all. Sparkle did better. She actually remembered that it was about a boy and girl that went sledding and got hurt.

I was reminded of one of the reasons that I chose to start repeated listening by a library book I just got: "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Malcom Gladwell has probably influenced my homeschooling more than an other non-homeschooling author. In "The Tipping Point" he explains the success of the tv show Blue's Clues. In a nutshell, kids pay attention to, learn from, and enjoy things that they understand. Children repeatedly watch (and learn from) Blue's Clues because the show has layers of meanings. With each viewing the kids understand more and more of the show. Older kids get bored and tune out because they don't get the same revealing of extra meaning with each iteration.

Quality literature has that same richness of layered meaning. By reading or listening to the story over again, we can extract more meaning and enjoyment from it. The first time we listen we get the general gist of the story - the plot, the characters, the setting, etc. With repeated listening we can give more attention to the nuances of the story, the literary devices, and other choices the author has woven together to form a pleasing whole.