Is it hard to coordinate longer "read-alouds" with your history?

[tristangrace]

I am just about to sit myself down and make our plans for SOTW1. I'm going to make some books available to my 6yo that (roughly) correspond to each week's topic that she can read on her own, but I also want to read some longer books aloud to her for 20-30 minutes each day. For some goofy reason, I'm a bit stressed out about choosing the read-alouds. I'm not sure how quickly/slowly we'll go through the read-alouds, which makes it hard to 1) know how many I need to have lined up for the first quarter and 2) get them to correspond with what we're studying. Know what I mean?

 

Any tips for me? TIA.

 

Susan

[Michelle T]

I choose read alouds for the "big" civilizations, and don't worry if they run over into the next topic.

 

You can make yourself crazy planning all this stuff, but it's just not worth the stress! :001_smile:

 

Michelle T

[nmoira]

The longer read alouds are actually the focus of our history. I spend about 2 weeks on each "week" of History Odyssey, and incorporate about 60 minutes of read aloud per day. But, and this might be a big "but," we school year round. If you wanted to wrap up in less time, perhaps extending only every other "week" would be a better option. For Ancients, there are places it makes sense to park. We chose Hindu mythology, Greek mythology, Chinese folktales, Bible stories, Rome, and a few other topics to cover in greater depth.

 

I'm planning to take about a year and a half to get through medieval by adding even more read alouds. This is mostly because of DD's age... I'm in no hurry to get to modern history.

[Chris in VA]

I sometimes read things that go on for a few weeks. It doesn't bother me that we've left the topic. It gives us a chance to go deeper, and most of the time, the story is so good that we go beyond just the link to history and into the timelessness of the story, if that makes sense.

 

I keep history mostly chronological, but instead of a line, I think of it as a Slinky--like a long spring! We go back a little, forward mostly.

[tristangrace]

Thanks for the replies (and more are welcome).

 

Approximately how many "chapter books" do you figure you'll read in, say, nine weeks (one quarter)? I will be relying on our library for most of reading, which means I'll probably request several books from interlibary loan in advance, and once I get them, I can keep them for 6 weeks (if I renew them once). I'm not guaranteed that the books will be available at the "ideal" time--which is fine, but I don't want to request too many (and keep a bunch out of circulation for a long time), nor I want to request too few (and scramble for other material).

 

Susan

[PeterPan]

Just figure out the number of chapters in the book and you'll know how many days to spend on it.

 

I fall asleep while reading aloud, so my dd very quickly decided it was more effective to pick up the book and finish it herself. ;)

[Chris in VA]

Gosh, for us, it really just depends. Some books, we couldn't read fast enough--dd would ask for me to read to her several times a day, and we just devoured them. Others, we never really got into, and it was a stretch to finish. Still others we started but realized after about 5 or 6 chapters that they just weren't for us.

 

I'm pretty "go with the flow," but what I'd do in your case is just request 2 or three, and when you are beginning the last of the lot, go ahead and get the next 2 or so. You should be able to gauge as you go. That will also allow you to pre-read the upcoming one, if you so desire.

[johnandtinagilbert]

I'd make a list of what you want to read.

 

Decide on your daily time frame.

 

Read until you're finished.

 

If you run over, skip the next book and read it on your next cycle of history.

 

No stress. Enjoy the great chapter books...may I suggest I am the Great Horse by Katherine Roberts, if you're studying ancient greece....we Loved it!

[ABQmom]

I'd make a list of what you want to read.

 

Decide on your daily time frame.

 

Read until you're finished.

 

If you run over, skip the next book and read it on your next cycle of history.

 

No stress. Enjoy the great chapter books...may I suggest I am the Great Horse by Katherine Roberts, if you're studying ancient greece....we Loved it!

 

:iagree: I would drive myself insane if I tried to schedule the read alouds to the tee. Once you get going on those read alouds, you will quickly see what an important and enjoyable part of your homeschooling it is. Don't let it stress you out. It's our very favorite time of the school day, and I credit the reading aloud of good chapter books to what has given all of my dc a love for history. If you ask them what their favorite subject is, they will all say "history" without hesitation.

 

Also, every year, I schedule too many books to read aloud. As the year wears on, I realize this and start shortening the list. You can't cover it all in one year. Make your list, and read through it until it's time to stop.

[Peela]

My kids are more likely to remember the long historical fiction than the shorter SOTW lessons, so I choose the best quality historical fiction I can, and just start with the one I want to cover the most.

We rarely get through everything I want to do, so I just prioritise.

 

Would it help if you considered the literature that you read that coordinates to your history year, literature- and therefore part of English, instead of history? Then you can just enjoy it and not worry about aligning it so carefully.