ConFess...who has an hour a day....outloud reading "family" time

[SonshineLearner]

Who does the One hour family time...reading out loud time.... And, what do you read...How long have you done it...and how old are your children?

 

Carrie:bigear:

[Jean in Newcastle]

If you add it all together I do more than an hour a day. For starters, I do all of our history read-a-louds at breakfast and lunch. The kids don't mind me reading some of it with my mouth full. Right there you probably have an hour (1/2 at each meal). I also have a separate read-a-loud time for dd7 but that's just for fun. And then at night dh asks me to read-a-loud our Bible study stuff - but that's pretty short - usually about 10 - 15 min.

[Jann in TX]

When we first started homeschooling (dd1 was 8 and dd2 was 6) we could easily have been called 'unschoolers'. My girls LOVED books and so our curriculum (other than handwriting and Math) came from the library.

 

After lunch EVERY DAY--we would cuddle together on my bed or the couch and I would read for at least one hour--most of the time much more than that. We read GOOD books too...if you asked them today they would both say that "My Side of the Mountain" was their absolute favorite.

 

When dd2 returned to PS in 6th grade she easily made a perfect score on the state's mandated test--so obviously spending so much time reading aloud to my children did not kill them! I truely believe that it INCREASED their reading comprehension--even in their own free reading.

 

Sadly we don't do that anymore--well my older dds don't know that we will start it back up for our next book study that starts next week!

 

Youngest dd reads to me every night--and I read to her--but not as much as I did to her sisters--but this dd attends PS and her 'social' schedule does not leave much time... HUMM...since she is on spring break this week maybe I'll go pull out a good book to read to her....

[Melmc]

I read aloud well over an hour each day. Sometimes my voice feels as if it will give out. We have our bible readings, daily saint story and history readings and then the history family read aloud. And that's just the readings with all three (ages 10, 8, 6). I still have time with my 8 yo and 6 yo for reading one on one. I just schedule it in to our day. Biblioplan schedules family read alouds (Golden Goblet, Hittite Warrior, God King, etc) and the kids also belong to a book club at a co-op so we squeeze those books in, too. (Crispin Cross of led was first book club book, The Hobbit will be in May.) Tonight, they didn't want me to stop reading so had to have my dh make me a tea with honey so I could keep going.

 

Reading aloud is one of my favorite things with the kids. We all enjoy it!

[rainforest mama]

I used to read at least an hour a day to DD10. Since DD2 came along, though, our read-alouds have fallen by the wayside. DD2 hates it when I do long reads and will protest vehemently if I try it. She loves picture books though, and will sit for hours as long as SHE is being read to. What a bossy kid.

 

I just told DD10 that we are going to start reading aloud again since she loves it. I'm just going to have to schedule it during DD2's nap time. :tongue_smilie:

 

I forgot to say what I read. It is usually the classics like Little Women. We are half way through Good Wives, so we will pick that up tomorrow.

Edited March 17, 2009 by rainforest mama

[Allearia]

I gave up for now and we do audio books in the car. It feels like cheating to me - I used to read novels out loud to my little brother for hours! - but at least we are getting something.

[Stacia]

We used to read aloud a ton, but then fell out of the habit (partly because both of my dc are very strong independent readers who love to read). In the past few months, though, I've made a real effort to get back into our read-alouds.

 

Sometimes I read-aloud during school time (esp. lit or history books/SL lists), sometimes during lunch or snack times. If the day is nice, we'll hang out in the backyard & I'll read -- the kids can play/climb/swing as long as they can still hear me. I don't typically read-aloud at night/bedtime anymore, but my dh will.

 

When my dc were younger, I would often read to them during bathtime.

 

We are loving being back into read-aloud mode. Both my dc beg for more.... I love the conversations that are spawned from the things we are reading.

[Michelle T]

I have one DS, 12.5. I read literature out loud for 45 minutes or so each day and also read a historical fiction selection each day, probably 15-20 minutes there.

Michelle T

[myfunnybunch]

We split up the hour, but I usually read out loud an hour total each day, maybe a little more when we read a picture book or two for science or history. I read from our family read-aloud first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and at bedtime.

