Right now, we have a good read-aloud system for breakfast and lunch. At breakfast, while munchkins are eating, I read aloud one story from the Jesus Storybook Bible. At lunch, we try and get through one chapter of our current chapter book read-aloud. Right now, we're working our way through The Secret Garden. I'll be honest and say that, of late, this read-aloud time has not been without difficulty. E is getting more vocal and so we are doing more sit-and-listen training while we do our reading ... thus, sometimes we don't get as much read as we would like. I'm planning on continuing this time because we all love it.
What I am going to try to do additionally: especially at lunchtime, our read-aloud seems to whet our appitites for more booktime. And, as that is right before our resttime, what I want to try and fold into our schedule a time of reading with just my big girls (5 & 3). I'll go ahead and put E down for her nap time at 1-ish and then read with the big girls for another 1/2 hour. I would like to eventually get us to an hour of reading aloud together before their rest time (they don't nap anymore) but realize that will take some time to work up to. Not to leave E (23 months) out, I want to try and have a little reading time with just her before she goes down for her nap, training her to sit still for longer times of reading. (My oldest was like E - very uninterested in sitting still for reading until she was about two and then all of a sudden it clicked and now she can't get enough of it!)
As far as a book list ... I'll probably post some in a separate post. We're reading lots of books on Spring and Easter right now and as I mentioned before, our chapter read-aloud is The Secret Garden. I'm not sure if we'll finish that in April (it's moving slower for us than past read-alouds) so I'm not sure what is up next after that! :)
Happy reading! And for more Read Together posts, click over to our host Jennifer at Snapshot!
Great post, Stephanie! I try to read with my girlies for 20-30 minutes before rest time, in addition to what we do at other times during the day. I've tried to think of what I could do for Jennifer's challenge since we already read aloud together so much, and I think increasing the amount of time we actually read together each day is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI would love for you to share your read alouds at Read Aloud Thursday, as well. I am especially interested in hearing about The Secret Garden once you finish that.
An hour is quite commendable. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great set of goals! I think it is a wonderful idea to read with the older ones by themselves, and I'm sure they will appreciate it as well.
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