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domchurch3
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 10:29am | IP Logged
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How much reading in the form of Read-Alouds do mothers do in a day? How do you all pick the books you will read to your children? I see all these typepad blogs with "Basket Books" in the sidebars and I feel guilty that I'm not reading enough to my daughter.
Also, sometimes I see a spark of interest in my 5 year old daughter, but when I try to find books to feed that interest, I end up frustrated at the lack of choices from the library.
With Advent and Christmas coming up I want to buy all the great books I read about on blogs and catalogs, but budget won't allow and my library does not carry them.
Any Advice would be very much appreciated,
Elizabeth
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ShawnaB
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 10:40am | IP Logged
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Elizabeth, I hear your frustration. As I have moved along this homeschooling journey, I more and more find that read alouds form the core of my curriculum. If I want to introduce a new concept to my kids, I usually do so by reading about it to them. I often wish I could read more, and I think the key for me in making time is really coming to believe that reading aloud is ENOUGH, and that it truly has great educational value in itself. When I try to fit read-alouds in around the edges of our "real" curriculum....whatever that is!, then I find that I'm not reading as much as I'd like. Reading to children is time consuming. If space is not alloted for it in the day, then it does not happen around here. I have really changed in my thinking about this over the years. I used to read to my kids when everything else was finished. Now I read first, and if nothing else gets done, that's OK.
As for the library situation, does your library have an interlibrary loan program? We are very rural here, but our library system will pull books from other branches, and from other library systems, and almost any title is available. It can take a while to get the books in, but with so many great "Book Basket" lists out there, its easier to plan ahead and order up the books.
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Shawna, wife of Jacob, mom to Abraham 8 Amelia 5 and Jillian & Jonathan age 3 years http://www.psalm121family.com
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marianne
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 10:54am | IP Logged
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I spend a couple of hours a day reading out loud, but it is split up between 5 children right now, so they aren't all listening for 2 hours. I usually do about an hour for my big kids during school time (some science non-fiction, a chapter or two out of a chapter book, and maybe another something); and then, I spend a couple of sessions with my little kids reading picture books. We usually read about five at bedtime, plus some during the day.
Why doesn't your library have a good selection? My library might not have exactly what I'm looking for, but I can usually find plenty of options, maybe that I've never heard of, but still good.
I usually choose books based on recommendations off of people's blogs, or curriculum (Sonlight, for example), or just what looks good as I browse the library or bookstore.
You can't do too much reading aloud, especially to a 5 year old!
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ahappyheart
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
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Hi Elizabeth,
I read from four books a day out loud: bible or saints, history, science and one read aloud. It really doesn't take long. I chose books I think the children will enjoy. I try not to stress over not being able to find recommended books, necessarily, and just give myself permission so to speak to read what I do find at our thrifts or through paper back swap or at the library.
I do go through our history and science and try to match up go along titles, like if we are studying Columbus I try to find a read aloud that relates. I cannot afford to buy the best book available on Columbus necessarily so what I mean by permission to myself is, I just do the best I can with what I have and can get at our library.
Susan Marie
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 2:26pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth, I totally sympathize with your feelings of not doing enough read aloud. My problem is different, though. Every time I try to have read aloud time with my older daughter she wants nothing to do with it. The only time she wants read aloud time is before bedtime. And she will not "read" anything that I pick out. For the most part she has no interest in any book without pictures. There was a short period where we were reading Rainbow Fairy books my Daisy Meadows and a few Nancy Drew Clue Crew books. Now she's bored with them.
The closest thing to the classics that we've ever made it through was "The Wizard of Oz". I've tried to talk her into "The Black Stallion" since she loves horses; I've tried "Little House in the Big Woods" but the closest she would come is a few of the My First Little House books. Now she's not even interested in those.
The whole thing is very frustrating. She grabs all these books from the library, but then she doesn't want to read half of them. She'll look through the pictures and assumes that she knows the whole story. I'm really hoping that things will improve once she can read on her own. And books-on-tape are a total bust, too. I think she just may be too visual of a person.
And I can totally understand what Shawna says about having to prioritize read aloud time. It is one of those things that quickly slips through the cracks. In fact, I need to make it more of a priority to sit down with my little one every morning and read. I think my older daughter's attitude has discouraged me; and that's not really fair to the younger one.
