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JennGM
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Encouraging...Read Alouds
I think this has been mentioned before, but I have been so inspired by the above thread...and noticed there are book titles mentioned that I think "Oh yeah, I wanted to read that!" or "Oh, I never heard of that one!" or "I completely forgot about that one."
So, how do you choose your read-alouds? Do you follow suggested lists? Is it willy-nilly? Planned by themes?
What do you follow for suggestions?
Thanks, ladies!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
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Paula in MN
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I completely go with books recommended from everyone here. There, I admitted it.
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 Paula
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Mackfam
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Paula in MN wrote:
| I completely go with books recommended from everyone here. There, I admitted it. |
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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| Posted: May 19 2010 at 6:59pm | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
| So, how do you choose your read-alouds? Do you follow suggested lists? Is it willy-nilly? Planned by themes? |
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Hmmmm...
Sometimes/a lot of times it's by theme...something coming up that is historic or significant (Lincoln's birthday, liturgical Feast, a lunar eclipse, natural phenomenon).
Sometimes it's willy-nilly - we have a great family library (we inherited most of it) and I just stroll through looking at books and pick something that *grabs* me.
Sometimes I do like Paula, and follow a recommendation from here! 
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Paula in MN
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That's because great minds think alike. 
When we go off on a rabbit trail, or when I am in planning mode for a new year, I always search this forum for books. I also look at the books I have on my shelves here at home. And I look through my books-about-books to see what is listed. I've always come up with plenty of great books that way.
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Paula
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DianaC
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We try to incorporate read-alouds into various parts of our day and often choose based on what we're studying, but try to fit in others that spark an interest. Books recommended in the Sonlight catalog are a hit here 99.9% of the time. We've also read several that were recommended in threads here at 4real. We also use Picture Perfect Childhood for topical and seasonal recommendations.
In the mornings, we spend time with devotions - reading the daily scriptures and a short devotion, then a chapter of something that pertains to our Faith or Catholic Culture. This year, that has included Rare Catholic Stories, Devotional Stories for Little Folks, The Father Brown Reader, (all from CHC) or selections from the Faith and Freedom Readers from Seton. Currently,for the Easter season we are reading The First Christiansas it follows along nicely with the daily readings of the Acts of the Apostles. In general, we try to fit special books in with various seasons. For the summer, we'll be reading St. Patrick's Summer.
Then we also do evening read-alouds before bed. Often, we will try to fit in books from our study of history or geography and work in some books just for fun in between. We just finished Carry on Mr. Bowditch and Johnny Tremainwhich fit into our colonial american period of study and Listening for Lionswhich fit our study of Africa. During Advent, we read Jotham's Journey For fun this year, some of the books we've read were Heidi, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Half Magic, The Secret Garden, and some various picture books that caught our eyes.
I had thought we would also have tea and read-alouds in the afternoons this year, but we haven't been able to fit that in.
I'm also interested in seeing everyone's ideas of fitting more read-alouds into our day.
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Angel
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JennGM wrote:
So, how do you choose your read-alouds? Do you follow suggested lists? Is it willy-nilly? Planned by themes?
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Yes. (All of the above.)
Our read alouds in the morning usually have to do with faith and with history. Although sometimes if people are interested I will pull in something related to science or nature study. (I used to do that more often when my big kids were younger.) I often choose those books based on recommendations from here or other people's blogs or booklists (like the ones from RC History, Sonlight, Ambleside Online, etc. etc.) Or, actually, come to think of it, we often do our classic literature at that time, too. But usually that's also linked to our history for the year.
Bedtime books for the little boys (the 7 and 4 yos) are usually picked based on their interests or from books we've already read to our older kids. Right now the little boys are on a Biggles kick. I learned about Biggles from SallyT's blog, and my little ones will be forever grateful. They love Biggles.
I'm trying to figure out how to work in more reading aloud, especially to my 7 yo who is getting a bit of a gyp, I think, being the middle child in a large family. He listens to lots of books on audio, but... it's not exactly the same.
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Angela
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JuliaT
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I use the Ambleside Online book lists for our school reading. For family read alouds and unit study books, I garner my choices from suggestions from message boards, blogs and searching through Amazon.
It is important to me to have a great home library. We live 20 min. away from the library and it is just easier for me to buy the books so they are easily accessible. I come across books for our library by literally going through the books section in the Rainbow Resource catalog and buy books that I think would interest me. Right now we are up to the C's  We also make a few trips to the big city, which is 3 ours away. I try very hard to finagle my way to Chapters (Canadian version of Barnes and Noble.) The Chapters found in this city has one of the best Chapters children's sections in Canada (believe me, I have been to quite a few) so I go through the fiction section carefully and pick out books that complete series or that I think look interesting.
We went to the big city yesterday, actually. I am still giddy with my book purchases.
For family read alouds, I let the kids chose which books they would like to read next. Each child has their turn to pick. When we are ready for a book, we march downstaire (where the books are kept.) I go through the shelves and pick 3 or 4 out for each child and they can pick from those choices. My oldest doesn't need choices she knows exactly whch ones she wants. I also get to choose so I pick the ones that we have had for a long time but just haven't gotten around to yet.
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ekbell
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It depends
Last year was spent reading through a children's anthology- pausing to read the full version of particularly enjoyed stories.
I buy the children classic children's books for their stockings, which became our Read-alouds for the new year, this year. I usually look at various lists when deciding which books to buy.
Our non-fiction read-alouds are normally chosen by theme or request (my children would be seriously annoyed if 'couch time' failed to have a reasonable amount of history, folklore and science.
Other times, I just poke around our bookcases for something that appeals.
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Christine
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Our family takes turns choosing read-alouds. Oftentimes, the book will have been received as a gift or for finishing 9 weeks of lessons. Sometimes, the children simply choose something that they have read on their own that they would like the rest of the family to hear. Occasionally, my husband will ask for two or three options and then he will pick the book that sounds the most interesting to him at the time. I guess that we are willy-nilly when it comes to read-alouds.
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Christine
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dakotamidnight
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We read whatever we find really - I do try to read books that are better written grammatically as some of the children's books published recently are horrid for grammar! Ours tends to be a lot of vintage items as I buy used a lot at thrift shops.
We also like to read books about animals - right now we're working our way through the Thornton Burgess books that tie in so nicely with Beatrix Potter!
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Read-Aloud Inspiration
