Posted in Language

The two most common complaints I've heard from homeschooling mummas regarding read alouds are that they don't know what to read and that their children just won't sit still long enough to listen.  So I thought I'd explain how we started out with reading to our children and how I get my boys to listen for so long. 

Firstly my boys have been read picture books since they were VERY little and they've been borrowing books from the local library for almost as long.  So the desire to be read to is something I didn't have to work too hard at.  All day they would be bringing my husband and I books to read aloud to them.  They would sit and listen to quite a large pile of picture books before showing signs of needing to move on.


However I did find that the move from picture books to novels was a different kettle of fish.  With a picture book open in front of us they could sit motionless for ages as though they were transfixed in front of the tv.  With a novel however the boys started to fidget and squirm.  Hubby and I didn't cope well with this at first.  We are both very used to reading aloud to school children and they are expected to sit STILL and at least LOOK attentive. 

We didn't know any other children as young as ours, at the time, who were being read novels (or many who were being read to at ALL for that matter!!).  We started questioning whether it was an age appropriate expectation for them to listen to novels.  But I had read a lot of homeschooling titles and knew that there WERE young children in the world being read far more advanced novels that what we were attempting. 

Selecting our first novel was also a challenge for us at first.  I hadn't "discovered" internet book purchasing at that time...well nothing like the relationship I have with online book shopping now.  So I went looking at the local book stores. 

From looking at their shelves it seemed that publishers hadn't found much of a market for novels for younger children.  All of the novels on offer were for a preteen or teen audience and hardly appropriate for that audience either!! 

So I returned to my own shelves and pulled out a few Enid Blyton books I remembered reading in my youth.  Through necessity these books ended up being our first.  I just couldn't find anything else that seemed easy enough for them to comprehend.  I also wanted something that had complete adventures in each short chapter. 

The Blyton books were an okay start but not one I'd recommend to everyone.  The way I justify it now was that any start was a good start.  So my recommendation for starting is to just try something that you think will work as a start for your children. 

After only two of the Blyton books Hubby and I were begging each other to pleeeeeeease take each other's turns at reading aloud that book.  It seems that there's only so much of Miss Blyton's books that we could cope with and it wasn't long before the boys started to show signs that they were feeling the same way.  

"Where to next?" I thought which is when I DID start looking online and found Sonlight (there are other great book lists but this was a nice start for us and one which I still use).  They have lots of superb titles that are highly recommended by other homeschoolers who want to read aloud to their young children.  So I bought several of these and so began our love of reading aloud novels to our boys.  With a good novel the task is easy and now hubby and I squabble over who gets to read which titles. 

So a good start to novel reading is to find good book recommendations from other homeschool families preferrably with similar views about what's appropriate.

The next issue you'll encounter, as we did, was squirmy children who found it hard to sit still while listening.  Without the visuals to occupy them they began to wiggle and make a nuisance of themselves.  To the untrained eye it looks like they are not "listening" but I've found this not to be true.  They are listening but they just can't sit still without the motivation of illustrations.  Perhaps this will change with maturity...but even I find it hard to do nothing and listen to audio.  I get restless and start looking for something to occupy my hands...ironing and driving are my preferred listening locations.   So this might just be how people are wired. 

As a result I don't enforce sitting still while I read aloud.  I sit comfortably on the couch with our pile of read alouds in a basket beside me and my boys are welcome to come and go from the couch as they choose.  The only two restrictions they have are that they must stay in the same room and they must play quietly without talking. 

At first I did find this situation difficult.  I was not used to reading aloud to children who didn't LOOK like they were listening to me.  I did feel at times like I was reading aloud to myself.  But I persisted and reassured myself that they were listening by stopping now and again to test their comprehension.  Amazingly they were actually listening.  I also knew they were listening when they would pipe up and ask me a question about what I had just read.  At other times they would leave their play and come and sit beside me to listen to an exciting or interesting part of the book.  We also do lots of narrations which help me see how well they are listening. 

So my other piece of advice regarding read alouds would be to let your children DO something while you read aloud to them.   Let them engage their body in an activity while their mind listens to you read aloud to them.

Nowadays we read aloud a LOT to our children.  Hubby reads a chapter from a novel each night at bedtime, along with numerous favourite picture books.  At this time hubby expects them to sit still while he reads.  He struggles to accept movement while he's reading.  He's a school teacher at heart and just can't get into the swing of reading to moving children. 

During the day I read aloud to the boys for one to two hours.  This was my goal for this year - to read aloud more to the boys.  I've heard and read so many times that if all you do in your homeschool day is one thing, it should be reading aloud. 

Today we read for two and a half hours (I only know the exact time because Ethan is in a "timing everything" mood).  This was a bit longer than normal but not totally out of the norm for us. 

We keep our read alouds in a basket on our couch and read one to several chapters from each most days of the week.  I also add in various information titles for whatever topics we are learning about at the time.  So there's always plenty to read.

While I read aloud to the boys today Brayden sat and explored the art of butterfly printing and watercolour painting.  By the end of my reading I had a bench full of wet paintings (Later in the day the boys set up an "Art Gallery" in their bedroom). 

Ethan chose to do several different things.  At first he painted alongside his brother. 

Then he moved to the floor and made roads with letter bricks and a baseboard. 

After that he bounced around on a large ball for a while. 

Finally he pulled out our Junior Roadblock game and began playing with the cars on the board. 

After all of this he came to the computer with me and made a wonderful narration about what we had read, almost word for word detail in some parts so he was definitely listening.