Read Alouds: How long does it take you to make it through the book?

[Gingerbread Mama]

Okay, I realize there is a wide range of variables to factor in here (ages and attention span of children, length of book, etc..) but I feel like we slog through read alouds. SLOG! If you don't mind sharing:

 

How old are your kids and what type book do you usually read aloud to them?

When do you read aloud and for how long at a time?

How long does it usually take you to finish a book that would fit the above criteria?

 

Oh, one other question - not exactly of the same vein, but... if you have multiple books listed as read alouds in your sig line, do you read them all every day? We have 2 read alouds we do daily (one during breakfast, one after lunch) and then the kids have assigned reading for school and bedtime. I notice some people have 3 or 4 books in their sig line. I'm just wondering if they manage to fit them all in each day or if they alternate reading them until the books are done.

[gardening momma]

For a long time we only had one read aloud, but now we have two. Dh and I take turns putting dc to bed, and when it's my turn, I read from our books. I usually read one chapter of each per night, but occasionally 2 chapters or more from one of them. It depends on how late it is.

 

We're currently reading Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls and Robin Hood. We finished the Little House series not too long ago, and I just discovered the Nellie book and another one that have been recently added to the series. After those, we will read the Little House books about Caroline, etc.

[amsunshine]

My dds are 10 and 8 1/2. We do one literature read aloud at a time. We usually read in the evening after dinner, and I'll read for about 1/2 hour to 45 mins at a time. Depending on dds' ballet or swim schedules, we read 4-5 nights per week on average.

 

How long to finish a book? It depends on the book. We finished "Sign of the Beaver" in about a week and a half. We just finished "The Witch of Blackbird Pond," which was longer, in about 2 1/2 weeks. Longer, more involved books can take up to a month (such as "Robin Hood").

 

We also take audiobooks with us on road trips -- we recently listened to both "The Willoughbys" and "Ben and Me" in one day on a 2 1/2 hour trip to visit with relatives.

 

HTH.

[gardening momma]

We're currently reading Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls and Robin Hood. We finished the Little House series not too long ago, and I just discovered the Nellie book and another one that have been recently added to the series. After those, we will read the Little House books about Caroline, etc.

After re-reading this, I realized I probably should have italicized those titles. To my knowledge, Nellie Oleson never met Robin Hood. :lol:

[Ellie]

When we were hsing, "read-alouds" was a term not yet invented, especially as it related to a style of hsing (as in Sonlight read-alouds), lol. So I read on chapter a day aloud to my dds, from a good book, right after lunch on days when we were home. I didn't read to them at bedtime because (1) we'd been together all day long and it was time for them to go.to.bed :D, and (2) I wanted all of us to be wide awake. :D

[Sara in AZ]

Too long! But I only read for about 15-20 minutes at breakfast. We are just finishing up Wildwood which we started around Christmas. It does have 550 pages, though.

[Mama Geek]

It takes me a long time because dd is so young still. Most of the time I am lucky to get through a chapter when I sit down to read to her.

[La Texican]

I just read my fathers dragon to my preschoolers in three days. But we went to the park and I sat in a gazebo reading really loudly while they played in the dirt and picked wildflowers and "replanted" them. I'm only sure they're listening to at least some of it because sometimes when I read the word "jump" or "twist" they do.

[Embassy]

Okay, I realize there is a wide range of variables to factor in here (ages and attention span of children, length of book, etc..) but I feel like we slog through read alouds. SLOG! If you don't mind sharing:

 

How old are your kids and what type book do you usually read aloud to them?

When do you read aloud and for how long at a time?

How long does it usually take you to finish a book that would fit the above criteria?

 

Oh, one other question - not exactly of the same vein, but... if you have multiple books listed as read alouds in your sig line, do you read them all every day? We have 2 read alouds we do daily (one during breakfast, one after lunch) and then the kids have assigned reading for school and bedtime. I notice some people have 3 or 4 books in their sig line. I'm just wondering if they manage to fit them all in each day or if they alternate reading them until the books are done.

 

10 year old - Chapter book read aloud takes a couple of weeks. It may be accompanied with a study guide.

8 year old - Chapter book takes a couple weeks.

