how many read alouds can you really get through in a year,

[jenniferlee]

summer included? I'm talking regular length chapter books for 4th-6th graders. What do you all average? And do you read just at night or do you read some during the day as well? More than one going at once? I'm just trying to figure out what realistic expectations are.

Thanks!

 

Jennifer

[Daisy]

Here's how it looks in our house and I'm not including my reading to my son his history or science books. It doesn't include poetry or just fun books I pick up and read to them. These are scheduled daily read-alouds.

 

Session 1:

I read aloud to my 10yo DD.

Hubby reads aloud to 7yo DD.

 

Session 2:

Family read-aloud.

 

We average one book a month in each category.

 

I pick out about 36 books a year to read-aloud. That can vary slightly depending on the length of the book & its difficulty level.

 

If Hubby didn't help out, I would cut that down to 24 a year. One book in the morning and one in the evening.

[IsabelC]

We generally get through about a book a week with the chapter books. Some take longer, eg currently we're on Chronicles of Narnia, which encompasses 7 short novels, we're on our third week and up to Prince Caspian.

[nmoira]

By the end of the year, I'll have read 33 or 34 novels aloud to DD the Elder, with a fair number clocking in at 500+ pages. I read aloud to both children in the morning, and to each separately at bedtime. In addition, there is often a work of historical fiction going which is read during school time.

[alpidarkomama]

I would say we finish a couple of 250- to 300-page books every 2 weeks or so. We usually have two readalouds going at once - one for me and the kids, one for when papa is here too. So I guess we finish 3 to 4 books per month. This week's daytime reading is Little Women (which is 500ish pages, so that will probably take a month to finish), and our evening reading is Book 15 in the Guardians of Ga'hoole series (the last one - boo hoo!). Fun!

[LibraryLover]

About 12- to 30. It just depends. I do read during the day. We read articles and items of interest aloud at other times; dinner etc). Currently, I am reading a Mary Poppins book to my youngest, while her father reads her Dickens' Christmas Carol. (Which he finished tonight as he is not a slacker lol). This summer I read the kids Bible stories.

Edited December 13, 2009 by LibraryLover
totally over-used the word also.

[Melissa in Australia]

20-30 books ( novels) per year. I read at tea time. I am a fast eater, and read while everyone else is eating. I managed to read the complete lord of the rings out loud in 5 weeks. I also read a huge amount of history and science books out loud as well. this year I read 3 readers digests science books, large sections of kingfisher science book, and Apologia biology out loud ( what a wordy book, if I was the prof reader I would have crossed out half of the sentences). as well as history of the ancient world, story of the ancient world, large sections of kingfisher history, and many supporting history books. All out loud. I read out loud for about 4 hours a day.

[Peela]

When my kids were around 11/12 they suddenly didnt want evening read alouds any more. I was sad, but I kept the read aloud going during school time. I didnt want to spoil their memories of evening read alouds by "forcing" them to continue. Wheras our read aloud time is our favourite time of our school day.

We get through less and less books as the kids get older. This last year for read aloud we read Ivanhoe, Sophie's World (both long books), The Brendan Voyage (geography), and King Solomon's Ring (nature study). 2 years ago, all we read aloud the whole year- apart from some non fiction stuff- was Lord of the Rings.

So..it depends a lot on how big the book is. I have learned not to try for too much any more.

[Peela]

20-30 books ( novels) per year. I read at tea time. I am a fast eater, and read while everyone else is eating. I managed to read the complete lord of the rings out loud in 5 weeks. I also read a huge amount of history and science books out loud as well. this year I read 3 readers digests science books, large sections of kingfisher science book, and Apologia biology out loud ( what a wordy book, if I was the prof reader I would have crossed out half of the sentences). as well as history of the ancient world, story of the ancient world, large sections of kingfisher history, and many supporting history books. All out loud. I read out loud for about 4 hours a day.

 

Wow Melissa, thats an inspiration!

How does your 15yo handle doing their other work with that much reading aloud going on? I just dont think my kids would have time for much else, which is why our read aloud time gets cut back. But my kids wouldnt like me to read aloud at the meal table. They would feel I was cutting into their free time.

I dont think I could read aloud for 4 hours, either. I find an hour is about my max at one sitting.

But....you sure get through a lot!

[jld]

We've only done a handful this year, if it makes anyone feel any better . . .

[meet me in paris]

It typically takes us 2 weeks to get through a mid-sized chapter book. We do most of our read-alouds in the evenings, but if we're doing a really good one that the girls are interested in, I'll read at lunch, too. I work a lot at night, so when I'm not around, not as much reading gets done. :glare:

 

We also do audiobooks in the car, and those tend to be longer (HP and the like) so they can take up to a month to get through. All together, I'd say we finish about 25 books per year.

[elegantlion]

I think we did 18 last year. We're on number 10 for this year. We generally have 1-2 going at a time, but we only read during school time. Ds does his quiet reading at night or before school.

[jenniferlee]

wow, I don't think I read for more than 1/2 hr at a time, tops! How do you read for longer chunks? Also, I think having little ones around - I am always dealing with a 3 and 5 yo - cuts into our time a lot. I think currently we are only doing about one book per 3-4 wks. so maybe a dozen a year...

I can see that if I could read longer, we'd get through more books, which I would like and the kids would like (they love read aloud time), but I'm not sure where to fit it in.

