Long before I even began homeschooling, I was committed to reading aloud to my children. My firstborn loved books, so from the beginning of my journey as a mother, reading together became a natural and easy rhythm of our lives. As more children were added to our family (we have four), the hour after lunch became our D.E.A.R. time: Drop Everything And Read!
After cultivating this routine in their preschool years, home education seemed a natural next step, since we were already all-in when it came to reading great books. Our curriculum choices leaned heavily towards those that used “real” books instead of textbooks: starting with Five In A Row, then moving on to KONOS and Sonlight.
Through home education, our family was able to travel the world and travel back in time. We laughed, cried, learned, and held our collective breaths. We would often race through the other subjects to get to our read-alouds. We learned about ancient Egypt when reading The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. Puritan America became real when reading Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond. And our imaginations were ignited by C.S. Lewis and his Narnia series.
Reading aloud isn’t just for preschoolers. We read aloud well into teen years, and the adults in the family enjoyed our reads just as much as the kids. As the children got older, we sometimes did our read-aloud after dinner, so Daddy could get in on the fun (plus the kids got to procrastinate on loading the dishwasher and putting away leftovers). And each vacation would find us enjoying a read-aloud to pass the time in the car.
In honor of National Read A Book Day, I’m sharing my Top Ten Reading Aloud tips and ten of the Macfarlan Family favorites from our read aloud days. (I polled my adult children for the latter).
- Go to the library and take a milk crate. At Walmart, the grocery story, and the mall, mothers often say, “Not today” or “Maybe for your birthday” or “Pick one.” But at the library, it’s all free! Take them. Allow them to choose. Teach them how the library is laid out, and show them how to find what they need. Load up that milk crate with your haul to take home.
- Choose both fiction and non-fiction. When my oldest was devouring the Hardy Boys books in first grade, I decided there needed to be more substance in his reading diet. Nothing wrong with the Hardy Boys, but those early years are sponge years, and I wanted make sure my children absorbed as much truth, knowledge, and learning into their hearts and minds as possible. I made a new rule: Every other book needed to be non-fiction. As a result, he became the family authority on World War II. He read every biography and non-fiction book available in the juvenile section and moved on to the adult section by fourth grade. If you are a contestant on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and the category is World War II, Kyle should be your phone-a-friend.
- Read-alouds can be at a level above what they can read on their own. This is probably intuitive to most. After paying my dues with all the picture books (The Berenstain Bears, Spot, Daisy Duck), I was so ready and so excited to introduce my children to chapter books. Age four or five is a great time to read E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web.
- Snuggle up. Read-alouds are to be read on a blanket outside, on a comfy sofa, or stretched out on a bed. Hard chairs are not conducive to read aloud pleasure!
- Give credit where credit is due. Before jumping in, read the title aloud and the author. We often remember titles, but shouldn’t the writer get credit? Saying their names aloud each time will cement it in your child’s memory and also make it easy to find others by the author later. You might also consider asking an older child to find out three things about the author before read-aloud time the next day.
- Before beginning, open to the copyright page and note the year published. Comment on the era or the year. For example, “This book was written in 1937. That’s the year your Pappy was born!” Or, “This was book was written in 1942. That was during World War II.” Or, “This book was written in 1997. Who was born then? Lydia!” Consider going to The History Channel website and typing in the year. A list of links and events should pop up. It’s an interesting exercise as a family or as an assignment to an older child.
- Savor the opening. Talk to your children about a “hook” and how it makes us want to keep reading. How does the author draw us in? Challenge them to come up with good openings when writing their own stories, essays, or speeches. E.B. White wrote my all-time favorite children’s book opening in Charlotte’s Web : “Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. It makes you want to know what Papa is up to!
- It’s easy to chase the storyline, but try to appreciate not just what story is shared, how that story is shared. Call their attention to a well-crafted sentence, word usage by the author, and interesting sentence structure. Appreciating great writing will equip them with tools to be great writers and speakers themselves. Note unusual vocabulary, sentence structure, and plot development. How does the author advance the story—does she tell it as a narrator, or use dialogue with the characters?
- Bone up on literary devices so you can highlight these as you come across them. Examples include: foreshadowing, metaphors, similes, and personification. But go easy on this! Too much and you sap the joy out of reading aloud. A list of some of these devices can be found here.
- Keep a quote journal. If they are not old enough to write, you can keep a family quote journal until they are old enough to do their own copy work. The quote journal could even spark a family trivia night Quote Quiz. “Who remembers…?”
Feeling sufficiently challenged and ready to launch your own daily D.E.A.R. time? I’m listing ten of our favorites below. (It was extremely difficult to choose only ten!) Please add a comment to let us know some of your favorite reads, as well.
Happy Reading!
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Title |
Author |
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E. B. White |
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Eloise Jarvis McGraw |
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Elizabeth George Speare |
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C.S. Lewis |
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Marguerite de Angeli |
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Rosemary Sutcliff |
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Elizabeth George Speare |
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Susan Fletcher |
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Jean Lee Lathan |
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Ann Weil |
