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I'm not a huge fan of reading out loud, I will admit.  I have been doing it because I do see some value in it. I'm not sure my kids like it. I allow them to play quietly while I'm reading, but then that morphs into leaving the room, or fighting with each other, or wrestling with the cat, etc.

 

So does anyone homeschool, but not do any read-alouds?

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I have had times where we did little to no read alouds.  We don't learn as much and I start to feel like we are all in our own world instead of a unit.  Maybe its your choice of book?  Choose some interesting fiction to help create a new habit.  Your kiddos are old enough to discuss appropriate behavior while reading and expect it.  And sometimes you just have to face the fact that it won't always be an idyllic scene of them sitting on the floor at your feet with faces upturned in rapt attention. :-D  Maybe a book on tape would be better suited for you and you can sit and listen doing something quietly with your hands as an example.

 

I would try to find what works for you but don't drop it all together.

 

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My kids aren't allowed to leave the room during a read loud unless it's an emergency.  When they were younger I told them to go to the bathroom before I started.  "I don't have to go!" was met with, "Give it a try anyway."  just like before we went to a church service, a movie, a long drive and such. Snacks and drinks were made available in the room with us to avoid hearing about how they were suddenly starving to death. Fighting with each other wasn't allowed. No physical fighting and no verbal fighting because talking wasn't allowed. By not allowed I don't mean disapprove of, I mean serious consistent consequences for. If one kid has to be assigned to stay in one part of the room and another kid the other part of the room, then fine. Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do.

Read really interesting books.  The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is generally appealing to most kids because it's a whole different world and kids are the main characters. Ralph Moody's Little Britches is generally appealing to most kids because it's a whole different lifestyle with a kid as the main character.  Try different types of books.  Riki Tikki Tavi has lots of suspense and so does the Black Stallion.  Nature, fantasy, survival, vivid descriptions, fantastical worlds, relationships, adventure, peril, love, friendship are all different themes and genres that appeal to different kids to different degrees.

Between my 3 kids and we 2 parents, 4 of us would rather rip off our ears and eat them than listen to Anne of Green Gables. We all like fantasy like The Chronicles of Narnia and  The Wizard of Oz. 3 of us would rather chew off our left pinky toes than listen to Wind in the Willows, but we all like adventures like the Little Britches series and The Black Stallion.  The Silmarillion is complete torture for  4 of us but we've all listened through The Lord of the Rings multiple times.  The Wheel on the School?  Snore! Charlotte's Web?  Yay! Heidi?  Blech! Rascal? Love!

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I don't like to read aloud. I do read one chapter book aloud in morning time, and bits and pieces as they come up during the day. I still read picture books to the littles and I do enjoy that. We do a lot of audio books.

 

This is one reason why AO did not work for me, even though I love the idea.

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The only time we do it is generally during meals and right before bed. Picture books during the meals and a good chapter book 30 mins before they fall asleep. Currently, I M reading the Adventures of Pippi Longstocking to the 2 older one. My dh takes the youngezt child and sometimes watches someone else read a book online. It's called storyline online on you tube.

 

Jim Weiss has a couple of cds for bedtime that are really good. So, if I'm tired I just play one of those books.

 

If you want to get your children interested in you reading aloud, you could make a point at stopping at a cliffhanger. They can't wait til the next night for you to read it. I don't do this all the time. :)

 

I plan on incorporating audiobooks into our homeschool lifestyle. We will start with 15 mins. Even I will be listening to a book.

 

So, I'm not a huge fan either. I used to fall asleep reading toddler books. My children wanted me to read the same book over and over and over and over. ;) the books have gotten more interesting.

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Depends on the book in our house.  How about the Little House on the Prairie series?  My DD is 7 and particularly loves that series.  I swear she'd hear it over and over again for the rest of her life and never tire. 

 

My son will listen to any and all story in any form.  My daughter will listen to audiobooks in the car or books I read aloud.  She doesn't care for audiobooks on a kindle or similar at home.  She's too active and has no patience for all the sitting still required!  My son would walk around listening to books all day if I let him.  (Of course if I ask him to read the same book (he is able to do so), he'll act as if I just suggested he stab a hot poker in his eyes.)

