The Read Aloud that Never Ended . . .

[ByGrace3]

Have you ever had one of those? Life gets away from you, summer, vacations, VBS, just regular life craziness, and before you know it, months have passed and you still.have.not.finished.it. :o or maybe that only happens to me? :001_huh: It was in my siggie FOREVER. We finally finished Little House in the Big Woods last night! :hurray: I think we started in in April. :blush: The kids and I enjoyed it, it was just a super crazy time. And while we enjoyed it, I am glad it is over! :lol:

I was going to start the Tale of Despereaux next, but truthfully, it was too big. :lol: I voted for a small one I knew we could finish quickly! :tongue_smilie:

 

Anyone else ever get stuck. . . or maybe I am just the worlds worst read aloud mom! :auto:

[tammyw]

Pinnochio was like that for us, lol! Even though we loved it, and did finally finish it, somehow we kept pushing it back to the low priority pile. So glad we finished it though, because it was really great!

[Serenade]

I had one like that, and we never did finish it. We all enjoyed it, too, but we were building a house and life got in the way. Maybe we'll pick it up again some day.

[Julie Smith]

I had something that felt like that. It was because we read the burgess animal book, then the bird book and the seashore book at the same time. We are now exactly half way done the seashore book and finished thebird book last week. We finished the animal book last month.

 

I'm done with Burgess books for now! And want something new. :001_smile:

[boscopup]

We never did finish Little House in the Big Woods, though the boys weren't interested in it, and they were younger.

 

Secret of the Andes is that one now, but we'll start it up again soon. At least I ended up getting it in a pile of books recently, so I don't have to check it out at the library again. :)

[Heathermomster]

Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper...That book is a monster.

[thefragile7393]

I am struggling to get through "The Tale of Mr. Tod" from Beatrix Potter and I cannot. seem. to. finish. it. I start reading and it just seems to take forever!! Other books keep getting done first...

[ByGrace3]

Glad to know I am not alone! :lol: I really am trying to be better about read alouds. I read about how some are so very diligent about them. I did so much better this last year, and I am making a curriculum switch to schedule them in for me next year, so I am improving! :tongue_smilie: Progress is good! :lol:

[boscopup]

Glad to know I am not alone! :lol: I really am trying to be better about read alouds. I read about how some are so very diligent about them. I did so much better this last year, and I am making a curriculum switch to schedule them in for me next year, so I am improving! :tongue_smilie: Progress is good! :lol:

 

Right there with ya! I think it had something to do with having kids under 3. ;) This year is definitely better in the read aloud department. Last year, not as much. I'll be doing two sonlight cores this year BECAUSE it forces me to read aloud. :)

[Kelly1730]

We never did finish Little House in the Big Woods, though the boys weren't interested in it, and they were younger.

 

Secret of the Andes is that one now, but we'll start it up again soon. At least I ended up getting it in a pile of books recently, so I don't have to check it out at the library again. :)

 

 

We read Secret of the Andes this year but it was one of those that I just couldn't get into so it probably took longer than is should have.

[Bee Happy]

Pinnochio was like that for us, lol! Even though we loved it, and did finally finish it, somehow we kept pushing it back to the low priority pile. So glad we finished it though, because it was really great!

 

Yep. Pinnochio for us! lol

[Heather in VA]

Pinnochio was like that for us, lol! Even though we loved it, and did finally finish it, somehow we kept pushing it back to the low priority pile. So glad we finished it though, because it was really great!

 

That happened to Pinocchio here too!! We loved it so I could never figure out why we kept having trouble getting to it. Such a great book.

 

Heather

[SorrelZG]

Trumpet of the Swan. DS just finished it off himself. He did the same thing with one of the Narnia books his Dad was taking too long to get back to. Im pretty sure we have a couple still hanging .. I'm pretty bad at this.

[ByGrace3]

Right there with ya! I think it had something to do with having kids under 3. ;) This year is definitely better in the read aloud department. Last year, not as much. I'll be doing two sonlight cores this year BECAUSE it forces me to read aloud. :)

 

So true! The 2 yo will actually sit for read alouds now and it makes life so much easier.

 

Ok, 2 things I am learning from this thread:

1. I am not the only mom who struggles with read louds, seriously good to know! :tongue_smilie:

2. Do not read Pinnochio (this year at least!) :lol:

[SorrelZG]

I started Pinnochio once, too.

