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So much reading aloud
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Hello all! I love the CM method and for the most part, my kids seem to be adjusting well to it (our first year implementing it). However, sometimes I feel like there is so much of me reading to them for our different subjects that 1) they start getting confused with which book is for what lesson/subject and 2) that they start to tune out after so much reading. I try to stagger our reading times by following a reading heavy subject with math, Latin, or grammar. And they do narrations, but they sometimes have a hard time keeping everything straight. Any thoughts on this or suggestions? Am I doing something wrong? My kids are 11, 9, and 7. I combine them all for history (Early Modern), literature, music study, artist study, and any other enrichments we do.
I have a few suggestions. Too many books going at one time can be tedious and can lead to burnout. Here are some things we do:
-Don’t read each book every day. Stagger the books. For example: History on Monday and Wednesday, Science on Tuesdays and Thursdays, literature and poetry on Fridays.
-Make use of audio books so that you aren’t drained and so that your kids can experience some books on their own. I find it naturally leads to narrations because my kids are excited to share what happened in the book they are listening to. My kids listen in their rooms or on their MP3 players.
-Enjoy an audio book together when you are on a long drive. http://www.librivox.org is a great place to find some classics. This year my kids have listened to Wizard of Oz, some of the Narnia books, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird (my high schooler), and they are getting ready to start Peter Pan.
We have done Early Modern Times and really enjoy it.
Are reading the books for 4th-6th grade aloud?
I read the family books and 1st – 3rd books aloud, but my DD reads the 4th-6th to herself. I preread them over the summer so that I can still have conversations with her about them and know if her narrations are doing well, but I don’t read them aloud.
I read aloud History (usually one book/day), Science, and family literature book. I usually read family literature book either at breakfast or lunch and don’t require narrations for that. My older kids (5th and 3rd grade) read to me daily from their literature book so there are often people reading, but I don’t feel that I have to read too much.
We don’t read for music/composer study (we just listen during lunch). Poetry is one poem/week so that is pretty short. Artist study we use the picture portfolios so I read a little, but not every week, as part of picture study.
Make sure you are keeping a session of reading short so they build their listening & narrating skills. Then, gradually, you can lengthen the reading if appropriate.
You could also stagger the children’s narrations in a reading. Read a small portion then ask one child to narrate. Read a little more and call on the next child to narrate, etc.
I have been working on spreading the books out through the week so we aren’t cramming them all into the same day. Read-alouds are our favorite part of school. 🙂
Thank you, Ladies! Some very good advice. I have been reading bios for art and music study…I think I might put those aside and maybe do them for read alouds when we are on summer break. For now, maybe just looking at the art and listening to the music will be enough. That would lessen our reading load. And I think having them take turns narrating after only a page or two would be helpful. I really appreciate your help!
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