Does every book you read with your kindergartener count as a read aloud?

[TinyMama]

We've been reading Magic Treehouse, Zoey and Sassafras, The Princess in Black and other intermediate chapter books. I write those down in our read aloud section of our homeschool planner. Would you include regular kids books as well? Not chapter books but just books with lots of pictures that you'd find in the children's library. I don't include them but do you? 

[HomeAgain]

What is your purpose for read alouds?

I would be more inclined to count picture books with rich language or a fun cadence than I would Magic Treehouse.  I just looked back at our list of read alouds from K.  There were a LOT of picture books, a nearly monthly chapter book, and a few "5 in a Row" style books.

[TinyMama]

28 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

What is your purpose for read alouds?

I would be more inclined to count picture books with rich language or a fun cadence than I would Magic Treehouse.  I just looked back at our list of read alouds from K.  There were a LOT of picture books, a nearly monthly chapter book, and a few "5 in a Row" style books.

I think as of right now our goal for read alouds is just introducing new books to our daughter. To get into a routine of reading more regularly and trying to work on her retention/comprehension and attention span. 

Any good picture books you would recommend? 

Also, I've heard a lot of people mention 5 in a row book or curriculum. I tired looking it up but I'm still now sure what it is. What does 5 in a row type books mean? 

[HomeAgain]

9 minutes ago, TinyMama said:

I think as of right now our goal for read alouds is just introducing new books to our daughter. To get into a routine of reading more regularly and trying to work on her retention/comprehension and attention span. 

Any good picture books you would recommend? 

Also, I've heard a lot of people mention 5 in a row book or curriculum. I tired looking it up but I'm still now sure what it is. What does 5 in a row type books mean? 

Five In A Row means reading the same book every day and covering different aspects of it with an activity.  Like, we read The Little Red Hen.  We set up seeds to sprout in a cd case one day, sequenced the story the next, ground a few wheat seeds on Wednesday, baked bread on Thursday....but we read the same story every day for that one, and for a different book we read variations of it each day (Cinderella, I think).  FIAR is a whole program of integrating art, science, writing, geography, etc. into chosen books.  We didn't go that deep, but a little bit every day.  I wanted to just find things my kid was going to respond to and actively participate in.  Reading to someone can let them tune out unless there's some sort of feedback required.

I will say we had the added.......problem? of ds reading fluently in K.  I'd assign him books that were fun and interesting to him, and use my reading time as ways to stretch him just a little bit out of his comfort zone.  I still do, but we have moved to audiobooks.  Three Musketeers would have been a difficult read on his own at 13, but he grasped much more of the story by listing to a recording of it.  We're doing Frankenstein next month on car trips.  Difficult, boring read at times, but better when someone knows how to read it well.

[HomeAgain]

Adding: ds loved a lot of the "award" books, and books about the area, but I think his favorites were Audrey Wood books (King Bidgood's In The Bathtub!) because they had a slight repetitive nature within them, Mo Willems (That Is Not A Good Idea!), and Robert Burleigh, for his variety of non-fiction, and Raul Colon, who sprinkled retold myths with gorgeous illustrations. Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi and Thayer's Casey At The Bat were high on his list, too.

We looked a lot for books that conveyed something beyond a basic story: word play, plot twists, complexities, emotional investment..a variety, but many of the authors we found for early childhood also wrote for slightly older children, too, so the familiar names kind of grew up with him.

[Clarita]

Yes and no. The general research does say yes, but keep in mind research would include children who would otherwise get zero reading exposure. In that case even just reading cereal box labels to your child is better than never reading to your child. 

Beyond that it's your own record of read-alouds, I think I may or may not count certain things as read-alouds depending on where my family is in our reading journey. In the pre-K and Kindergarten stage, there is a point where the children were on the cusp of reading and lots of encouragement helped. At that moment even in my household sometimes product labels and menus get put on the list. I thought the encouragement to my children of look we read that was beneficial to their reading journey. Now that both of them read fluently (or at least somewhat fluently) then my bar is a bit higher. Some chapter books don't count like "Dogman" doesn't count "Itty Bitty Princess Kitty" doesn't count (I still might read it to them for fun but it doesn't check off that box for school). Some kid picture books are deep or insightful and is beneficial to read for school. It's clearer to illustrate organization and writer's craft sometimes with short stories and picture books (because it's easier to see the whole work). Some picture books really have deep meaning and with a shorter story it's also easier to discuss and think about these things. 

To be honest, the read-aloud section of my homeschool planner does not track all the books I would count as read-aloud, mostly I use that section as books suggested to me.  Just like my curriculum progress section and my attendance sections are blank. 

[EKS]

These are books that you are reading to your child, is that correct?  

What is your purpose for writing it down?

I wrote everything down.  My purpose was to have it recorded.  And I did go back and look at the lists for various reasons.

Edited September 29 by EKS

[ScoutTN]

I would choose books with a high literary value to RA. Magic Tree House and other early chapter books are not that. RA should be well ahead of what the child can actually read. 

No, I did not write down picture books because we read zillions of them. Zillions.

I did write down chapter book RAs. Some were: Winnie the Pooh, Sarah Plain and Tall, My Father’s Dragon, Little House in the Big Woods, and Betsy-Tacy.

Edited September 30 by ScoutTN

[ScoutTN]

Read Aloud Revival is a good place to start.

Booklist books:
Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

[rebcoola]

I do keep track personally but if I did I would count picture books that's most of what we read to our 5yr old.  Good picture books have a higher vocabulary than like an easy reader chapter books. Since the picture book is typically intended for an adult to read to children. Exceptions abound obviously but I save things like magic tree house for them to read to themselves.