Reading schedule

[EmmaNZ]

I would love to hear how others organise reading and readalouds. Do you do one readaloud all together? At what reading level do you choose the book? Do you stop at the younger's attention span limit, or keep going?

 

And what about independent reading? Who chooses what gets read? How long do you ask them to read? At what time of day? etc etc

 

I know that's a lot of questions! I need to be a bit more organised this year as I am adding a 5 year old to my almost 7 year old.

 

Thanks so much.

[tuesdayschild]

I would love to hear how others organise reading and readalouds. Do you do one readaloud all together?

 

Yes. All together, unless the read aloud contains content that is too intense/disturbing for the younger dc.

 

At what reading level do you choose the book?

 

With the read alouds, if I think the book will engage the dc interest we'll read it.

I've learnt to try many different writing styles and topics as opposed to sticking to a set reading level.

It's amazing what will grab their attention.

(My ds does not like horse stories that involve them being injured or dying - regardless of any reading level:tongue_smilie:).

 

Sonlight has a read aloud list that we select from and use, along with other reading lists - like Ambleside online.

 

Do you stop at the younger's attention span limit, or keep going?

 

If it's a chapter book and I was hoping to achieve a good chapter or two for the older child's benefit, it'd set the younger one up with a quiet activity to do while we read.

Sometimes the story would be so riveting the younger one would also be begging for *more* .

Every child is different:001_smile:

 

And what about independent reading? Who chooses what gets read? How long do you ask them to read? At what time of day? etc etc

 

I know that's a lot of questions! I need to be a bit more organised this year as I am adding a 5 year old to my almost 7 year old.

 

Thanks so much.

 

Again, we used Sonlight's reader lists, books recommended in Honey for a Child's Heart , along with books we'd select from the library (still do) and I'd let them read until they were ready to stop.

Reader time in the younger years was done when they were most alert (just after afternoon tea worked really well for us).

 

Hope you manage to sort an approach that works well for your two, and you.

[boscopup]

Do you do one readaloud all together? At what reading level do you choose the book? Do you stop at the younger's attention span limit, or keep going?

 

Yes, just one read-aloud all together. I choose something that will interest them. I was doing above the reading level of the oldest, but he's caught up, and most of what's available at a higher reading level wouldn't be appropriate for their ages. :tongue_smilie: So I just read "good books". I've been doing some older books lately to expose them to that language (Lang's Fairy Tales, etc.). We've also done The Secret of the Rats of NIMH, which both kids LOVED.

 

I usually read 1-2 chapters. So far, my 4 year old's attention span hasn't really been a problem. When we started reading out loud like this, neither one had a good attention span! They also didn't always understand the book. For example, summer of 2010, I read Detectives in Togas (from one of the lower SL cores). They weren't used to me reading pictureless chapter books. The whole book went over their heads. This summer when I had DS1 read that book for his literature, he didn't remember us ever reading it the year before! :tongue_smilie: He enjoyed it this time. :D I think they would have understood it much better this year, since they're used to listening to read-alouds. Audio chapter books have helped their listening skills also. We've done those in the van, and the 4 year old is stuck whether he wants to be or not. ;)

 

And what about independent reading? Who chooses what gets read? How long do you ask them to read? At what time of day? etc etc

 

I have "literature" assigned for each day, which is one good chapter book that I've chosen, and he must read 1-3 chapters, depending on how long the chapters are. Once he's done with that, he can read anything in the library book basket. I usually have about 20 minutes of "book basket" reading. There is a variety of books in the book basket. It has history, science, and sometimes fun things like Amelia Bedelia, or twaddle like Star Wars. :) DS loves to read about history and science, so I don't have to twist his arm. He also reads them outside of "school".

 

I know that's a lot of questions! I need to be a bit more organised this year as I am adding a 5 year old to my almost 7 year old.

 

I've not been good about getting read-alouds done this year, as my 2 year old is melting down during our before-bedtime read-aloud time. So I need to find a different time (preferably during his nap!) to do read-alouds. He goes through phases though.

 

For the "literature" for my 7 year old, I have picked out about 15 books and purchased them so I could pre-read them (helping me discuss them) and he could read them at his leisure, not worrying about whether someone will put the book on hold at the library. This has worked really well. I haven't planned out the order in which we will do the books, but I have planned how many chapters per day he'll do from each book (I just looked at the length of chapters and difficulty of the text and determined what seemed reasonable). I only required 1 chapter per day for Detectives in Togas (as that was pushing his reading level), but I had him do 3 chapters a day of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (easier book to read, and shorter chapters). He sometimes reads more than assigned, which is fine. When we started easing into chapter books, it was one chapter a day of anything, regardless. He's a lot more comfortable with them now though.

[EmmaNZ]

Thank you both very much. That's really helpful.