Finding and Keeping Track of Read Alouds (with giveaway & printable) - Day 2
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 5:00AM
Welcome to Day 2 of the Ten Days of Reading Aloud.
Have you made the commitment to read aloud to your children? If so, I hope you decide to link up this Thursday and next Thursday with what you are reading aloud! I've challenged some friends in our homeschool co-op to read aloud to their children and I'm challenging my readers, too!
The most frequent questions I hear about read alouds is where to find them, or what inspires what we read aloud?
There are three big ways I choose read alouds: Correlation with History Studies, Word of Mouth, and Read Aloud "Handbooks"
Let's go through each of these. Then, I will provide you with a free printable log for keeping track of what you read aloud to your children and you will be able to enter a giveaway, too!
Correlation With History Studies
- We use The Story of The World. In the activity guide there are recommendations for read alouds. I also find myself researching the time period we are in and inevitably read aloud suggestions appear.
- If you are a Classical homeschooler you might be interested in the correlation of Sonlight read alouds with the cycles in the Well Trained Mind. LOTS of great information here.
- Ambleside Online provides excellent booklists as well. You have to do a little research to figure out what year AO your studies coincide with, but we use many AO recommendations so it's easy once you get started.
- Heritage History - We have been using these eReader ready living history books this year and they are wonderful! (you can get a discount by using the code MARYHOME at checkout) Best of all, they coincide with time periods in history. At the end of this post you can enter to win either a Library or a Curriculum. I will be able to choose FOUR WINNERS!
I'm sure there are many other resources to correlate your read alouds with your history studies. These are just the ones we use in our homeschool.
Word of Mouth
I listen and talk with other homeschoolers a lot. I like to get to know librarians and teachers. You can find read aloud suggestions in your every day life.
- Librarians - Get to know your librarians!! Many times they have a huge wealth of knowledge and can instantly suggest books for you. Our local librarian knows me by name and always greets me with, "So, what are we learning about this week?"
- Homeschool Moms - When I sit at co-op and eat lunch with my friends I learn so much! (My sweet friend Hope blogs and gives me many suggestions!) I also like to solicit advice from our local homeschool group via our email list.
- Blogs - Oh my goodness... I could get lost forever on blogs. My favorite read aloud blog is Hope is the Word. Just look at her chapter book read alouds page and you will get many ideas. Good Reads also has an extensive list of read alouds, as well as Simply Charlotte Mason.
I'd like to think that we've read aloud A LOT in our homeschool. Maybe you can find some suggestions and ideas in some of my read aloud posts! I think my favorite might be when we read a book in a day.
Read Aloud Handbooks
It's good to have at least one of these books in your personal library. You will NEVER be at a loss for what to read aloud.
- The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
- Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson
- Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
There you have it. I hope this post has answered the question about how we choose read-alouds.
Now, for keeping track. I've created a simple printable for you. There is room for you to log ten books on this one sheet, so print a bunch and put them in your homeschool binder. Better yet - post it on your refrigerator or bulletin board so your children can see the progress!
Printable Read Aloud Reading Log
As promised, I am giving away either a Library or a Curriculum from Heritage History. I can choose FOUR WINNERS. Please use the widget below to enter... no need to specify which you would like now; when you win you can choose!
This post is a part of the iHomeschool Network's Homeschool Hopscotch... you can access many great blog series by clicking on the image below!
Reader Comments (57)
We do use ebooks as read-alouds. I do prefer hard copy books, but it saves us so much space having an e-reader. Because we have a small house and four kids, saving space matters!
I haven't used an ebook as a read loud yet. I could start with this one if I win it!
I love reading to my daughter and my son is always bringing up books for me to read. I can't get the link for Hope is the Word, I'd love to look at her blog and get more ideas.
We love to read aloud around here! We are going to buy an ipad soon and Heritage History will be an awesome addition to our library!
I have not used Ebooks as read alouds but hope to change that in the near future! :)
I read books out loud from my Kindle, but my daughters always ask for a 'real book' when I'm done.
I've often tried to read ebooks to the kids, but I much prefer the real thing! The kids are more likely to go to the shelf and pick a book than go to the iPad and say, read to me Mommy. It's just a matter of getting used to the new medium.
We do not, I've never thought about it before. thanks for the idea!
We do read e-books aloud on the iPad! We recently read one on Christopher Columbus!
We haven't used that many e-books so far because the library has kept us so busy. Maybe next year...
We love our read aloud time. I'm super excited about this giveaway.
Yep! We love the portability of eBooks and have an inexpensive Kindle and a NookColor. Both are jammed -- picture books on the Nook for the little ones and free classics {I will finish Swiss Family Robinson someday!} on the Kindle for the big boy. ;-)
We love having access to so many free titles with ebooks!
We haven't yet but would love to.
These are some really great ideas! Thanks!
I love having new read aloud ideas.
I have never used e-books for read alouds but as I am using it more and more for personal reading I'm sure one of these days soon I will.
I haven't used eBooks as read-alouds yet, but thanks for the new idea! I guess I've always loved the feel and smell (my husband thinks that's pretty crazy!) of holding a book in my hands while I read to our children. However, new ideas and different ways surely captivate readers too, so we're going to download a new children's book and get to reading. Thanks for the ideas!
we have just started to read aloud chapter books to our five year old and love reading aloud short stories. We just finished Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate factory!
We do use lots of ebooks as read alouds. We were filling up too many bookcases!! ( I have a slight obsession with books :)
I love to read aloud to my kids. My first grader is also really enjoying it, often encouraging me to keep reading. (We get most of our books from Sonlight.) My pre-k'er can't really keep quiet during read alouds, but I'm working on him! Recently, my 2 yr old joined in so maybe with such early exposure, he'll be eager for read alouds when he "starts school."
Haven't used ereaders for read aloud yet. would love to try
We haven't used our e reader for read aloud yet but I would :)
We only use ebooks occasionally for read alouds, but the kids did enjoy it.
Not as much. I prefer actual books to read to my son, though I do have a few downloaded onto my kindle for him.