I also try read an "early years" picture book a few time each week to my preschooler & a board book or two to my toddler.  That helps them feel like they are apart of the school day too when they're not ready to listen to the other read alouds.

I hear you on little ones having a hard time listening to some books! Mine are 10, 7, 6, 4, 3, 1, and 4 mos and the last four of those plus the 7 year old are all little boys. LOL. It's not silent, just relatively quiet during read alouds.

Oh, I see. I had it in my head that I had to read a chapter of each book EVERY day. I didn't see that happening,lol.

I just read those when I have planned Science or alternate days with the literature.  My kids love the Thorton Burgess books and are not uspet when I read like that.  

Last year I started the term with Mondays: Black Beauty, Tuesday: One Hundred and One Dalmations, Wednesdays: Jack's Insects, Thursday: The Magician's Nephew, Friday: Thornton Burgess...as we finished one book we naturally got another.  I did find that we did a few less at a time, but read more often.

Your history read alouds and science read alouds are scheduled right in the SCM guides.  The others are used as you choose.  I let my olders pick one each from science and history and they alternate days reading those to themselves.  They also read a literature pick to themselves.  

For your littles keep quiet things just for the readings like playdoh, crayons and papers, etc.  It helps them to listen. =)

sounds good, except now I wonder when I will read living science books, LOL. My 3.5 year old does not sit yet to listen to books as she doesn't fully understand the language and can be quite a distraction. I will have to spread everything out.

I did not test well when I was a kid, can you tell I over-analyze everything?

One thing to remember is you're not reading tons in each book every day. An example from the school year just finished at my house:

We use SCM's Module 4 with their Family Handbook planning out our readings. IN a day there was 1 chapter of a family read aloud history book, then usually 1 chapter of a book to read for grades 1-3 (I read this aloud too), and my 5th grader read her 1 chapter of a book (assigned reading) for the 4th-6th grade list. Then at some point in the day we would read 1 chapter from a literature book, not related to history (Alice in Wonderland, Black Beauty, whatever you want).
Outside of school time the kids could read anything they wanted (free reading) from the approved books in the house, some history, historical fiction, science, nonfiction, literature - just a big mix. I only had 3 chapters to read aloud each day: 1 family history read aloud, 1 1st-3rd grade read aloud (mine in this group were 1st and K), and 1 from our literature read aloud. We also read aloud scriptures daily, so 4, but very easy to get a chapter done in all of these in 10-15 minutes per chapter.

That sounds just fine. You do what works for your family. 

The kids are 10, almost 8, just turned 5, and I have our new adopted daughter who is 3.5.

So in reality the older kids could be reading some history independantly as well as assigned literature? Does that sound right?

I haven't used the history modules exactly as set out yet, so hopefully others with more experiences will chime in.  For now, here's what it says on the history overview page, here - http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/scmguide/history-modules-overview/

"Read aloud the history spine and books for the youngest child, then assign the older children’s books as independent reading. Complete the geography and Bible readings together as a family."

From what I understand, if your children are old enough to read independently, you could also just read the spine aloud, and then assign all the other books as independent reading.  Remember to have them narrate everything as well.

How old of students are you teaching?

Ok, so there is 'free reading', 'literature', and then other books that go with the history/geography modules? What about assigned reading?

I guess what I am trying to figure out is when we are doing Module 1, Ancient Egypt and there are suggested books to read aside from the Genesis-Deut. guide book, when exactly do you read them? What if there is a story I want my oldest to read on his own, where do I fit that in? Assigned reading?

Goodness, I thought I was doing a good job but now I am confusing myself, and others!

Here are the SCM suggested literature selections.  http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/scmguide/literature/ 

My DD is 6yo and we have been doing one read aloud together at a time, some from the SCM list and some just from books we already own.  This is separate from 'free reading' which is books my DD gets to choose (with approval) and read on her own, and does not have to narrate.  We have also used some of these as bedtime read alouds with my 6yo DD and 4yo DS.

I plan to use literature for 3rd grade as a read aloud to start our day. It will be different than history/science.

Getting our year all worked out and I see Literature on the schedule. That's great, do I choose anything or is it History/Geography based? Is it a read aloud or separate from independent reading for an older child? If it is a classic book, where do I fit in the living books for History?