[boscopup]

I'm so glad we never started Pinocchio! :lol:

 

Secret of the Andes is S-L-O-W. I keep hoping it will pick up, and maybe it will. It's taken them an awfully long time to meet a guy and then leave the mountain. :tongue_smilie:

[FairProspects]

:lol: It's currently The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet for us.

 

We've been reading it forever, but it is really my fault because the boys love it, but I just don't. I read it as a kid and didn't care for it, but I thought maybe I would enjoy it more as an adult. I can appreciate as a good book, but it is so not my cup of tea. I'm just not a science person!

 

I completely used a cold in April as an excuse to drop reading it aloud. I need to bust through the last few chapters since the boys want to know what happens and then maybe I'll be more enthused about our next selection. I've never seen my boys laugh so hard at a read aloud though, so at least I have some pleasant memories despite the subject matter. :D

[DarlaS]

Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper...That book is a monster.

 

Now that would be an ambitious read aloud! :svengo:

 

I started reading this recently--to myself. I have read excerpts to my 11 yo dd though.

[Guest]

The Railway Children for us. I am going to try and read it myself and then try it again in a year or so. I felt like we picked it up everyday and never made any progress.

[Joani]

We tried Farmer Boy once. I ended up sending it along on a trip to his dad's house with instructions that he wasn't allowed to come home until it was finished. :tongue_smilie:

[kalanamak]

Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper...That book is a monster.

 

If you've never read Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, you may well get a laugh out of it:

 

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/indians/offense.html

 

 

My secret to read alouds is doing it right before turning out the light. It helps both of us go to sleep, and it encourages him to get his little bod into bed. Plus, once you read aloud all 13 volumes of A Series of Unfortunate Events, everything else seems so ...short. We just finished Freddy Goes to Florida, and it was rather like Three Men In A Boat meets Beatrix Potter. Great fun!!

[nmoira]

It sometimes felt as if The Three Musketeers would never end. We enjoyed it immensely though.

[Deee]

The Magic of Reality is the read-aloud bug-bear here I love it (I'm a scientist). My son thinks its boring (he's a language arts type). How, I ask you, can the science of the world, written by a clever and passionate author, be boring? He'd rather read the Aenid! Its got the point where I'm embarrassed to fill in the "read-aloud" box on my own lesson plans. I am pleased to hear that I'm not alone, though.

D

[helena]

Oh yeah! I've been reading The Mad Scientist Club forever!

I actually haven't seen it for a few weeks. :glare:

I do love it though.

[helena]

We never did finish Little House in the Big Woods, though the boys weren't interested in it, and they were younger.

 

Secret of the Andes is that one now, but we'll start it up again soon. At least I ended up getting it in a pile of books recently, so I don't have to check it out at the library again. :)

 

We read Secret of the Andes this year but it was one of those that I just couldn't get into so it probably took longer than is should have.

 

Oh rats! I just bought Secret of the Andes. I'll have to let them read it to themselves. :001_smile:

[allymom]

Gladys Alyward...we started it in March or April. Then we had the never ending move, we were without our stuff for 6 weeks. I think I did keep the book out, but we just couldn't get to it in the chaos. And now...I just don't have the drive to pick it back up. It was a great book though!

 

I will warn that with a curriculum that schedules it for me, it's still the first thing to get dropped if we are too busy. So, even though I stay current with everything else in our curriculum, I'm notorious about getting behind on the read alouds.

[threedogfarm]

Watership Down was our difficult read aloud. We all really enjoyed it but for some reason it was just had for me to get into the rhythm of reading that one aloud.

 

I even tried to get them to switch over to the audio book--no go. They liked the way I read it. Even as I stumbled over all those crazy rabbit words???? No one told me before I started reading it that they had a different language!

 

But what a wonderful book and I am so happy that we got to experience it together. So many things to talk about. We will definitely be revisiting this book later.

[Hoot]

Oh you are SO not alone. I am HORRIBLE at read alouds with DS13. I've been reading "Boy in the Striped Pajamas" to him for MONTHS. It's not that long or difficult, I just hate to read aloud. Funny because I used to do it faithfully and unfailingly every. single. day. when he was younger. :tongue_smilie:

 

The boy LOVES audiobooks though and goes through them like water so I don't feel as bad.

[liamtaylorsmom]

We are using Sonlight and I just realized the other day that Charlotte's Web will take awhile since we're taking several trips this summer and taking off school during them.

 

Not sure I ever want to read Pinocchio now, LOL!

