What’s in your “morning basket” / read aloud queue?

[Porridge]

Do you still do a “morning basket” or read-aloud with your high schooler(s)? 
 

 If so, what’s in it? 

I need some inspiration.

We’ve already completed the picture studies and Plutarch that we had planned for this year. I’d love something with shortish chapters (something I can read to them over breakfast or lunch) that is very thought provoking, not too dark/heavy. (Longish chapters are ok, too, if the content is good.)

The Great Divorce was a recent hit. The Count of Monte Cristo dragged out too long. Ray Bradbury short stories were a hit, but most are quite dark, so I want to shelve those for now. 

It still feels like the February slump here, so we need a pick-me-up 🙂 

ETA DD is a high schooler, DS is 7th grade. So I really should say high/middle school

Edited March 2, 2023 by WTM

[Rosie_0801]

We're reading a book of letters sent and received by our only lady governor-general, because when dd was young she told me she was going to be the governor of our state as a retirement project. 😂

[cintinative]

we still do read alouds but I don't have a morning basket.

Right now we are doing a bunch of short stories. 

Have you read My Antonia by Willa Cather?  It does have some heavier bits but overall it's an easy read, and not too long.

[silver]

I like to mix it up and sometimes do non-fiction. We're currently reading Immune by Philipp Dettmer. It has very short chapters and is extremely readable and engaging. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

we still do read alouds but I don't have a morning basket.

Right now we are doing a bunch of short stories. 

Have you read My Antonia by Willa Cather?  It does have some heavier bits but overall it's an easy read, and not too long.

DD and I have read it. I love that book! I don’t think DS will connect to it yet, though. I definitely have it in my list for when he hits high school

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

We're reading a book of letters sent and received by our only lady governor-general, because when dd was young she told me she was going to be the governor of our state as a retirement project. 😂

Haha! 😂 

[Vintage81]

My DDs are 7th and 9th grade…I still read aloud to them, but no morning basket. The books are all fiction, a variety of different genres. I’m not sure if that’s what you’re looking for, but I’m happy to share my list if you’d like. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Vintage81 said:

My DDs are 7th and 9th grade…I still read aloud to them, but no morning basket. The books are all fiction, a variety of different genres. I’m not sure if that’s what you’re looking for, but I’m happy to share my list if you’d like. 

I’d love to peek at your  list!

[Vintage81]

5 hours ago, WTM said:

I’d love to peek at your  list!

FYI...there's no real theme. In year's past if we were doing something for history, I would do that, but it was too difficult this year. My DDs have separate books they read for English/History, so this year I just tried to pick a variety of genres/authors and things I thought we'd enjoy. 

These are the ones we've finished...

• The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Bradley Brubaker (we read the first one last year, so they wanted to finish the series even though it's not high school level)
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• The Running Dream by Wendell Van Draanen
• The Outsiders by SE Hinton
• The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee (my favorite so far)
• Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

We're reading The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani now. These are the ones I have planned for the rest of the year...

• Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
• I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
• Nation by Terry Pratchett

[lewelma]

I don't remember many, but do remember these read alouds that my dh did:

To Kill a Mocking Bird

The Iliad and the Odyssey in verse by Fangles

Guns, Germs, and Steel

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Oliver Twist

 

 

[Kendall]

Currently reading aloud to my 9th/11th. 

Fiction: To Say Nothing of the Dog   (We are enjoying this so much even though we all read it independently a year ago. so many historical and literary allusions, so many small details the author attends to, amusing, well written)

Non-fiction: Thanks for the Feedback by Stone and Heen. (Two of my older children told me recently that they didn't appreciate this all that much when I read it aloud when they were in upper grade school but are realizing that as adults they are using what they learned and are grateful now!)

[freesia]

We are presently reading through the Book Thief, Through Gates of Splendor, 1 Thessalonians and poetry For Young People:Maya Angelou. 

[Guest]

I’m bookmarking all these ideas!

We just started The Dove and the Hawk (Penelope Wilcock) - it was a slow start, but now my kids are pretty engrossed. 

[Lori D.]

We did an evening family read-aloud up 2-3x/week through high school for a lot of the fiction (in addition to fiction during the school day), so our morning basket was to cover odds and ends that we didn't seem to have time for elsewhere. 😉 In middle/high school, our morning basket included a rotation of things like:

"brain warm-up puzzlers
- Word Winks series (Mindware), Plexors (Seymour), Think-a-Grams (Critical Thinking Co.)
- Critical Thinking Activities in Patterns, Imagery & Logic (gr. 7-12) (Seymour)
- Mindbenders (Critical Thinking Co.),  Perplexers (Mindware)
- 10-Minute Critical-Thinking Activities for Englishy (gr. 5-12) (Eaton)
- 10-Minute Critical-Thinking Activities for Algebra (gr. 9-12) (Martin)

"living skills"
- Money Matters for Teens (Burkett)
- Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends (Mally)
- The Young Peacemaker (Sande)
- a book on etiquette (we did one back in gr. 4-6 that was geared for tweens, and it included who/when to tip!)

Christian faith / Worldview
- Do Hard Things (Harris)
- The Greatest Among You (Sims)
- Fearfully and Wonderfully Made (Brand)
- A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 (Keller)
- Hinds Feet on High Places (Hurnard)
- The Universe Next Door (Sire)

Edited March 12, 2023 by Lori D.

[MJmom]

I’ve never done a morning basket, but I still do read alouds. We do a literature-based curriculum, but I always choose to read aloud either the most challenging book or an important history book. This makes it so much easier to teach, because we can stop and have discussions and I can point out fine sentences, literary devices, and other points that I think my kids would whiz past. Some books have challenging syntax so it’s easier for them to understand if I read it to them. I think this grows their comprehension abilities. When I read a history book aloud, it’s usually just so I can educate myself. It’s hard to fit their books into my reading time.