A mom reading to her children
The children and I finished with our first two read alouds, Willie's First Lessons in Drawing and Number Stories of Long Ago. And you know what? We are hooked! Of course, the children have always like to be read to. So I guess I should say I'm hooked. Because really, the only one who was a bit skeptical of the whole process was me. I like to read to the children but I tire quickly of the books that we get from the library. Particularly since there almost winds up being a favorite that I am asked to read over and over and over again.
But I am finding out that living books are so interesting that they draw you into the story. Even books that are written specifically for young children are still quite amusing to me. At the moment one of the books we are reading is Grammar-Land. It was definitely written for little ones but both my 13 year old and I are finding the book to be very comical.
For the past few days I have been compiling a reading list for our upcoming school year. I know that reading aloud will continue to be a success in our homeschool as long as I utilize the following guidelines for myself.
Pick books that I find interesting.
There is no sense in trying to get through a book that I find boring. After all, I am the one who is doing the reading. There's no way I will be able to read a book with expression or enthusiasm for very long if it doesn't appeal to me. Just saying...
Only read one chapter a day.
This is for the children's sake and for mine. I don't burnout from doing too much reading; and, the children are left hanging waiting for the next chapter. Charlotte Mason explained that this sparks additional interest in our children. If the chapters are too long then I will divide them up over a couple or a few nights. But, I haven't encountered that yet with the few books that we have read so far.
Allow a moderate amount of "on topic" discussion.
I don't mind if the children ask questions as I read or if they add a few relevant comments along the way. If they start saying something that is clearly unrelated to what we are reading then I remind them that we need to stay on topic. Or I might tell them to save what they have to say until we are completely done with our reading time.
Read at certain times a day.
I will definitely need to establish a routine in order to make sure that we get all of our reading in. Right now I am working on establishing reading times before breakfast, before quiet/nap time, and before bed. The Word is always our morning selection. So that leaves room for us to read two living books at a time.