3 year old - 2-3 picture books a day takes about 20 minutes

 

We read during school time and spend probably 45 minutes 2-3 times a week. I also rotate reading with read-alouds. So when a read-aloud is finished my child will read the next book on his list. My boys have different reading and read-aloud lists because they are working at quite different levels. In most cases I can time it so one child is reading a book while the other child enjoying a read-aloud.

 

This is for literature only. My older 2 kids have some other read alouds for history, geography, science, and Bible which we read when we come to them in the line-up.

[2_girls_mommy]

When I am the one reading them aloud it takes quite a while. I read a chapter or about 15 minutes daily after lunch most days. Lately the weather has been so nice and we all have spring fever, and we just haven't started a new book since we finished the last.

 

To give you an idea: we have read only 3 read alouds this year, interspersed with times that we were doing Bible reading instead.

 

I do read to my kids at bedtime too, but that is usually short bedtime stories from picture books or books of short stories. I also will use the bedtime to read from books related to SOTW like picture books or snippets from history we are reading.

[Chris in VA]

I don't read aloud to dd anymore, except for Lent we are reading the NT.

 

When we did, I did not really keep track. I never read only one chapter, or only a set amt of time. We would read several times during the day, in the "In-Between-Times," times when we'd be done with something and sort of roaming the house, looking for something to do. "Can we read more?" and "Will you read to me?" were frequent questions. So, sometimes chapter books, like the Little House books, went quickly, b/c we were reading 2 hours a day or so--sometimes more, sometimes less.

 

Dh would read to dd differently--only one chapter at a time, and not every day. It took for.ever. to get thru the books he picked (Narnia, Marguerite Henry, etc.).

[Momofeat]

We do a lot of read alouds, because I love them! :D

 

Whenever we are home in the evenings, I spend about 15 minutes with the younger 2 dc reading aloud. For my son, that usually means one book each night. For my dd(9), it takes longer, because I read longer books to her. I try to read a chapter a night. Right now we're reading "At the Back of the North Wind," and it has already been a couple of months.

 

I still ready to my dd(12) as well. She folds clothes while I read, so her read alouds are usually longer. ;) It's still only about a chapter a night, though, because they're books like "Ben Hur." It takes several months for me to read a book to her.

 

Then I also read books to all 3 of them together while they're eating lunch. Those books are usually shorter and take from 3 weeks-2 months to finish.

[KAM]

We slog too. I can only read for about 15 min. at a time and keep my boys attention span. So it takes us forever to get through a book. I do one lit read aloud at a time, usually just the 15 min. a day, and then everyone has a bedtime book we also read together.

 

I read aloud from history once or twice a week, same with science, when we fit it in.

 

If it makes you feel better, Ambleside Online is very big on reading through books slowly...often only one chapter a week! The reasoning is that the kids will spend more time "living" the book and will think about it more while you are not reading it, leading them to actually remember the book long after you read it- instead of immediately forgetting a book you flew through. In our case, this seems to be true. The books that took us forever to get through are remembered best.

[nmoira]

Morning, both.

We'll read one or two chapters of a book, whichever is closest to one half hour). I try to pick books DD the Elder hasn't read, but sometimes she'll be OK with a beloved book, such as our current morning read aloud, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

 

Evening, DD the Younger

We read 45 minutes to an hour, currently The Wind in the Willows. If it is not yet lights out time, but there's not enough time to finish the next chapter, we'll fill in with fables, folktales or fairy tales. Most books take a week or two.

 

Evening, DD the Elder

We read at least an hour, but no more than 90 minutes. Currently reading Joan Aiken's Wolves Chronicles series, even though she practically know them by heart. I do try to read books new to her, but these are tremendous fun to read aloud. It's hard to estimate time because the length of the books varies so much: The Three Musketeers took us the better part of two months and some take as little as a week.

 

Sometimes there are extra read alouds for school.

Edited March 20, 2012 by nmoira

[Mergath]

I try to pick books DD the Elder hasn't read, but sometimes she'll be OK with a beloved book, such as our current morning read aloud, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

 

 

I saw this and just had to add that The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are my favorite books of all time. :D I'm waiting impatiently for the day dd is old enough to appreciate them.