 

If I'm reading to them and the book isn't holding their attention enough to prevent tuning out (which in my house looks a lot like your fights and wandering off), I ditch the book and try another book.  We've abandoned several books mid-stream. 

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I'm not a huge fan of reading out loud, I will admit.  I have been doing it because I do see some value in it. I'm not sure my kids like it. I allow them to play quietly while I'm reading, but then that morphs into leaving the room, or fighting with each other, or wrestling with the cat, etc.

 

So does anyone homeschool, but not do any read-alouds?

 

When my dc were little, "read-aloud" was not a noun. It was a verb. :-)

 

So, when my dc were little, I read aloud to them after lunch each day, one chapter--and only one chapter--from a good book of my choice (Chronicles of Narnia, Mrs. Pigglewiggle, Understood Betsy, lots of other good fiction that I wanted to be sure they experienced). They did not leave the room but sat on the sofa with me. Sonlight and WTM and other similar now-well-known methods and publishers were not yet invented, and it did not occur to me to do all of our learning from trade books that I read aloud to the dc all day.

 

It is not a tragedy for you not to read aloud to your dc. No one ever read to me, and I turned out pretty well. :-)

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I am another that really just does not like reading aloud to the kids. As toddlers I like it, I like them snuggling and talking about the pictures etc and their books are short. I do not enjoy reading aloud novels to the older kids, I want to but I just don't, even my favorite books I just do not like reading aloud to them.

We do however listen to a lot of audio books while driving, and by a lot I mean we go through 2 or more novels on audio every week easily. While I am not reading to them they are listening to books all the time. That will have to do here. I do read to them during school time where the curriculum requires it and if there is a book I really want them to hear and cannot get on audio I will read it aloud but generally I do not read many novel aloud to my kids.

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I recently found that our read-alouds go best when they kids are at the table, drawing or coloring or modeling with beeswax. DS6 will build Lego as well. It does really matter what book you're choosing. At that age, too, I'd say to pull out some of the more advanced picture books. There are some beautiful books made for older elementary readers in mind. 

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I have a newly walking 13 month old and a crazy hyper 3.5 year old so reading aloud to my 5 and 7 year olds doesn't happen as much as I'd like it to. I have to save it for nap time or bed time but of course they're both sleepy by then and....ugh. Hopefully it will get better in the future. I didn't think we read much last year but I wrote out all the chapter books we read last year and it was over 20 so I guess we aren't doing too badly. They don't like to listen to audio books in the car, either. They just zone out and don't listen.

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You didn't ask for a recommendation, so I'm sorry... But I don't want to offer my opinion on if it's "ok" to skip RAs. I'm new to HS and we do RA so I can't really speak to how tragic or normal it would be to not RA.

I'm really enjoying reading 1-2 paragraphs of "Jason and the Golden Fleece" from Nathaniel Hawthorne's wonder book and Tanglewood tales for boys and girls. (available free ebook from gutenberg.org. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35377 ) If you don't know the story think like Hercules style Ancient Greek adventure in a package so cool I can't really describe it. Plus something about a free book I just love- it's magical. Ive never read this much adventure in such a small number of words :)

 

1-2 paragraphs every few days to a max of 3 pgs (even if she wants to hear more stopping is important) is plenty for us. I just read it, don't hardly stop to see if she knows what "visages" (for example) means because honestly it doesn't matter. Most of the time things are reworded and rephrased after so if I just trust the author and keep going, it all works out well.

 

DD7 jumps up and starts acting out what we just read. Sometimes we do it together if characters were interacting and act out their lines. Sometimes re read the paragraph and listen for more detail. And then copy or act it out. Sometimes she does it while I was still reading and interrupts, but I roll with it to a point and remind myself our goals for this particular book are "not about me" and what I want to finish. Perfect mix of read and fun! Maybe rather than skip the read alouds you can find ways to make them more fun for all of you!

 

Yesterday's small bit: Jason (having yesterday outwitted the fire breathing Bulls) today plants the dragons' teeth in the field and soldiers grow out of the ground from them. cliff notes: he outwits them. (Teehee) DD7 starts immediately racing around the docks pretending she's getting her feet poked by spears growing up out of the ground, raising the alarm that the soldiers are growing and we narrowly escape them.