 

Cat

[Miss Sherry]

My youngest is 13 years old and still loves to be read out loud to.

I can easily spend an hour a day reading out loud to her. She also reads alot to herself.

[Ria]

I homeschooled for 15+ years, and read aloud for 1-2 hours every single school day. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Neither would my kiddos.

It was magical!

 

Ria

[Laura Corin]

We don't do it as a family. I read history out loud to Hobbes and science to Calvin.

 

Laura

[elegantlion]

We do at least an hour a day just with reading. We start our day by doing 30 minutes of a subject specific read aloud. We end our day with at least 30 minutes of a fun read aloud. My ds has his own quiet reading time.

 

We've been doing read alouds in school since third grade. I hope to do read alouds until he graduates, he loves it and it is a wonderful bonding time for us.

 

ETA: I would read longer but my voice starts to give out after 30 minutes.

Edited March 17, 2009 by elegantlion

[Kim in Appalachia]

We have a morning time together, which lasts almost 45 minutes. We do memory work, Bible reading and some other read-a-loud. I would love more time, but I just don't have it. Even that time is hard, and would make my day much easier if we didn't do it. But I enjoy reading to the kids, so I refuse to give it up.

 

 

An hour of reading would mean nothing else got done.

[JudoMom]

We do a Family Read Aloud time, and it's about 30 minutes. We started in the Fall of 2007. My boys ages are in my signature.

 

We read good books and alternate with a Hank the Cowdog. Right now we're reading Charlotte's Web. Other books we've read this year are in the sidebar of my blog (near the bottom). What we read in 2007-2008 is here.

[Harriet Vane]

We start the day in bed, reading aloud. It usually works out to 45-60 minutes.

 

I also read ds his history and science.

 

Sometimes I read dd her history, just because she likes it when I do.

 

At night everyone gets read to again--usually around twenty minutes per kid.

[Testimony]

I will confess that some years I have been very diligent. Other years I have not been very faithful. Last year, I faithfully read the One Year Bible to my sons. It was difficult. Something that would take me 20 minutes to read with my eyes, took about 30-40 minutes to read aloud.

 

I include books on tape (or CD now) as read alouds. We do that a lot. It was great because it helped to give me a break from it being me to read to the boys.

 

This year I have not read a loud every day like last year. I am reading a Henty book a loud. Oh! It is so tedious for me to read his books and I am reading it aloud for the second time. We do have a family worship time which we read to them.

 

I do read alouds sometimes not always. When they were little, I would do it every day. As they got older, I started cheating and using a book on tape. Hey! The unabridged version of Swiss Family Robinson is over 1,000 pages. I was not about to do all that reading aloud by myself. My library had it on tape. There wer 13 cassettes. We listen to that book every day for months. I had to renew that several times. It's great in my opinion!

 

Blessing in your homeschooling journey!

 

Sincerely,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[MamaT]

I do read aloud to my youngest three every day - usually about 45 minutes. My older son has too much independent work to join us now that he is in high school. I also read the Bible to them first thing in the morning, about 15 minutes. We also have a collection of books on tape in the car.

[Chris in VA]

Not to the family, just to dd8. Now that she's in school, we don't read as often. We are currently without a read aloud--she is balking at Peter and the Starcatchers, and it's so good! Candy, but good candy.

We read mostly historical fiction, Roald Dahl, very little fantasy (except her dad is slowly reading the Narnia stories to her), and children's classics. We went thru a spate of fairy tales this year, and revisited the Greek myths. I can't wait for next year--I've got a bunch of books coming from Paperback Swap, and some are for her to read and some are for read alouds.

One suggestion--don't ever read The Westing Game out loud. It's a great book on your own, a real snoozer and hard to follow out loud! That's why we are currently searching...

[kalanamak]

I do it most days. I have only one child, but I also work full time. He is a slow eater, and I read while he eats (we also do history while he eats). Last night I read to him in the tub. Then we have a curl up before bed to read. The year he was 4 I read 2-3 hours a day, and was hoarse for months and months.

