Ending point for read alouds?

Tagged: 

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • TailorMade
    Participant

    After Michelle mentioned Mater Amabilis in another thread a little bit ago, I popped over to look at their British History suggestions for future reference.  I ran across an article about ending read alouds fairly early on in a child’s education.

    http://materamabilis.org/ma/intro/

    I also found similar statements on the CMH site.  http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/quoting-miss-mason-habit-of-reading.html

    I’m not sure why I’ve never run across this in the past.  Maybe I overlooked it because we’ve always enjoyed that time together.  We started read aloud time when over two decades ago.  I’m not thinking I’ll ditch it just because this new information has flashed in front of my eyes.

    I’m curious as to how many of you drop read alouds per CM suggestions.  It seems to me like it would be a bit like losing a huge part of our form of family communication. 

    thoughts?

    Tristan
    Participant

    No way!  We’ll continue read alouds until the children are adults and then invite them to bring the grandchildren over to read to.  I remember my grandmother reading aloud to my family when we drove from Ohio to Edmonton Alberta Canada in my early teens.  Even today my sister and I discuss books together via phone or internet and sometimes read the same book aloud to our children so the cousins that are separated by many states can talk and email about the same shared books.

    Alicia Hart
    Participant

    Thanks for this article…..gave me more to chew on

    I have actually been thinking a lot about this topic lately!  For the frist 5 years or more with my first child, I read to her constantly.  The goal was a minimum of two hours a day.

     She is almost 12 and I am still trying to wean her off being “spoon fed”. Part of this is due to her very strong leanings to an auditory style of learning but much of it is laziness that I really think that I fostered.

    I did not read as much to my second one as I did my first one. She is 10 and a much,much more independent learner.

    At least with my first two kids, my own personal observation has been that what CM said was true in the CMH article.

    I am doing things almost purely CM (as much as I know how) with the rest of our kids so I will post the results in a couple years or so!  LOL!  Laughing

    We still do a family read aloud at night with DH and we do one read aloud during the day for all the kids for 15 minutes or less during the day with the younger ones. 

     

    sheraz
    Participant

    I really think that what they are refering to is the children’s assignments. We should not continue to read them as they become fluent readers because they learn to rely on that – and then the burden of learning is on you, instead of the child. 

    I hated reliquishing some of the readings, but the more I do, the better school life is for me with both my older set and my younger set. It gives my older set some independence and gives me time to focus more directly with my little ones. 

    I plan to continue reading aloud one literature book together that no matter how old we get – like Becca and Tristan, it is a shared link and memory for all of our family!

    crazy4boys
    Participant

    We will always have a bedtime story….all 4 boys in one room with dad in the bean bag on the floor, reading.  They love this time.  And we’ll probably continue the mom-readaloud during school time too.  it’s way to fun to read the Hobbit or Little Britches together.  To laugh and talk and explore the characters and plot together.  I do think it gives a certain family cohesiveness.  I hear them talking about (or re-enacting) books we’ve read together years after they’ve been read.

    We read our scriptures together…and then they do their individual study.  That will stay.  It’s a good time for my husband and I to answer deeper doctrinal questions or to share our thoughts about what we’ve read.  We also read one history spine together because the little boys need to hear it so why not read it to the olders too?  They do read a lot of stuff on their own though.  When my youngers are the olders I will probably have them read the spines themselves, but fortunately that’s several years down the road!

    Karen
    Participant

    I think the SCM history modules are the perfect way to transition the 4th graders and up to a more independent learning style.  I read aloud the spine (unless if I run out of time, then the 4th grader (oldest) reads it on her own); I read aloud the 1st – 3rd grade book; and the 4th grader reads the 4th-6th grade book on her own. 

    I think it will seem natural to do science the same way in the future – actually, even now, I sometimes require the 4th grader to read a supplementary living book on her own for science. (We’re using AiG God’s Design.)

    But the family read aloud will stay forever!

    missceegee
    Participant

    Sheraz is right. The idea is that the children need to own their own work and do that work for themselves. I do transition my kids to self learning and reading their own school books by 4th-5th grade. We will sometimes read a school book together, but the great percentage the children read. Even my dd6 reads some of her own books simply because she is more than ready. That said, we always have at least one family read-aloud and/or audiobook going that we simply enjoy together. Nothing I’ve read in Charlotte’s writings has discouraged me in this endeavor. 

    RobinP
    Participant

    We have a compromise right now. Both my boys are10 but the youngest of them was adopted from China four years ago. He’s working on building fluency with easy chapter books. If I have a book on the topic we’re studying that he can both decode well and narrate to me, we’ll do that but honestly, most of his school work is read by me at this point. So we usually have a book I’m reading aloud and I may give my other 10yo one that he reads independently, maybe a biography or historical fiction.

    When my 23yo was up and coming we did much the same. I would be reading one aloud and he would have his own to read. I confess to reading to him more than I should have. When he was a freshman in college, his little brother was in first grade. I asked him what he wished I had done differently. He said I should have made him more independent. Of course that would have meant missing out on some great books! 🙂 But it would have better equipped him. So I’m trying to move the boys into reading more on their own.

    And, like the others, we ALWAYS have a family read-aloud going in the evenings with dad.

    TailorMade
    Participant

    Thanks, Ladies,
    I could’ve written your post, Robin.  So, that’s what we’ll continue with our younger ones.  Less, but still in place.  Wink

    Janell
    Participant

    My children have never thought of family reading as school reading. It’s just something we do together around meals and during cozy times throughout the day (all ages included). Like many of you here, we don’t watch TV apart from documentaries, so read alouds and audiobooks are our main entertainment. Yes, I categorize our read alouds as school lessons (family Bible, history, science, literature, poetry, picture/composer studies, etc) and use the SCM organizer to document it as such…But, Sh! Please don’t tell my children that it’s for school. Even my sixteen year old daughter has to listen to MOST books I read aloud. So, I hitch reading to meals and natural family gatherings. My younger children have more time with me reading their “school” books aloud while my older ones read for hours independently. All I need now is some more personal reading time for just l’il ol’ me.

    Happy reading!

    Janell
    Participant

    Something we do that isn’t considered “school”:

    We also do a daily Red Robin Reading Round where we each take turns reading aloud from individually selected books. For example, currently my dd16 reads aloud from Dooryard Stories, ds14 reads aloud Rascal by Sterling North, ds12 reads aloud poetry, ds10 reads Baldwin’s Fifty Famous Stories, ds8 and dd6 each read aloud from an Elson reader, and for a grand finale…we do a picture study (Rosa Bonheur) and then I read aloud from Ben Hur. If our daily time runs out, we just start the next day with the person we left off and keep the Red Robin Reading Round rolling. Scripture reading is during meals for man doth not live by bread alone. 🙂

    TailorMade
    Participant

    What an awesome Round Robin idea, Janell!  Thanks for sharing!

    crazy4boys
    Participant

    I know!!!  I love that idea too.  I’m going to have to implement that because we have some Mumble Mouth boys here.  I love that each person chooses something different to read.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • The topic ‘Ending point for read alouds?’ is closed to new replies.