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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JuliaT
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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IN thinking about how I was going to respond to your question, I realized that read alouds are a big chunk of our day. EAch child has a book that I read to them. We have read alouds for science and history. My dd could read these by herself but I am not sure of the level of comprehension so, for now, I read these to her. I also read from the picture book basket in the afternoons.
I get book suggestions from people's blogs and reading lists from websites. Our library is very small and does not always have a great selection. But we are able to do inter-library loan which is a huge help.
Blessings
Julia
mom of 3 (8,6,4)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 4:09pm | IP Logged
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If you don't have interlibrary loan (ours cost more than buying the books outright), then a great place to find books is friends of the library booksales (twice a year around here, they have big sales with most books 25 cents each). A lot are twaddle but there are some real treasures tucked in as well. Another source of books is used book sales from other venues and even garage sales. The cheapest source of books is other families that are willing to do some book swaps with us - that way we both get twice the reading pleasure for half the cost. I have basically decided that a bigger part of my school budget each year is for good books - and we make do with curriculum's and textbooks that are already here if we must choose. This seems to be a better investment of our limited funds. Even if the children don't read it the first year it is on the shelf, there is at least one child that falls in love with the book eventually.
As far as read-alouds. I do at least 2 a night. Then we have the morning read -aloud with family devotions (this is generally a short Bible passage plus a life of the Saint - and we alternate who picks it out). I do other read alouds with my 5 year old during the day - generally he picks the book but I occassionally slip one in of my choice. I pretty much cull twaddle from the shelves (with a few exceptions of child's real favorites) so I'm fine with anything they select. We do not do a lot of reading aloud in history or science with olders but we do end up with various debates, discussions, projects, and recommendations for or against books among this crowd that will draw the youngers in and entice them to ask for a book on different things. It also means there is a lot of shared information and the two oldest generally will read something they may not pick up on their own but that their sibling read and recommends to them. I get in on the action occassionally talking about a book I think they may like.
Janet
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domchurch3
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 4:48pm | IP Logged
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Thank you all for responding. I love what Susan Marie wrote about giving herself permission not to use the recommended books if she can't find them from the library. I think I need to give myself a break sometimes.
Do you all save the projects and crafts for the "rabbit trails" or do you all plan the projects and crafts around the book selections before presenting both the book and project to your child?
For those that plan, how far in advance do you plan?
Blessings,
Elizabeth
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joann10
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| Posted: Nov 27 2007 at 5:06pm | IP Logged
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I probably read 2 hours aloud each day. I like to plan for one of the read alouds a school quarter ahead of time. This usually includes historical fiction which sends us off on a "rabbit trail".
For most of the other reading we do--right now I am treasuring all the inspiration I get from the Christmas Mosaic. My library's interloan system is wonderful and I find most of my books there. 
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ahappyheart
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| Posted: Nov 28 2007 at 11:31pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth,
I have done both, saving of ideas to go with books and planning of ideas to go with books. I find now that my kids are older, they are 10, 9 and 7, I do less rabbit trail planning. If they are interested in something I tend to help them find more instead of me picking out possible go alongs and organizing activities to go with.
I use a spiral notebook for planning. I just write down ideas for making notebook pages as I read through the textbooks I chose for this year. I use the textbooks as a guide for what to study and find go along read alouds and readers on some but not all of the topics covered in the textbooks.
I also use a book called All Through the Ages to find go along living books for topics we are studying. I wish I had known about a Catholic type All Through the Ages before I purchased this but I didn't. I bet there is such a thing, maybe at the RC History site.
Anyway the All Through the Ages helps me to know what I might look for in recommended books for the kids to go with time periods. I don't find all the stuff since much of our homeschool books are thrift or paperback book swap finds but sometimes I run across good deals on recommeded books through the CATHSWAP yahoo group. Anyway, planning is an ongoing thing that I do as I read. Oh, I also find books for me to read aloud and for them to read to themselves. It takes a lot of books to keep them all going. LOL.
Oh and for liturgical year studies I use Catholic Mosiac and the Big Book of Catholic Activities as my inspiration for books and topics to cover.
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Read-Aloud Questions
