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Anyone read aloud with highschoolers?


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Yes, I do. My dd (entering ninth) loves to have history and some popular science read aloud to her. We have some wonderful conversations this way as we go. I also read newspaper articles and the like aloud sporadically.

 

Dh also reads to her every night, from books they choose together (sci/fi and fantasy, Wodehouse, Chesterton, mostly British authors).

 

She's a powerful auditory learner, so this works well although it does require more input/participation from me than I had expected. But I find that I really like it. It's companionable, stimulating, and a lot of fun. Plus it's a bonus to me in that I'm sure this will only go on for a few more years, and then either she'll be off at community college classes or doing more alone or away, and I'll miss learning right along beside her.

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I have read aloud at night as part of the bedtime routine since they were little. I have an 18, 14, 10, and 8 year old. I generally read a book to the two older (we are reading Things Fall Apart right now), and a book to the younger two (we are reading Johnny Tremain). We have read many of the Sonlight titles. I really enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird and Farenheit 451. My oldest really liked Sherlock Holmes, so we read quite a few of those. We enjoyed some Agatha Christie (sp?) and we've enjoyed several Charles Dickens books -- we just finished Oliver Twist (everyone wanted to hear that, so we had everyone reading that together). The Charles Dickens books last quite a while ;). I have unashamedly used our evening read-alouds to include books I knew wouldn't be read on their own (e.g., Jane Eyre) and books that I didn't read growing up because noone pointed me toward the classics :glare:. On my to-read-aloud list is Heart of Darkness, Pride and Prejudice, and Animal Farm.

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Yes, I think our last read aloud was when our two dc were in ninth and twelfth grade, and we (Mom) read The Hiding Place. We read it first, and then we watched the movie. Both kiddos enjoyed it. I couldn't get through some parts without swallowing the lump in my throat, shedding some tears, and blowing my nose, though. So be forewarned to keep the kleenex handy, if you read The Hiding Place.

 

Susan

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Oh, yes. I've been reading the Father Brown mysteries to the boys, an Agatha Christie recently, and we re-read Swallows and Amazons every summer.

 

We also enjoy audio books, which we listen to while working on projects, sewing (me), block printing and model boat building (boys). Return of the Native read by Alan Rickman is our all time favorite. Voyage of the Narwhal was also quite good.

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Yes, I read aloud to our 9th grader and even read aloud to our college-age son. We're are currently reading Wish You Well by David Baldacci and A Pioneer Sampler by Barbara Greenwood. We read everything from children's books to classics. The Mitford books were a hit because of the dialogue.

 

Bonita

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We still read aloud as a family, but the books have grown with my children. Sometimes, when I have enough energy and time, I read a separate book with my littles. Much as I love it, though, I have found it harder to find the evening time together. With sports, extracurriculars, church and our date night, it's hard to find several consecutive nights!

 

Lisa

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I'm down to only two left in school and they are both in highschool. I really miss the read aloud times we used to have. Anyone still read aloud with older kids? What are some of your favorite titles? Thanks!!

 

I read C.S. Lewis' Problem of Pain out loud to my 12th grader last year. Not because he couldn't do it on his own, but because we enjoyed the time together.

 

My current 10th grader will often read poetry or a classic out loud on slow paced evenings. She doesn't do it systematically but will generally pick something that we are all familiar with pick an exciting chapter and read until her voice gives out. Jane Austin is a big hit around our house.

 

Of course I still have lots of younger ones to read to and I have my middle aged ones read aloud to me as part of the school day.

 

I remember my parents reading to each other...

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Also, in Lee Binz's DVD teaching, "Preparing to Home School High School," she says she read out loud to her boys through high school using the Kaplan score-raising books. I just found one (Frankenstein) at a sale but haven't located other titles yet. One page has the text to read and the opposite page has vocabulary words defined so they can quickly catch the word's meaning.

 

We read Screwtape Letters and Lord of the Rings (audiobooks) and just finished The Yearling. That was hard to read aloud because of the southern twang.

 

BLessings,

Julie

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This year, she is in 10th grade, and we (she & dh & I) are currently on the second book in the Harry Potter series (Chamber of Secrets), having already read Sorcerer's Stone together, and other books as well. We never did many family read-alouds together when ER was home, but since he's gone off to college, we really enjoy them. He's a visual learner and does. not. like. to be read to.