[SuperDad]

I'm still working on a book that we started three years ago. :blushing: Does that win me the award for Longest Readaloud Ever?

[Verity]

Little Pilgrim's Progress has about 100 chapters, short but still deep and I didn't want to go too fast....it took us about 4 months to finish....

/sigh

 

Now reading Roman Ransom Mystery...after dropping The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler - the kids just found that one too boring.

[MeganW]

I've gotten to where if I miss more than a week or two, I download it off Librivox and we just listen to the rest in the car. My kids hear more Librivox readers than they do me. Is that awful?

 

Some of them are just HARD to read out loud. Winnie the Pooh comes to mind. I don't know why I thought it was so hard to read, it just was!

[Julie Smith]

I'm still working on a book that we started three years ago. :blushing: Does that win me the award for Longest Readaloud Ever?

 

Okay, now I'm curious.

What book?

[edelweiss]

Ours is the Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. I don't know that we'll ever finish that book. :001_rolleyes:

[MrsBanjoClown]

Little Pilgrim's Progress took us about 4 months too. The Magician's Nephew went very quickly after that! It was a great book, though, and both of my boys loved it. We are currently reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

[SuperDad]

Okay, now I'm curious.

What book?

 

Pinocchio (I know... weird how everyone seems to be struggling with this one book!).

[Erica in OR]

The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I think that spanned the end of a school year / summer / the start of another. I would have left it until they were a bit older as I think I selected it a bit early, but they were interested in finishing it.

 

We've done Pinocchio twice—once with me reading aloud and once on audio book as we travelled to piano lessons and on errands. Definitely preferred the audio version!

 

Erica in OR

[freerange]

We've been reading Wee Free Men for months. DS wanted to listen with us, so we could only read when he wasn't studying. He sat his last exam on Friday, so maybe now we can finally finish it!

[Momma2Luke]

For us, the Hobbit is taking a long time... we are absolutely LOVING it though... just the chapters are quite long and I find myself not picking it up unless I have a good chunk of time to devote to it.

[SorrelZG]

 

Some of them are just HARD to read out loud. Winnie the Pooh comes to mind. I don't know why I thought it was so hard to read, it just was!

 

Also unfinished here. I'll try again with the next child.

[MeganW]

sorry - posted on wrong thread

Edited June 24, 2012 by MeganW

[nmoira]

"the 6 most secretly racist classic children's books"

 

http://www.cracked.com/article_19610_the-6-most-secretly-racist-classic-childrens-books.html

I didn't know about the Oompa Loompas.

 

While I find most "classics" with racist elements to be salvageable (or at least instructive as an example... heck, I just picked up The Coral Island for a pairing with The Lord of the Flies when the time comes), I refuse to read A Horse and His Boy aloud, or pass it on to the kids without discussing it first. It's vile.

[nmoira]

sorry - posted on wrong thread

Then I guess I responded on the wrong thread. :) What's the right one?

[Heathermomster]

If you've never read Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, you may well get a laugh out of it:

 

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/indians/offense.html

 

 

 

Great literary review, and Twain called Chingachgook Chicago for short. You can't beat that with a Red Stick.

Edited June 24, 2012 by Heathermomster

[momto2Cs]

We're still working on Treasure Island. It's been a few months, and we're maybe a third of the way through.

[MeganW]

Then I guess I responded on the wrong thread. :) What's the right one?

 

Sorry - there is a post right now about racism in classics, and that was where I meant to post that link.

[lovemy9kids]

Yes! The Golden Goblet. Finally finished it a couple of weeks ago :) Yeah!!

[Ghee]

Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

 

I loved the book, the kids loved the book. It just would. not. END! I'm sure I've read them longer books since then, everything else has been a breeze, but that one just felt like pages kept being added in the middle of the night. We still haven't finished it, it's on the Kindles so if they want to finish it I'll let them take it over.

 

I'm trying to decide whether to read Little House aloud or not, TBH I don't think it'll hold their attention and it doesn't much interest *me*....so I probably won't even start them :leaving:

[Tracy]

I don't have such a hard time finishing books, but my dd7 will not let me out of the Little House series. We have read the whole Laura series, the Martha book, the Charlotte book, and there is no end in sight with the Caroline series and the Rose series ahead of us.

[nellecv]

When I was a kid my mother started reading Dr. Doolittle to us. But she kept falling asleep in the middle of sentences, so it was never finished. I think that technically makes it about a 25 year read aloud!