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I read aloud only 1:1.  Reading was done snuggling on the couch with one kiddo at a time.  I never worked for me find a book that would work for all kids or to keep all kids focused at the same time.  I also found that sitting next to child eventually led to them following along on the page.  When they were older, we took turns reading, but it was always 1:1.  

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I do not like reading aloud. We did a ton when they were toddlers and preschoolers. And some in early elementary. Now we only do it once a week. My husband usually reads to them once a week also. I used to think I had to do it every day and I was always stressed because I like never did it. Now, I don't stress about it anymore.

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Other than audiobooks in the car, when dd was small, she would only listen to me read at bedtime and when ds was small, he would only listen he was in the bath. 

 

If you hate reading aloud but think you should anyway, drop the books or palm them off to spouse/Audible/nice Librivox volunteer and read a poem each day. You can get nice, short poems. :D

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I may well be flamed for this, I was last time I talked about this topic. I don't read aloud, and I don't apologise for that or feel guilty

I do read a picture book to the preschoolers each morning, 5 mins. But I don't read chapter books aloud, ever. I tried audio books and they had no interest at all. 

 

DH and I were homeschooled and neither of our parents read aloud to us, ever. We managed to grow up into highly literate adults who read for pleasure anyway. I don't feel I missed anything and I'm quite sure I'd have not taken in any of it anyway, as I really don't learn well via listening.

 

Reading aloud is highly valued on this particular forum, but this is a cross section of a certain type of homeschooler, there are actually plenty of homeschoolers who don't. If you want to do CM or strictly classical education it becomes necessary, but if you take another style or are more eclectic, you can homeschool just fine without it.

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I have done read-alouds off and on over my 20 plus years of homeschooling and mostly they were a great big FAIL. Either my kids would have rather read the books themselves or we had interrupting toddlers...it just never worked. However, I did always read picture books to my littles at bedtime and we also read a few chapter books but these weren't part of our school. And I had a few kids in the middle who liked to listen to audiobooks at bedtime.

 

So, yes, you can successfully homeschool without doing read-alouds.

 

Susan in TX

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I'm another who hates reading out loud so I never did (not even before they were readers).  So far 5 of my 6 can read (little guy is only 3), they are all proficient readers and spend plenty of time reading to themselves.  If families enjoy reading out loud than I'm all for it but I don't think it is this great imperative necessary for kids to learn how to read or excel in school.  Kids can and do just fine without being read to.

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I read aloud a lot to my kids, as it's just become an after lunch, before quiet time tradition. I have to admit, I really enjoy that snuggle up time too. It never fails that when we plop down in the living room, I have 2 on each side snuggling or hugging me. I think to me, it's more important for this time to feel intimate and calm, than the actual reading. Having said that, we have lively discussions about these books long after they're done. And since they end up on my older boys' bookshelves, it also assures that they get read over and over and over again. So for us, read-aloud time is very special and will continue for years ahead.

 

ETA: I really love being exposed to some of these classics that I never read as a kid. 

Edited by Meadowlark
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We've never done much reading aloud.  My kids don't like it, I don't like it, and they don't retain anything.  What little we've done was before they could read well themselves and it was something for history or science.  I would let them color a relevant picture at the same time or show them the book.   My kids are very much visual learners, not at all auditory.

 

I was the same way - whenever anyone would read anything out loud to me, my mind would wander almost immediately. I can't listen to audiobooks either.

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Get DH to do it-that worked quite well here. He's much better at it than I am. I actually handed the bedtime story to DH whe an DD was tiny because by the time we were putting her to bed, I was falling asleep, and we just continued. An added bonus is that it keeps him connected more to our homeschool life.

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I read aloud to my kids every day, except on Sundays (not sure why not then?), and have since they were babies. It's just part of our family culture to read aloud. We've built so many great memories through sharing books together -- lonely Ping on the beautiful yellow Yangtze River, naughty Max on the island with the wild things, hard-working Almanzo getting his first horse, Charlotte and Wilbur's amazing friendship, a homesick Chester Cricket saying he felt "Septemberish," valiant Reepicheep sailing alone into Aslan's country, exuberant Anne and reserved Marila's mismatched expectations, Mole getting fed up with spring cleaning, the hilarious antics of Pippi Longstocking. I can't imagine not reading aloud together!

