I’m wondering how much you read aloud during your schooling with your children? I read aloud most of our subjects to my son who is 8, but he is very capable of reading much more on his own. As I plan for his next year when he is nine, should I continue to read aloud all of our history, science, and literature books each day they are scheduled or should I pass it off to him with us having 1 read aloud book per day? I will also have a 6 year old daughter, so I suppose I’ll be reading aloud to her too anyway.
Using CM methods, how much does one encourage independent learning?
My 9yo son is a good reader and took on more of his own reading this year. He reads a lit. book every day and a history reader 3x/wk. He also reads a ch. from the Bible every day. My kids also read for 30 min. before bed from a book basket I keep in their room of books I’ve chosen (they pick the order to read them in). He narrates everything excpet the bedtime readings.
Together, I read history, science, geography, and a character book to the kids (9 and 12). Next year, I plan to have them both doing their own science readings, too. I know CM advocated kids being responsible for their own learning…but I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rules…just depends on your kids, I believe. I think it’s helpful to just slowly increase and make sure the independent reading is appropriate for the child’s level. Sometimes buddy reading a difficult book can help get them started and they can finish on their own. HTH some:) Gina
My boys are 11, 11, 8 and 5. I read aloud pretty much everything although we all read the scriptures outloud as a family . The older boys have either a history or science book to read on their own and they’re always reading a literature type book on the side as well. Next year my plan (crossing my fingers, knocking on wood) is that the older boys will continue to listen to everything outloud except for science. They’ll be moving into Apologia General Science and will be working on that, on their own. They’ll continue to have history books assigned to read on the side, but I’ll read the main “spine” or family readings out loud, then I’ll read the ‘younger’ books outloud to the littles while the olders work on their ‘older’ readings.
I’ll read aloud as long as they’ll let me! But I’ll slowly be handing off work so they can learn to be independent – it’s bittersweet.
If I remember correctly, Miss Mason says they should be reading their lesson books on their own by 5th grade. If we continue to read their lesson books to them beyond that age, it can become a crutch. That being said, I plan to read literature aloud to my children until they grow up and move out. lol I think family read aloud time is precious…they never outgrow that.
As far as lesson books, I plan to make a slow transition. My oldest will be in 3rd grade next year and is a very fluent reader. I plan to assign more history and science for her to read on her own, separatee from what I’ll be reading aloud. Then, I’ll have her narrate to us to teach us some things we maybe haven’t covered in the other readings. She will listen to the read alouds also. I will probably never discourage her from sitting in on read alouds, but as she gets older and more capable, her lesson book readings will become meatier and she will be gleaning most of the information she needs on her own.
I think (though we all know things change) that I will read aloud the spine content while I have at least one child in their first time through the six modules. Does that make sense? So for my youngest, once she is through all six modules for the first time then everyone will be at that independent stage. Those entering fourth grade would get some additional material to read on their own and again when they are in seventh grade. My oldest is currently 9 1/2 and not a strong reader. This is the first year she is assigned an independent reading book at her level that we choose together. She does narrate but they are more for fun so if she misses things I am okay with that and then I don’t have to read them as well. Maybe by the time our youngest is in the second go around with the modules I will feel comfortable leaving more spine reading as independent reading but maybe not. Learing in an auditory manner is a vital skill and done daily in traditional schools as well as in the work force, church, etc. so I want my kids to be able to comprehend information from listening to a speaker so maybe I will never quit reading the basic lessons.
Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
The topic ‘How much do you read aloud?’ is closed to new replies.