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Angel
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 9:24am | IP Logged
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What do you do when your kids get to the age when they can read almost anything faster themselves than you can read it aloud to them... particularly with distractions from littles... but you all still enjoy the discussion aspects that go along with reading a book aloud?
I'm finally to the stage where I need to split up my read aloud times. Trying to find books that I can read to both a 13.5 yo *and* a 6/nearly 7 yo has become really difficult. The 7 yo gets up and walks away and the 13 yo could read the book better on his own. (For the record, we've been reading a lot of Bethlehem Books lately.)
So I'm thinking I may just focus on books that might be more appropriate to my 13 and almost 11 yo, and group the 6/7 yo and the 4 yos together -- stretching the 4 yos a bit here. I'm sort of at a loss of where to put my focus, though. I know I will continue to go through the Catechism with them together, and right now we're also reading The Catholic Church: The First 2000 Years. But beyond that... I'm not sure what *kind* of books to pick. From high school reading lists???
How have you managed this situation?
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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amyable
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 9:32am | IP Logged
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I don't know if this specifically addresses your question - but we had some luck taking our "discussions" to paper in the form of a reading journal. The kids were were told how much to read before writing, and were mostly allowed to "tell me anything" about the book that struck their fancy, but sometimes I would ask specific questions. We wrote in letter format: "Dear Mom," and then I'd write back "Dear Juliet" with any reactions to what *they* wrote or further questions I had. I told them not to worry about spelling, handwriting, grammar, etc because I wanted it to be loose and friendly.
This allowed *them* to read the books but still get my discussion time in.
As to which books to pick, well, we were just going through Sonlight at that time so I'm not much help there!
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 11:02am | IP Logged
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Plan on things to do with your hands while someone reads aloud.. and you can trade off with your older kids and let them work on their reading aloud skills too.
And that lets you model keeping your hands busy and listening to someone read.
I love this. My dh might read to the kids and I can sit there and listen and crochet or something.. and you can't read to yourself and crochet so..
You might even get audio books so that you can model to your kids listening while doing something.
This can work with little ones too.. they might be able to listen while building with legos or such.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Angel
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 11:19am | IP Logged
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Well... we already do quite a few audio books and everyone has something to do while we're reading. But little boys might not want to color or do clay or whatever and may wander off to get in trouble (or play war)... or what's out for them to do inevitably doesn't appeal to at least one kid... or somebody wants someone else's coloring book... or a diaper needs changed... or, you get the picture. I *do* trade off with my older kids for the actual reading, but it's usually not to keep my hands busy (I don't knit or crochet or sew, really), it's usually so I can referee a fight or change a diaper or get somebody else something to do or... the list goes on. 
I'm not sure about the book journal... I've thought about it, but the problem is me and the time I need to spend with little ones. If I can get everybody to sit down at the same time so we all are reading the same thing it's a lot easier to discuss than expecting me to read all the same books at some other time on my own. Since I weaned my 2 yo, I have zero time to read to myself because it takes me over an hour to wrestle him to bed at night, and that was my only reading time, really.
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 2:23pm | IP Logged
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We are at the age splitting time too- been there for a couple of years but I am so loathe to leave our together relaxed time. But it needs to be done! I have the 7 yo toe 15yo spread as well...
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Kristie in Canada
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ekbell
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 7:16pm | IP Logged
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I've found with my oldest child (who's eleven) that it's worked better to read the books separately and then discuss them together. Or she'll tell me a bit about the book she's currently reading and we'll discuss that.
It's not a factor of age as she ceased having patience for read-alouds as soon as she could read well (after having her continually finish the book between read-alouds and then not want to listen I gave up).
So I read aloud to my eight and six year olds who love being read to and my oldest occasionally pokes her nose in, particularly when she has already read the book but is free to do other work or meander off if she wishes.
What I do is have a stack of books starting with ones for the youngest up to the eight year old. I call children when it's their 'turn' but all those who are interested can come earlier and stick around as long as they behave (some books overlap, some don't). I discuss what my oldest is reading later while we're doing chores.
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melanie
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 9:12am | IP Logged
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We still do some read alouds...even with my 13yo! She is dyslexic though, and though she now reads well, she doesn't really enjoy it and doesn't read much on her own unless I require it...but she loves audiobooks, and she loves to have read alouds. We use MODG, so usually I will pick one or two of the hardest history or religion books required for that year to do as read alouds (we read The Histories by Herodotus this year. Yikes.) Or I might use something listed as a supplemental book in the syllabus...since we have a hard enough time getting her through the required stuff, I never have her read the supplemental stuff herself. I have used some books off of Elizabeth's Real Learning list, and The Read-Aloud Handbook has some great recommendations for reading aloud even to older kids. I've also recently requested a Bethlehem Books catalouge for ideas, but it hasn't come yet. Sometimes she does enjoy listening to me read old favorites to the youngers too. I'm reading the Little House series to my 9yo right now, and she often listens in. I think she is getting different things out of it at the age she is now than she did when she was his age, especially now that we are hitting the books where Laura was about her age.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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Shell
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 11:45am | IP Logged
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I found it was better to read the books seperately (or in my case skim them!) and then have my dd narrate or just talk about what she'd read. She would tell me what she liked, didn't like, thought of-the story and we would find subject areas to discuss.
Nowadays (she's 16) she will still tell me about what she's reading even when I haven't had chance to read ahead of her.
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Lori
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 6:41pm | IP Logged
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I did separate read-alouds for my 11yo and my little ones...always found my 11yo sneaking back into the room to listen to the little ones' stories, too, as we missed some of them when he was younger! :-)
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Topic: reading aloud to older kids
