Listening and not interrupting

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  • February 20, 2015 at 4:42 pm
    freckledgirl
    Participant

    I have 3 children ages 7 (almost 8), 5, and 2.  We do our family read aloud’s together and Im having a hard time with my 5 and 2 year old not disrupting the reading.  I feel like every other 2 minutes I have to stop mid-sentence and tell them to keep quiet.  I feel bad because its hindering my 7 year old from hearing her history books without her younger brothers making a wild ruckus.  I tried reading today during our “tea time” but then again the boys were poring tea all over the place or asking for more honey, or getting up from their seats.  Should I just send them out to play? or keep at it and teach them to sit down while reading? I am barely getting through a paragraph and by that time Im exhausted and want to give up reading.

    February 21, 2015 at 8:26 am
    HSMAMA
    Participant

    For us it was a mix of many things. My kids are now 11, 8 & 5. Over the years we’ve done things differently. My oldest two have always sat very well for reading, but my youngest…not so much. LOL When my youngest was a toddler, he was given some board books to flip through as we read. He often got up and down and moved around. If he talked, he was shushed. We did read alouds before nap times and bed times and kept everything as calm and low key as possible. When we were doing family read alouds, I kept to picture books to start. Eventually we graduated to chapter books and I’d read a chapter from a novel and then a picture book for my youngest. Our reading for school subjects, like science and history would often lose his attention, so we did these readings during our daily quiet/nap time. For school subjects, my 5 year old now gets an option, sit quietly and listen or he goes and plays quietly in his room.

    Baby steps! 🙂

    February 21, 2015 at 2:41 pm
    mamajamiah
    Participant

    I am so glad that I am not the only one going through this, too. Somedays, I picture everyone else’s homeschool in this perfectly clean, joyful, glowing environment where the children sit and listen so obediently and the mother is calmly sitting with her children at her feet just begging with their big beautiful eyes for more!!! LOL.
    Baby steps is good advice. My read-a-louds are typically done during our afternoon quiet time (while little miss toddler is sleeping) or just before putting my three boys (4, 6, 8) to bed and again, little miss toddler is settled and in bed. My 4-year-old can be very disruptive during read-a-louds but if he has a quiet thing to do with his hands (drawing, little lego, or cars on the carpet) he is usually pretty peaceful and occupied. Funny enough he is still hearing and interacting with the story. I know this because of the questions he will ask and it is so rewarding to know that he is getting something from our time (even though it is meant for the older boys).
    One thing I find helps to is to state before starting what is expected during the read-a-loud and that I won’t be reading for too long. If there is an interruption I simply stop reading and the silence is enough to get them to stop their “loudness”. They know I won’t begin again until they are paying attention and this pushes our learning time into their free time – yikes.
    I hope that helps a least a little.
    Oh, and the tea time scenario…been there and done that. Keep up the good efforts and remember…baby steps! You can do it Mama!

    February 22, 2015 at 4:54 pm
    Raines
    Participant

    My children are young (ds7, dd6, ds3, dd19 months) so I know how you feel.  Here are a few ideas that might help:

    1.  Fill your little ones love tank first.  Let them pick out some picture books and read to them for 10 or 15 or 20 minutes.  Then let them know that it is time for you to read to the older children.  My children seem to do better about entertaining themselves after I spend a little time focused on them.  This works for us most of the time.

    2.  Do your read alouds while the little ones are napping or laying on their beds for quiet time.

    3. Let your little ones do a special activity that they only get to do when  you are reading aloud.  My little ones love Legos/blocks or crayons and paper or even a snack that isn’t too messy.

    4.  Maybe lower your expectations for the little ones.  Start with having them sit for 2 minutes at a time without interrupting.  Maybe you could even set a timer and shower them with praise when they listen for 2 minutes.  Gradually work your way to more time.

    5.  When the weather permits, do your read alouds outside.  I can usually keep an eye on my little ones while reading aloud outside and my older children simply enjoy reading outside.

    HTH

     

     

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