[aggieamy]

I saw this and just had to add that The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are my favorite books of all time. :D I'm waiting impatiently for the day dd is old enough to appreciate them.

 

What age do you recommend for these? I've got it from the library and I'm thinking about jumping ship on our current read aloud.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

It takes fooorrreeeevvvveeeerrrr to get through a book with ds. I've gone back to shorter books for a while.

[Jen in PA]

We do all sorts of books at bedtime, generally fantasy but right now we are doing some horror (John Bellairs) that the dc are really enjoying. We read at bedtime 5 nights a week, and usually get through 100 pages a week doing that.

 

We read books linked to science and history studies as part of school 3 or 4 days a week for about half an hour each time.

 

The kids are usually pleading with me to read more, but I lose my voice if I read for much over 45 minutes. They are 6 and 8.

[nmoira]

 

What age do you recommend for these? I've got it from the library and I'm thinking about jumping ship on our current read aloud.

The series is sometimes shelved in teen/YA, but I have no qualms reading them to my 7yo. These are best enjoyed by a child well versed in fairy tale conventions.

[Julie Smith]

Okay, I realize there is a wide range of variables to factor in here (ages and attention span of children, length of book, etc..) but I feel like we slog through read alouds. SLOG! If you don't mind sharing:

 

How old are your kids and what type book do you usually read aloud to them?

When do you read aloud and for how long at a time?

How long does it usually take you to finish a book that would fit the above criteria?

 

Oh, one other question - not exactly of the same vein, but... if you have multiple books listed as read alouds in your sig line, do you read them all every day? We have 2 read alouds we do daily (one during breakfast, one after lunch) and then the kids have assigned reading for school and bedtime. I notice some people have 3 or 4 books in their sig line. I'm just wondering if they manage to fit them all in each day or if they alternate reading them until the books are done.

 

I saw your post earlier today, and was excited about getting to my computer to answer you. (Typing on a iPad can be annoying)

 

 

How old are your kids and what type book do you usually read aloud to them?

 

My kids are 6 and 7 1/2, both boys.

We read usually 20 minutes to an hour at one time. We read during the day when we want a quite or snuggly moment. We also listen to something during lunch that is more curriculum based. (Ie. Grammar land, Mr. Q science...) The lunch time listen is usually only one chapter a day.

 

We finish some books in one day, others take longer.

 

For example my youngest asked that we re-read all the green forest books we have. That is 30 books. On average they are 1 hour and 45 minutes long . (At least that is how long the Librivox recordings of the books are). Since we have listened to them so many times before we are going through them quickly. The plan is to listen to one a day for 30 days in a row. We have finished the first 6 as of tonight.

 

Other books take longer. My dh has been reading the boys, D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths this one was on the go for about 2 or 3 weeks.

 

To give you an idea of how much we read, the books we have completed this year are:

 

 

The Adventures of Reddy Fox, by Thornton Burgess

 

The Adventures of Johnny Chuck, by Thornton Burgess

 

The Adventures of Peter Cottontail , by Thornton Burgess

 

The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum, by Thornton Burgess

 

The Adventures of Mr. Mocker, by Thornton Burgess

 

The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat, by Thornton Burgess

 

Mr. Q Life Science, by Scott McQuerry (My dh made a audio recording of this. We listened to a chapter a day for awhile to get review before starting his next book on Earth Science

 

Harry Kitten and Tucker Mouse, by George Selden

 

Tucker's Countryside, by George Selden

 

Toys Come Home, by Emily Jenkins

 

Toys Go Out, by Emily Jenkins

 

Toy Dance Party, by Emily Jenkins

 

The Borrowers, by Mary Norton

 

Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

 

Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen

 

Grammar Land, by E. B. Nesbit (We got 2/3 of the way through and became overwhelmed by the grammar - we'll try it again later)

 

Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

 

The Four Story Mistake, by Elizabeth Enright

 

Then There Were Five Elizabeth Enright

 

The Weeping Werewolf, by Bruce Coville

 

The Evil Elves, by Bruce Coville

 

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, by Ingri d'Aulaire

 

Greek Myths, by Jim Weiss

 

Heroes in Mythology, by Jim Weiss

 

 

Right now we are in the middle of "Belles on their toes", and a second book on Greek Mythology my dh is reading.