 

If you have no TV and don't have a bunch of outside classes, like evening gym, etc. what do you do but read? If I'm too absorbed, I put on books on tape. We are doing the Osborne Odyssey CD right now. He loves it and can pick out just the chapter he wants while he has his applesauce snack.

[southmetromom]

...just as others have said -- at lunch, after breakfast. My dc are 10 and 7. We always read at bedtime -- 15 - 45 minutes depending on how early we get started (and how tired I am). We are reading the Little House books right now, but have enjoyed the Olga da Polga books and some abridged classics (Frankenstein, 20,000 leagues, Polyanna, etc.)

 

If we have a lot of outside activities -- music classes, sports, etc. -- reading aloud takes a big hit.

 

Good thread!

 

Sandy

[KarenNC]

Depends on what you count as "family read aloud"---does it only count if *everyone* in the family is listening? My only child is 8 and a very strong independent reader but we still do a lot of reading aloud or audiobooks. We have audiobooks in the car whenever we go anywhere (some days that adds up to quite a lot ;)) and if my husband is in the car, he will also listen. We also do audiobooks for long trips as a family.

 

I do a good bit of reading for schoolwork (primarily history/historical fiction) each day. My husband reads aloud to her for bedtime and I frequently listen in (especially now as we are working our way through the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries)--about 20 minutes. If he is not home, I will read to her from a different book.

[HRAAB]

Well, all added together, it's more than an hour. We start the morning with a read aloud - all three girls I'm homeschooling. Then I will read to my 8 yr old twins alone, plus my 11yr dd and I are always sharing a book together. Then we read together in the evening as a family.

 

In the morning, we usually read something spiritual. Right now I'm reading Pippi to my twins plus an odd assortment of library books. My older dd and I are reading the Letzenstein Chronicles together. In the evening we're reading our way through Little House - for the umpteenth time - since the twins have never heard them all the way through. Plus I always do some sort of history reading aloud. And that doesn't even include the silent reading we all do.

 

Janet

[Ellie]

one chapter from whatever book we were reading. That's it.

 

I didn't read at bedtime because (1) we were together all day long for heaven's sake...go to sleep already!, and (2) I wanted all of us to be wide awake while I was reading, KWIM?

 

I read good children's fiction--maybe not deep classical stuff, lol, but *good*--Little House, Mary Poppins (series), Mrs. Pigglewiggle (series), Jean Fritz's books, the Rescuers, Lassie Come-Home, Wizard of Oz, Understood Betsy, and so on.

Edited March 17, 2009 by Ellie

[charlotteb]

We're probably in the "more than an hour" group too. We read aloud the Bible in the morning, I read SOTW or Science aloud, we read historical fiction at night, etc.

[ma23peas]

Technically I started in the womb, reading aloud...then just bought them books for every occasion (Easter, Christmas, birthday, accumulating them...so they always had them around)

 

I started really focusing on longer times with reading when my oldest was 4, the younger two were 2 and 1..I would just sit and read books as they brought them to me, even if they're attention span was 2 minutes, getting them used to sitting just for a minute and listening was huge..most the time at this age they would just want to flip and flip pages and I'd really have to make up a story, never could get more than 10 words off a page before they'd want to flip! :)

 

Fast forward 2 years and my 6 year old could sit for up to 15-30 minutes for a story, the youngest ones would listen and look but go off playing in the room somewhere...started reading Catherine Vos' "A Child's STory Bible"..HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

 

Fast forward 2 more years...I read atleast 2 hours a day (yes you have to build up to this, I would have lost my voice had I not!) Everything from Heidi, the Little House on the Prairie Series, Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, The Door in the Wall, anything by Linda Sue Park, The Bronze Bow, The Golden Goblet, pretty much any of the 1000 Good Books list that fit into our history...then of course, I'd read SOTW, Science books on famous scientists, famous artists, musicians of that period...

 

Fast forward 5 years and now we're reading Shakespeare together and acting them out, I read aloud their science, Bible, we read aloud our Latin together (Cambridge Latin), history, they do most of their nonfiction reading on their own...it's just with Shakespeare it's better done as a play than independent reading...so much more comes out in the spoken than if you're reading it off the page...