 

When they were very little, the girls liked listening to picture book/audiobook sets (book + CD or tape). As they got older, they kept listening in their free time. They listen for hours to full-length audiobooks (e.g., A Bear Called Paddington, all of the Winnie the Pooh books (and poetry), American Girl books, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Water Horse, Mary Poppins, The Borrowers, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Railway Children, D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, A Cricket in Times Square, all of the Little House books, all of the Narnia books, and many, many more) and other story CDs (Jim Weiss, Your Story Hour, Adventures in Odyssey). Stories like these are wonderful! These have been such a part of their childhood, I'm sure it has shaped who they are as people and how they see and interact with the world around them. I think that if we miss out on sharing stories together, we miss out on something precious.

Edited by Sahamamama
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Could anyone share any particularly good audiobooks, with the narrators? We've had a couple of bad ones lately.

David Tennant reading the "How to Train Your Dragon" series

Tim Curry reading the "Seres of Unfortunate Events" series, but not the two or three Daniel Handler read. He was terrible.

Stephen Fry reading Paddington

 

We do not like Jim Weiss or Jim Dale. We also loved the Mysterious Benedict Society series, but hated the narrator. Oh, and why does it always seem like Katherine Kellgren always seem like she's yelling when she reads "The Incorrigible Children."

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My kids aren't allowed to leave the room during a read loud unless it's an emergency. When they were younger I told them to go to the bathroom before I started. "I don't have to go!" was met with, "Give it a try anyway." just like before we went to a church service, a movie, a long drive and such. Snacks and drinks were made available in the room with us to avoid hearing about how they were suddenly starving to death. Fighting with each other wasn't allowed. No physical fighting and no verbal fighting because talking wasn't allowed. By not allowed I don't mean disapprove of, I mean serious consistent consequences for. If one kid has to be assigned to stay in one part of the room and another kid the other part of the room, then fine. Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do.

 

Read really interesting books. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is generally appealing to most kids because it's a whole different world and kids are the main characters. Ralph Moody's Little Britches is generally appealing to most kids because it's a whole different lifestyle with a kid as the main character. Try different types of books. Riki Tikki Tavi has lots of suspense and so does the Black Stallion. Nature, fantasy, survival, vivid descriptions, fantastical worlds, relationships, adventure, peril, love, friendship are all different themes and genres that appeal to different kids to different degrees.

 

Between my 3 kids and we 2 parents, 4 of us would rather rip off our ears and eat them than listen to Anne of Green Gables. We all like fantasy like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Wizard of Oz. 3 of us would rather chew off our left pinky toes than listen to Wind in the Willows, but we all like adventures like the Little Britches series and The Black Stallion. The Silmarillion is complete torture for 4 of us but we've all listened through The Lord of the Rings multiple times. The Wheel on the School? Snore! Charlotte's Web? Yay! Heidi? Blech! Rascal? Love!

Yup! We don't let anyone get up and move around or the reading is paused, and I only pick books I want to read that are interesting to us. Fantasy works beautifully, as do mysteries. With daddy the kids are reading through the gazillion Boxcar Children and loving it, and we are now in Prince Caspian in CoN. I love acting and reading, but reading aloud is NOT my thing. However one chapter a day with each parent seems to hit a sweet spot for us.

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Get DH to do it-that worked quite well here. He's much better at it than I am. I actually handed the bedtime story to DH whe an DD was tiny because by the time we were putting her to bed, I was falling asleep, and we just continued. An added bonus is that it keeps him connected more to our homeschool life.

Yes! My husband is the main read aloud person here, he does it from toddlerhood on up and even does the silly character voices I can't bring myself to do. He is great and then I don't feel so bad about not getting a chapter in at lunch with them some days :o

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Once I could read, I didn't like being read to because it was so much slower than reading myself, and my older child seems to be the same way.  I read all the time when they were younger, but once they were in first grade and were solid readers, I rarely read fiction to them.  If I want them to do the same Bible story, I read that out loud, and when either of them does poetry I read that because I don't think that they'll get as much out of it if they don't hear the rhythm - they seem to enjoy that, but mostly because it's short.  My younger child still likes for me to read some of her history or science to her, which I do, but when we get to literature or stories she likes to read it herself. 

