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s/o reading aloud at meals- which books to choose w/wide age range?


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I try to separate my read alouds with the kids into 2 groups- one book for older ones and one for the younger ones. The older ones get chapter books like Witch of Blackbird Pond etc, while the youngers get picture books like Curious George.

 

I'd like to get back in the habit of reading to them at lunch time but am reminded that it's hard to appeal to a wide age range. Sometimes my 9yo will enjoy a picture book and other times, not so much. Same for the youngers. They do have to listen to audiobooks in the van (last one was The Castle in the Attic) but I can tell they're not really interested.

 

How do you circumvent this and please everyone? Is that even possible? :confused:

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Something with shorter chapters, easy to listen to but still interesting? Easy to say, hard to find! I'm thinking along the lines of the Little House books. I just finished reading Mr. Popper's Penguins to our girls. Very short, easy chapters but engaging story. I think my boys would have liked to hear it again. I couldn't help but laugh out loud myself as I read it. It's hard to pick good books! Amblesideonline.org has some good literature selections. Check the early years booklists.

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Something with shorter chapters, easy to listen to but still interesting? Easy to say, hard to find! I'm thinking along the lines of the Little House books. I just finished reading Mr. Popper's Penguins to our girls. Very short, easy chapters but engaging story. I think my boys would have liked to hear it again. I couldn't help but laugh out loud myself as I read it. It's hard to pick good books! Amblesideonline.org has some good literature selections. Check the early years booklists.

 

We've been doing stuff like this but I find a lot are geared towards girls- Sarah Plain and Tall, Courage of Sarah Noble etc.

 

We've done Charlotte's Web, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Little House series, Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan.

 

I'll need to go back and revisit sites with book lists.

 

Perhaps I can plug in some Magic Tree House audio CDs. I don't find them terribly engaging but the kids seem to like them enough.

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I'll second Little House books, we've been reading them aloud at dinner time lately (because we're reading Farmer Boy and it was making us hungry when we read it when we weren't eating!). DS finds them engaging enough, I think it helps that Laura is a bit of a tomboy and of course Farmer Boy is about Almanzo.

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