 

Start early, I believe that reading accounts for 80% of my children's knowledge and love for learning...I gave up grammar/writing courses until just this past year, they're ZOOMING through them both b/c they've literally read hundreds and hundreds (could possibly be thousands of books)...I would rather have them absorb a novel or a series than tell me what a predicate was in 3rd-6th grade...come 7th grade and all those books, you tell them once what a predicate is and of course, they know! It's kind of like mechanics.....you can show someone a how to book on the parts of an engine for 5 years, then you throw them an engine and it's harder for them to pick through..you give them an engine to play with for 5 years and pick apart then you label the parts for them, they know it like the back of their hand....my experience.

 

Tara

[vettechmomof2]

We do daily at least 1 hour at bedtime. That is an always kind of thing. We have always done that . My daughter is 9 and my son is 4.

 

We also will read together during the day whenever we can. I rather ingore dishes and laundry and read to the children anytime.:tongue_smilie:

[Tutor]

We read aloud over the lunch hour every day. We began doing this about a year ago. Before that, when the kids were smaller and had less school-work, we read for 1-2 hours every morning. Sometimes the kids choose what we read and sometimes I pick based on what we are studying or what I think they should have in their literature understanding. Right now we are alternating reading a book from the Little House series with a classic (right now it is Swiss Family Robinson). A few months ago, I picked the first Harry Potter book just for fun.

 

The evenings my dh is home, he is reading through the Lord of the RIngs trilogy. He read it to them a few years ago, but wanted to do so again now that the kids are older. He reads for about an hour (unless he or the kids really wants to continue) and the kids draw pictures while he is reading.

[amsunshine]

We do -- at bedtime pretty much every night. DDs 5.5 and 7 each read from one of their books for about 20 mins (last night, it was Henry and Mudge and Isabel Saves the Prince) and then I read a chapter or two of our "family read-aloud" book (usually about 20-30 mins) -- right now, I'm reading "All of a Kind Family" to them. We all love read-aloud time!

[Janet in Toronto]

When I was homeschooling my 10/11 year old (two years), we read for 45 minutes to an hour after lunch, usually a novel that went with our history studies. I also did some reading aloud for science (How the Body Works, How Nature Works.), although sometimes he read to me. He also had independent reading to do.

 

He's been in school for almost three years now, and reads every night on his own. I no longer read-aloud before bed as he goes to bed later than I do! (And at 14, he's not really interested....YMMV.)

[Alicia64]

I read a killer book on the importance of reading aloud even when the kids are teens!! It's called The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.

 

AWESOME book. I'm a library person, but actually bought this one.

 

He also puts in an amazing book list on good read alouds for different ages.

 

Book explains why it's so bonding for family. We read at least an hour a day -- with dh and me usually more.

 

Mine are almost 6. Are insane about the Little House series. Love Stuart Little. But I'm holding off on Charlotte's Web because I hate spiders and am afraid they'll never let me kill another one!

 

A.

[WTMindy]

We read something fun every morning at breakfast (right now it is Secret Garden) for about 1/2 hour-it usually spills over to the couch after breakfast. We always have a book-on-tape going in the car, so we have that. I usually read aloud to them during our school day history/science type things. Dh always reads a biography or something to the kids for about an hour each night. So, we do a LOT of reading outloud around our house!!! We all love it.

[Alice]

We also kind of split it up during the day but probably most days it's an hour. I read from a Bible Storybook and from our current chapter book at breakfast. Then during the day we read whenever they want to. We do FIAR for kindergarten so I always have a few books to read for that and sometimes we read more at teatime or at bedtime. We also usually have a book-on-tape in the car.

 

I'm one of those people that hate being read aloud to (although I like reading aloud). I know the reported benefits of reading aloud to teens but I would have hated that myself. I'm not sure how what we do will change as my kids get older but for now I really enjoy our snuggly reading times.