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Get DH to do it-that worked quite well here. He's much better at it than I am. I actually handed the bedtime story to DH whe an DD was tiny because by the time we were putting her to bed, I was falling asleep, and we just continued. An added bonus is that it keeps him connected more to our homeschool life.

 

See, and that's exactly why I read to my dc after lunch, not at bedtime, lol.

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I think audio books count as read alouds, by the way.  I don't think there's any reason it has to be the homeschooling parent. I can't stomach Jim Weiss's voice-it's like fingernails on a blackboard to me, but for people who can tolerate him, there's no reason they can't let him or someone else read aloud to the kids live or recorded. The point is to create a language rich environment that develops the attention span, shares a culture, teaches vocabulary and sentence structure, shares a family experience, and develops imagination and empathy.  Listening to the spoken word is one of many ways you can do those things.  Are people defective or academically lesser without it?  Of course not! But there are plenty of benefits to it if you can find quality books that engage your children that are read aloud by someone. 

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Just some thoughts. I'm not bashing anyone. Everyone can homeschool the way they see fit :)

 

Reading aloud and listening to reading is a whole lot more about language development and creating good writers than it is about creating readers. Just because kids learn to read and read a lot doesn't mean there werent benefits that were missed by not *hearing* complex language patterns above their reading ability. These are not found anywhere else. Written language (should clarify as well-written)is more complex than speech. It is the best way to input those language patterns into a child. Audio books accomplish the same if you don't like reading.

 

The fact that some children don't follow the story well or don't seem to learn well that way is an even greater argument for doing it. It is important to develop those auditory skills. Start small, short and humorous is my suggestion.

 

The family culture and emotional aspects should not be understated either.

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Is it possible that you don't enjoy reading aloud because it is difficult?

 

I used to hate to read aloud until I got good at it by starting with Goodnight Moon when my son was born and progressing from there.  I had to step it up considerably when we started homeschooling and it was difficult for about a year.  Now, after 20 years (13 of those being an intensive read aloud period) I really enjoy it.  I can even read aloud and think about something totally unrelated.  Which is weird.

 

 

 
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Is it possible that you don't enjoy reading aloud because it is difficult?

 

I used to hate to read aloud until I got good at it by starting with Goodnight Moon when my son was born and progressing from there. I had to step it up considerably when we started homeschooling and it was difficult for about a year. Now, after 20 years (13 of those being an intensive read aloud period) I really enjoy it. I can even read aloud and think about something totally unrelated. Which is weird.

 

 

Oh my gosh. I do that too! Sometimes I ask for a narration to catch up in the story because my mind wandered. My kids can tell me in detail what I just read 😂

 

I also think I have gotten much better with practice. My kids actually don't like audio books. They think I read better than anyone else. They are wrong 😉 but part of it must be emotional and what is familiar.

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Oh my gosh. I do that too! Sometimes I ask for a narration to catch up in the story because my mind wandered. My kids can tell me in detail what I just read 😂

 

I also think I have gotten much better with practice. My kids actually don't like audio books. They think I read better than anyone else. They are wrong 😉 but part of it must be emotional and what is familiar.

 

The worst is when someone asks me a question about what I just read and I have absolutely no idea.  Which I realize is not setting a very good example...

 

My kids prefer me to audio books as well.  I think it's a combination of being used to me and that I go quite a bit faster than the typical audio book.

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The worst is when someone asks me a question about what I just read and I have absolutely no idea. Which I realize is not setting a very good example...

 

My kids prefer me to audio books as well. I think it's a combination of being used to me and that I go quite a bit faster than the typical audio book.

😂😂😂😂. Yup. Done that too.

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Is it possible that you don't enjoy reading aloud because it is difficult?

 

I used to hate to read aloud until I got good at it by starting with Goodnight Moon when my son was born and progressing from there.  I had to step it up considerably when we started homeschooling and it was difficult for about a year.  Now, after 20 years (13 of those being an intensive read aloud period) I really enjoy it.  I can even read aloud and think about something totally unrelated.  Which is weird.