[Lucy the Valiant]

My answer is seasonal. Ha-ha!

 

In the summer, we can barely get through 1-2 books.

 

In the winter, we hunker down on the couch for about 3 months and just CRANK through the books, usually completing 1 / week.

 

 

 

I figure it all evens out in the end. :D

[QuirkyKapers]

If it is an audio, usually can do 1 a week. If it is me reading, for whatever reason, we take a really, really, long time.

[Dustybug]

My children are 6, 4, and 20 months. The toddler doesn't usually listen in on the read alouds because she is generally already sleeping. We read 1-2 chapters per night before bed. We are currently reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

[Aurelia]

We read one or two chapters every day, depending on the amount of time we have and the length of the chapters. One is done as a break during school time and one is done at bedtime. The third is an audiobook, we listen to most days if school is finished quickly. It's usually accompanied by drawing.

[blondeviolin]

If its just Abby (5.5) listening in, we go through anything fairly quickly as she is the type to beg for "just one more chapter, please!" But! I'm tryin to stretch Emmett (4) into listening to longer books. We just finished up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and that was perfect for him as the chapters aren't longs nd there are plenty of pictures. We're currently working on Pinocchio and it's going to take us forever. Emmett can only last one chapter at a time, so we're only on chapter 9 and it has something like 34 chapters in it!

 

I also sit down twice a day and read from picture books until Ellie (2.5) starts bringing me the same books repeatedly. At that point, I declare myself done! :D

Edited March 20, 2012 by blondeviolin
Typing on the iPad...

[Julie Smith]

If it makes you feel better, Ambleside Online is very big on reading through books slowly...often only one chapter a week! The reasoning is that the kids will spend more time "living" the book and will think about it more while you are not reading it, leading them to actually remember the book long after you read it- instead of immediately forgetting a book you flew through. In our case, this seems to be true. The books that took us forever to get through are remembered best.

 

We may go through most books quickly, but we do re read some books several times. I think we did The Wizard of Oz 5 times. We read it ever 6months or so since 2008. I think we have read Little Joe Otter 8 times.

 

In my mind this makes up for reading them so quickly.... At least that is what I tell myself.

 

Morning, both.

We'll read one or two chapters of a book, whichever is closest to one half hour). I try to pick books DD the Elder hasn't read, but sometimes she'll be OK with a beloved book, such as our current morning read aloud, The Enchanted Forest.

 

What funny is dh started the first book in the series this evening. The kids told him to read the Greek book instead. But I can see us redoing the series soon.

 

What age do you recommend for these? I've got it from the library and I'm thinking about jumping ship on our current read aloud.

 

It worked well for us last year when we read it, but I think will be even better when we reread it this year

[Gingerbread Mama]

How old are your kids and what type book do you usually read aloud to them?

 

 

 

My children are 12, 9, and (a very immature and hyper) 8 :) DD is my only "willing" silent reader of the bunch. The youngest son isn't reading on his own yet, and the oldest just claims to abhor reading (eye roll). Right now he is reading Calvin and Hobbes on his own. It's a step up from the manga he used to claim was all he would/could read, so I'm letting that go for now. All of them seem to usually enjoy being read "to", though.

 

We have read a hodge podge. They have very different tastes in literature, so I try to alternate. My 12 year old hates cute/girly things, the very thing his 9 year old sister loves. So, for example, we read The Whipping Boy at breakfast and TumTum and Nutmeg at Lunch this week. I thought the Whipping Boy was a pretty good length for us. I read 2-3 chapters a day M-F. We've also read the first book in the Riordan Kane series, they all enjoyed that. The problem I've run into is that DD loves to listen to anything, the boys claim to be more picky but rarely have suggestions for things they DO want to hear. Well, to be fair, YDS would happily listen to Poppleton or Curious George for quite a while. I read to him at bedtime, the other two have to do their own reading then. For the youngest he usually wants three books - something like the above two, or another short picture book. Then we usually have a very short chapter book going (like Arthur or Magic Treehouse) as he wants to read chapter books like the older two, but isn't reading on his own yet. Your list was great, I will look into some of those for the kids.