 

We generally do read-alouds that go along with our history studies. Last year, for example, we studied Ancients, and we read Mara, Daugher of the Nile; Hittite Warrior; and sections of the Iliad and the Odyssey, plus others I can't think of right now.

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I still read to my son, who's 16. We usually have one serious type novel going, plus one for fun. I love to read Pratchett's Discworld books to him, especially the Death ones. Sometimes we have to stop from all the laughing, and occasionally we still have to stop until I quit crying.

 

We love the Tiffany Aching series! Love Death addressing the wee free men in the underworld: "OH NO NOT YOU AGAIN! WE'RE STILL FINDING THE BOTTLES FROM LAST TIME!"

 

:D

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So, it seemed natural to read aloud all the way through high school, too. Now that ds is in college on the rare occasions we have lunch together we sometimes take turns; one reads while the other makes lunch, and we trade off for clean-up. Dorothy Sayers is a favorite, and sometimes--just for fun and auld lang syne--ds pulls out Hank the Cowdog. We both enjoyed Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence books too, but it's been several years since we read them together. I used to joke with ds that he saved his best commentary for our lunchtime read-alouds.

 

This summer, instead of reading, he entertained me with some of the insights shared in his ancient legacies seminar. We had a lot of fun with one classmate's comparison of Odysseus to Captain Kirk.

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Even dh and I love to read aloud together! Just the two of us! But when the sad parts come, we have to trade off reading more often 'cause we're both saps and cry easily when reading books.

 

We all read the last HP book aloud together, all 4 of us taking turns reading aloud to the others, because noone wanted to be the last to find out what happened, and we didn't want to fight over the book. It was So Much Fun!

 

I wish we had more time to read aloud together like we used to, but life is too busy right now with me working full time and now especially with dh gone to the oil spill for so long. But we have a couple books lined up for when he gets back!

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I just wanted to say "Thank you!" to everyone who has responded so far. My oldest will be in high school next year and I was just wondering if I should stop reading aloud sometime soon. We read all kinds of things from Sonlight and classics to total junk just for fun. I feel encouraged to keep it up now!

 

Thanks everyone!

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I read aloud to my middle child until ~11th grade. Then it was just too hard to fit it in with reading aloud everything to her brother who was in 5th grade but dyslexic. I read all his schoolwork to him at that age except his readers.

 

During the last year or two, I had gotten away from reading aloud to ds, but given what we've recently learned about his processing speed & reading fluency, and the fact that his auditory attention is so much better than his visual attention, I have gone back to reading aloud for this school year. I will be reading a history text and a literature selection. We will use audio files for some of his other work while he follows along in the book, and some things he'll read for himself. He just learns so much more efficiently through the auditory channel that reading aloud is a good fit for us right now.

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I did, and now that he's in college, he sends me his booklist and highlights the books he thinks I'll like. I read them, and we discuss discuss them. It is my very favorite thing about having homeschooled him.

 

This is a lovely story!

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I did, and now that he's in college, he sends me his booklist and highlights the books he thinks I'll like. I read them, and we discuss discuss them. It is my very favorite thing about having homeschooled him.

 

:crying: Wow! My experience is that reading to older kids is even more rewarding than reading to younger ones. I always envied couples that read to each other. Unfortunately, dh would probably fall asleep at the crucial part. Hmmm. Maybe I should Alan Rickman read to me instead.

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My 15 yr old reads to us now. We're doing Emma, currently. Our starting-college-next-week daughter is still hanging in with us. She'll be living at home, so she'll probably still be at our reading sessions unless her schedule gets too crazy.

 

My husband also insists on being at every reading session. I'm convinced it's the best sleep he gets all night.

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I read to my 7th and 10th grade dd's. They really like it. During that time they actually draw or color. Yes, my older one still colors!

 

THank you for this -- my 9th grader colors while I read, too (or builds with Legos)!

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I read all my oldest ds's history and literature aloud. This wasn't my original plan once he hit high school, but he was falling behind on reading it himself, so I took over. Actually, it's been pretty interesting. Some of the books I had read before and some I hadn't. Right now we are reading A Tale of Two Cities and Pride and Prejudice. I still read aloud to my younger ones as well - history, science, literature. They read to me too, and to themselves.

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