[mazakaal]

I don't do an hour 'family reading time', but I read aloud well over an hour per day on school days. Sonlight Core 5 read aloud, Apologia zoology, picture books for littles, CHOW, science and geography for dd, read alouds for dd. When my oldest was about 3yo I started family read alouds and was really good about that cuddle up on the sofa time. I stopped read alouds with my oldest a couple of years ago because he just wasn't interested, but my #2 still sits quietly so I'll keep them up with him. My youngest 2 don't enjoy non-picture books as much as the older ones did unfortunately. But they still get read to a lot.

[G5052]

Mine are nearly-logic and logic stage kids, and we've always done about that, probably less when they were younger. We use Sonlight but add other books in areas of interest and also read a chapter of the Bible at every meal. DH also reads to them before bed, usually a Bible commentary or story and then from some other book of interest. And we listen to a lot of books in the van -- right now we're listening to one of the Redwall books, and then they've requested another Hank the Cowdog book.

[Free Indeed]

We do! I have since my oldest was just 2 or 3. We read aloud more if you count history, science, etc... On average 3-4 hours a day.

[wide eyes & laughter]

This is the one area of consistency for me/us :)

 

Since "the beginning", I have read (on average) 1 1/2 hrs per day each morning while snuggling on the couch usually.

 

We begin w/Bible and go right into a chapter book. The books I remember reading include: Dangerous Journey (tons of times!), Charlotte's Web, Swallow & Amazon book series, Ms Piggle-Wiggle, Little House series, Lamplighter (publisher) books, Little Women, Little Men, and now Jo's Boys. There are tons of others - can't recall a single book we didn't like!

 

Many evenings dh reads aloud to us for about 30 - 45 min; currently it's Trumpet of the Swan.

 

My dc are 10, 8, and 6.

 

Cheryl

[Tess in the Burbs]

I started reading to my children when they were newborns. Every night before bedtime I read to them. It wasn't until this year when we had so many read alouds for history that we stopped at nighttime. So now our reading time is in the late morning. They still ask for evening, lol. But it would be easy to get it in if you did a little here and there. Even a chapter a night is something and we have all enjoyed the time together.

[Desert Rat]

Does my dh have to be there? If so, never, anymore. We read about 2 hours a day all told. We do an entire hour reading our "fun" book. My boys are 6 and almost 9. We have always had reading time. Even with little ones. It helps that my oldest has always enjoyed reading and began reading himself at 2. My little one doesn't know any differently; this is what our family does. We used to read every night for an hour before bed. Now, sports have taken over that time so I've made it part of our school day.

Right now we're reading Tom Sawyer. We recently finished Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderlad. We also read a lot of modern kids books-Sisters Grimm, Harry Potter, The Five Ancestors, Spiderwick, Narnia, Series of Unfortunate Events, and Magic Tree House to name a few we've read over the last year.

[Johanna]

I feel good if we get 20 minutes at lunch or bed time (with whole family and chapter book)

now, that doesnt include sitting down with picture books with individual kiddies throughout the day

[laughing lioness]

My kids are 6, 9, 14, 18, and 22. We have read for an hour a day for years, though some days it is less and some days it is more. Some seasons we are more diligent and some less. We have read hundreds of historical fiction books outloud, most, if not all of the books of the Bible, science, readers, Shakespeare, poetry, series, etc. etc. We have many favorite authors and when we find one we like, we usually collect thier works. We have many bookshelves in our home and a walk up attic that houses the overflow:001_smile:

[mcconnellboys]

My children are far apart in age, so I've never really read to both of them at once. My younger often listened in while I was reading to the older. And now, the older will try to listen in, if he's ever around, when I'm reading something to the younger that was a favorite of his (like Augustus Caesar's World, which I'm reading right now).

 

I read for an hour or two daily, always. Always have. We often read for 3-4 hours a day if we are home long enough to allow for that, LOL!

[Mommy22alyns]

Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes less. We almost always have significant read-aloud time before bed... both girls together, then usually Becca gets extra time with a more complex history-related book.

 

There's always a ton of reading throughout the day for school and for fun. One of my favorite things is to see the girls curled up next to each other, Becca reading to Sylvia. Of course, I would like to see Sylvia start to read more on her own, but it's one of those things that warms my mommy heart.