 

Thank you to everyone. Maybe we aren't really slogging in the grand scheme of things. It just seems to me that it drags on, I worry about them losing interest in it before we finish the book. I'm such a FAST reader when I read a book silently to myself, I think I just get frustrated when I look at the book and we aren't even halfway through after a week of daily reading LOL

Edited March 21, 2012 by Gingerbread Mama

[Guest]

This thread makes me feel better! I thought we were going so slowly! What made me feel better was when we were using HOD for a bit and Carrie suggested spreading a read aloud over 20 days. That really helped me relax. Granted, I do like to finish in a shorter amount of time, but knowing that if I did take that long I wasn't a total slacker, that took a load off.

[Julie Smith]

My children are 12, 9, and (a very immature and hyper) 8 :) DD is my only "willing" silent reader of the bunch. The youngest son isn't reading on his own yet, and the oldest just claims to abhor reading (eye roll). Right now he is reading Calvin and Hobbes on his own. It's a step up from the manga he used to claim was all he would/could read, so I'm letting that go for now. All of them seem to usually enjoy being read "to", though.

 

We have read a hodge podge. They have very different tastes in literature, so I try to alternate. My 12 year old hates cute/girly things, the very thing his 9 year old sister loves. So, for example, we read The Whipping Boy at breakfast and TumTum and Nutmeg at Lunch this week. I thought the Whipping Boy was a pretty good length for us. I read 2-3 chapters a day M-F. We've also read the first book in the Riordan Kane series, they all enjoyed that. The problem I've run into is that DD loves to listen to anything, the boys claim to be more picky but rarely have suggestions for things they DO want to hear. Well, to be fair, YDS would happily listen to Poppleton or Curious George for quite a while. I read to him at bedtime, the other two have to do their own reading then. For the youngest he usually wants three books - something like the above two, or another short picture book. Then we usually have a very short chapter book going (like Arthur or Magic Treehouse) as he wants to read chapter books like the older two, but isn't reading on his own yet. Your list was great, I will look into some of those for the kids.

 

Thank you to everyone. Maybe we aren't really slogging in the grand scheme of things. It just seems to me that it drags on, I worry about them losing interest in it before we finish the book. I'm such a FAST reader when I read a book silently to myself, I think I just get frustrated when I look at the book and we aren't even halfway through after a week of daily reading LOL

 

It's nice to hear what you do.

 

When I saw your post I thought, "opps". I had that sentence in my previous post since it was your question to me, and I just forgot to delete it.

 

But it worked out in the end since I got to read your answer.

[The Governess]

We do most of ours at the dinner table, after we eat. A novel can take us anywhere from 2 weeks to a month, depending on the length and how much other stuff we have going on in our lives that keeps us from eating dinner at home.

 

We usually have 3 or so read-alouds going at once. One literature read-aloud, Story of the World, and usually another book that goes along with the history topic we are currently studying. These extra history books may take one night for a short picture book, or multiple nights for a chapter book.

 

We do other read-alouds at other times, but we always have these going at dinner time. Our kids are slow eaters and there is lots of time to kill - I'll read for between 20 and 40 minutes a night, sometimes longer if we are at an exciting part in a book. :D

[Night Elf]

When my kids were younger, like up to age 10, I read a couple of chapters of only one book during the school day. Those read-alouds were chapter books from Sonlight. That was about th age we probably stopped reading aloud at night, but I don't recall specifically. The books I read aloud at night weren't books I would read during the day. I didn't read chapter books at night. We might read stories from Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, but mostly we read books that could be finished in a single sitting like The Berenstain Bears and Amelia Bedelia.

 

We struggle to do read-alouds that aren't school-related now. We read a single chapter in the evenings. I think it's because the books we read now are longer. (the chapters are longer) And since it's not school-related, it's not always a top priority so it gets skipped some nights. The last time we were doing school-related reading at night was using Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings for my ds15's freshman year of high school.

 

I really miss our read-alouds though. I'm about to read a book called A Separate Peace to ds15 for his 10th grade English, but it doesnt look like a book I'm interested in reading, so I cannot muster a huge enthusiasm. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.