Thursday, May 21, 2009

Read Aloud Thursday ::: What Is & Isn't Working

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I thought I would share just a bit about our chapter book read-alouds this week ... and what didn't work for us!

I read to the girls at breakfast and lunch while they eat. At breakfast, we read through the Jesus Storybook Bible and usually end up doing one story, sometimes two, depending on the day. (I usually try to keep it to just one because they usually finish breakfast sometime during story #2 and I don't like leaving a story half finished). :)

At lunch, we read our current chapter book. We had been working our way through The Secret Garden. I had picked it out and thought it would be appropriate because of spring and garden time and the fact that we are working on our own garden. However, I learned that for my 5 and 3 year old it was just to hard for them to follow. The dialect is so thick and there is so much descriptive text ... they just aren't ready for it yet. So, we returned to the Little House Series and are working our way across the prairie right now. :)

The girls LOVE the "Mary and Laura book" and really do pay attention well to it. One thing that they love is that it is about three sisters, just like we have three sisters as they are wont to tell me over and over. :) Also, while the life of the Ingalls was much simpler than ours there are so many similarities that tie to us today. The other day while we were reading, the passage talked about how Ma took off her apron. Well, N1 asked what an apron was and I told her ... she has one for her play kitchen and proceeded to go get it and wear it the rest of the day. :) I loved it!

I'm not sure if' we'll continue on with Mary and Laura after we finish this book. The homeschool tutorial that N1 will be attending this fall will be covering early American History throughout the year and I would like to save some of the books to read during that time. However, we'll see. I'm enjoying rereading this classic favorites (and for me comfort reading) just as much as they are.

For more Read Aloud Thursday, please visit Hope in the Word!

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:26 AM

    Yay for LHOTP!!! You know we love it!

    I love overview, personal-experience posts like this one. Thanks for sharing your picks and pans--I'll know to hold off on The Secret Garden for a few more years. ; )

    Thanks for playing!

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  2. Great post! It was nice hearing the thoughts and ideas behind what you do.

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  3. We finished Farmer Boy recently and my guys loved it! We watched a couple of episodes of Little House on DVD from the library last week. Not the same thing - but close. I think it helped my oldest to better understand all the farming terms. It's not like we see oxen drawn plows around here. :)

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Thanks for commenting!

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