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read aloud logistics
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I have been reading books lately that have mentioned the idea of reading aloud to your kids for longer periods of time, up to 45-60 minutes at a time (Educating the Wholehearted Child, Teaching the Trivium). We have always read at bedtime, but my kids go to bed early so there’s not that long of time available. I also have a 1 year old, so we are doing this time period during her morning nap.
All my kids love reading aloud, and I do too, so today we tried it. We have several books that we’ve been reading, so I just kind of consolidated all of it into one session of about an hour. During this time we read a picture book, 2 Aesop’s Fables, portions from 2 short chapter books, and one longer chapter book (biography). It felt so fractured and I think it needs some tweaking. My idea is that DS9 and DD6.75 will practice their reading aloud by reading a picture book each day to DD4.75. Then I had another chapter book that my 6.75yo had been reading aloud, another that I’d been reading to DD4.75, and another longer one that we’d all been reading together. I feel like if I just go from one book to another we don’t get to stop and process it. Should I only read one book per day for the whole time? Please help! These are not “school books” persay, with the exception of Aesop’s Fables which my 6.75 yo has been using for narration practice.
I do have them down on the floor with an activity to keep their hands busy and that works well. My oldest said it was great to read so much and he wished we could have read longer.
All right in a row would probably make me batty. 😉 But other people wouldn’t mind at all.
We just read from 1 book at a time in a session generally, one to several chapters in a row. Shorter books we often have during our morning basket or just before or after a meal.
I dont know how much help I will be as I am not a seasoned CMer but I will share the way we do our reading here, maybe it will give you ideas. If I read multiple subjects and books in one sitting I would go batty as well. I think the kids would probably be fine with it though. My kids are 7, 10 and 13. We all do morning reading about 30 minutes, that includes Bible and storybooks, we also go over memorywork at this time, I dont require my olders to stay for picture books but they usually choose to. We then do our table work. Late morning we meat again on the couch for history, that includes any spines, reference books or related architecture etc that may fit with history, then a chapter or two from a biography or historical fiction, another 30 minutes. We then break for lunch and finishing tablework. Around 2:00 we come back to the couch for a family read aloud and/or science, 30 minute to 1 hour depending on experiments or interest. This would be an ideal day of course, most days are not ideal, but I am usually able to get in at least two sessions. Our day does run long, but only because we take lots of breaks and try to enjoy our time. Hope that helps a bit. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to read aloud, as long as you are all enjoying the time and you can consistently do it.
A different perspective:
We do all our together stuff at one time, at the kitchen table. Keep in mind, my daughters are 12, 10, 8, and 7 yrs old. And we’ve homeschooled from the beginning, and I’ve always read aloud to them.
I try to mix up our readings, though. So today’s order was science, artist study, Bible memory. Then a wee short break (potty, drinks to bring to the table). Then our read aloud. Then our plus/minus flascards. Then our history reading (while they drew related pictures). Composer study (Spike Jones youtube video).
Snack was in there somewhere, too. That took us 1.5 hours.
Things like artist and composer study don’t happen everyday…or on the same day. I was trying to catch up.
But the bottom line is to do what works for your situation. My girls couldn’t always sit that long…..or even sit at the table! Probably next week I’ll have to change our routine!
What works this month may not work next month. And that is OKAY!
As for reading we’ve decided that we don’t like reading a book only once a week……we are doing that for our Shakespeare play, but not for anything else. So that impacts what we do each day, too. We like to read our read alouds at least twice a week…..but not every week is perfect!
Hope that helps some.?
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