 

 

 

:lol: I do this! Yes, it is weird! LOL. I'm going along, reading aloud, with dramatic inflection and voices and periodic explanations of arcane vocabulary and everything, but I'm also thinking about what to cook for supper or what the weather will be tomorrow or that it's time to clip my fingernails. Or all three things at once! :laugh:

 

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I had a thread once about reading ahead, mentally, while I read something else out loud, or otherwise thinking about something else, and it turns out there's a whole bunch of us!

 

As to the op... It sounds like a really bad idea.

 

I have no doubt whatsoever that plenty of families both in ps and in hs have made everything work very pleasantly with zero reading aloud.

 

However, there's real, concrete research about the benefits of reading aloud regularly to children. And as a pp alluded to, it is only partly about creating literate persons.

 

There's a slew of reasons to read aloud, to be weighed against the reason to _ not _ do it. If your not wanting to do it tips the scales so dramatically... Or if there's something going on in addition to just not wanting to do it... Then you're not going to do it.

 

I would just advise you to revisit that scale every now and then. So to speak.

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As to the op... It sounds like a really bad idea.

 

I have no doubt whatsoever that plenty of families both in ps and in hs have made everything work very pleasantly with zero reading aloud.

 

However, there's real, concrete research about the benefits of reading aloud regularly to children. And as a pp alluded to, it is only partly about creating literate persons.

 

I agree. Reading aloud isn't my favorite thing, but I am getting better at it and therefore enjoy it more. We also use a lot of audiobooks.

 

You don't have to be a Sonlight family and read All Day, but fitting it in somewhere daily has some measurable benefits.

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Do you HAVE to read aloud? No way. If it's not something you enjoy & your children aren't gaining anything from it then it's not worth the stress & strain you're putting yourself when you could be doing things you enjoy.

 

Having said that if you see value in it & you think you should keep doing it, then it may be time to reevaluate the standards you have for read aloud time. While playing quietly, drawing, building, playing a card game & more have been permitted for our read aloud time, being louder then the reader was never allowed. My children were not allowed to leave the room either, but then they'd usually shout out, "I need to go to the toilet, wait for me!" before leaving. 

 

I wonder if because you're heart isn't into it the kids are picking up on that & thus they could care less too. We've read aloud for years upon years, but we've also had times when it didn't happen due to time. The big key is picking books that interest the children & deciding exactly how much they can handle, based on their ages, at each sitting. When my children were 8 & 6 we read shorter books like Olga da Polga & a chapter was more then enough unless we were in the car & then we listened to whatever we could while traveling.

As they've gotten older {both are teens now} reading bigger, deeper, books has been possible. Sometimes I read to them, sometimes we all listen to audio books while we each become busy with our hands. 

 

I think, though, that the bottom line is anything that causes Mamma excess stress isn't really worth it. :) 

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Is it possible that you don't enjoy reading aloud because it is difficult?

 

I used to hate to read aloud until I got good at it by starting with Goodnight Moon when my son was born and progressing from there. I had to step it up considerably when we started homeschooling and it was difficult for about a year. Now, after 20 years (13 of those being an intensive read aloud period) I really enjoy it. I can even read aloud and think about something totally unrelated. Which is weird.

 

 

This is usually a question I have when people say they didn't like reading aloud certain books because I've experienced it myself. The first time I read Uncle Wiggily out loud, it was hard. Then I read Winnie-the-Pooh and it was so difficult! I had always read aloud but my experience had been limited to books like Goodnight Moon and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It was a big jump to those long, complicated sentences in addition to the added story length for me...the kids loved it even when I'd get tongue-tied.

 

I was surprised when I read Uncle Wiggily the 2nd time two years later. It was so easy, much easier than I remembered the first time. By this time I was reading for a longer period each day and it has steadily increased each year.

 

I do agree that they could be influenced by your lack of enthusiasm or they just need some training and practice on how to sit and listen (I don't say that condescendingly at all, I have 4 active boys). I've never had an issue with my kids during read alouds but we've always done them and we all love literature. I just don't think our schooling would be as rich without read alouds.

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