Maybe mealtimes...I've never tried that.

 

thanks!

Jen

[6packofun]

As many as YOUR family wants to and can finish. I can't imagine even *counting* the books we read unless I cared to compare to others or had to finish an exact amount for some curriculum. And I don't. :D

[AngelBee]

:lurk5:

[dragons in the flower bed]

You can figure this out by timing yourself reading 10 pages.

 

Say it takes you twenty minutes to read 10 pages of a book. Now determine how much time you have for reading aloud each day. If you want to read for 60 minutes each day, and can read 10 pages in 20 minutes, you can read 30 pages each day. Assuming you skip read-alouds one night a week, that's 9,360 pages a year. Now look at the page numbers on the books you want to read as you add them to a list, and keep a running total. When you get to 9,360, stop. :)

 

In case you don't want to tally up your specific read-aloud choices, the average book has 375 pages.

[nmoira]

I can't imagine even *counting* the books we read unless I cared to compare to others or had to finish an exact amount for some curriculum. And I don't. :D

Some of us just like to make lists. :)

 

I'm glad I've kept track of what I read to DD the Elder, because it's helped me choose appropriate books for DD the Younger. Many would have been otherwise lost in my (then) sleep deprived mummy brain fog. I've also found it useful for making read aloud suggestions here.

[mominsac]

I am so impressed with everyone here. It's an inspiration for me! I've read in the "Read-Aloud Handbook" how it was important to keep up the read aloud even after kids read on their own, if not to expose them to better books or for continuous vocabulary building, since you can read aloud books of difficulty few-years ahead of what they would read.

 

My DD11 and DD9 are avid readers, and we track how much extracurricular free reading they do per month. (they probably read 300-500 pages per week on their own...I don't know if that is much or not). They do attend school during the day and are very active in year-around sports and music performances.

 

We have not done much read-alouds since they like to read their own books. While I hate to "force" it, I think I will try again to read out loud, especially, classics and other great books out there that they may be less inclined to "pickup and read" on their own. If they don't get exposed to them now, when will they, especially in todays' world?! :001_smile:

thanks!

[mammaruss]

We average about 1 book a week. We read 20 minutes in every morning and 20 minutes every evening-7 days a week. Also, a book always goes with in the car when we are running errands. It takes us 20 minutes to get to town--so the reading time adds up quickly when running errands. I am unable to drive right now...so dh drives. If I was able to drive we would not be getting as much reading done...since I am unable to read and drive.;) We started reading in the car --every time we leave the house--a little over a year ago...now the family cannot stand it if someone forgets to grab the book!

[Melissa in Australia]

Wow Melissa, thats an inspiration!

How does your 15yo handle doing their other work with that much reading aloud going on? I just dont think my kids would have time for much else, which is why our read aloud time gets cut back. But my kids wouldnt like me to read aloud at the meal table. They would feel I was cutting into their free time.

I dont think I could read aloud for 4 hours, either. I find an hour is about my max at one sitting.

But....you sure get through a lot!

I read out loud to different kids. I read Apologia biology to my 15 year old, the other science books to my 9, 11, and 13 year olds. kids are coming and going all the time, I just keep on teaching. so even though I am reading out loud for 4 hours a day, it is spread over 5 children.

my 15 year old has decided he will read Apologia chemistry to himself. I am so relived. I am reading Apologia physics to him though ( he is doing both concurrently)

the reason I read so much out loud is because I have children with dyslexia, and by reading out loud, I give them the opportunity to learn more than they are capable of reading. I am not allowing their 'reading difficulty' to hold them back.

[SonshineLearner]

By the end of the year, I'll have read 33 or 34 novels aloud to DD the Elder, with a fair number clocking in at 500+ pages. I read aloud to both children in the morning, and to each separately at bedtime. In addition, there is often a work of historical fiction going which is read during school time.

 

You make me wanna have my kids tag along with yours. :-)

 

Carrie

[2squared]

I can't even imagine reading so much. I want to, but I can't see it actually happening. Does anyone do all this reading with an 1yo and a 3yo climbing all over you? It doesn't look like many on this thread have small children. What did you do when you did have the littles?

 

I read picture books, but it's frustrating b/c I can't get everyone by me and on my lap, so someone always ends up sitting behind my neck on top of the couch. :tongue_smilie:

[HRAAB]

I peg reading to mealtimes. We read right after breakfast, or as soon as mom is done eating, during afternoon tea time, and then after the dinner dishes are done. We usually have a novel, something tied to history or science, and then a family book going in the evening that dad listens to.

[jld]

I hear you, 2squared. Please remember, it's not a competition. Everyone on here has a unique situation (# of kids, location, spouse status, economic condition, etc.) that they are dealing with. And some moms just love reading aloud, and make it happen no matter what!

 

To be honest, I feel guilty about not reading aloud more. The times I could do that, I usually just read something on my own. I guess my personal reading is my sanity-preserver. To each her own!

 

Also, it's tough when all your kids are little. Give yourself a break. If you want to do more reading aloud, maybe set little goals, like everybody sitting down on the rug or carpet together and reading one picture book. Then, if that goes well, maybe build up from there.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I hardly read to my dd14 when she was little, and she is always reading/doing schoolwork now. Your kids will be okay! There's plenty of time ahead of you for reading aloud, or whatever you would like to do together!:)