Reading Aloud Challenge, week 3

I'm going to recap a bit, as it seems I have a few people who plan to join me in trying to stay accountable.  Eeek!  I really have to follow through then if other people are expecting it!  I'll try to figure out a button or something cute to help identify these posts, but that will probably take a couple of weeks.

So, this started because a couple of weeks ago I was hit -- once again -- with multiple sources telling me something I already knew:  that reading aloud is incredibly important.  Reading aloud is huge in vocabulary development, it is huge in helping children to hear 'reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns' (not sure that is a direct quote of Andrew Pudewa, but it is close), it is huge in building up shared family experiences, it is huge in allowing discussion of important issues in life.

I used to be incredibly good at reading aloud daily.  My goal was two hours a day at a minimum, and I met and exceeded that most every weekday.  But I have allowed that to slide.  So my challenge for ME is to start making a concentrated effort to read aloud to my kids at least every weekday, and to be choosing books that are specifically age-appropriate for each child.  They may all listen as I read Boxcar Children, but that is directed at Richard and Trina.  For right now, I am not counting audiobooks, because for me this is a question of building the habit back up (and training a certain 5 year old to respect read-aloud time).

I plan to be checking in every Thursday, because Thursday is a point where I can still redeem my week, and I don't tend to have reviews due on Thursdays.

I'm thrilled to have other people joining me, so I will be putting up a linky and I promise to go read your posts and to pray about your reading aloud time with your family.  I don't care what YOUR goals are... if you are shooting for reading aloud for 10 minutes a day, I say more power to you!  That will add up to over 50 hours in a year, which is incredible.  If you will utilize audiobooks, more power to you!  Some books are far better when read by someone who has been paid to get it right!  I'm thinking about my experiences trying to keep track of who is talking in Winnie the Pooh.  I can't read that aloud well.


Okay, so here is my report for the week.  And, yeah, it was not a great week.  Figures.  People telling me they are going to start linking up and how much I've inspired them... and I choke.

• We are two chapters from finishing Out of Many Waters, and will finish it today.  This is directed at Connor.  It has led to great discussion, and the kids begged for me to get the book about the sister's experiences.
• We finished Twice Freed, then read excerpts from Romans and all of Philemon.  Great book.  This one was directed at William and Thomas.

And that's it.  I didn't pick up Boxcar Children (Richard and Trina's book) a single time.  I didn't do any one-on-one reading to Trina.  So this is where I need to redeem my week... it is not too late, and we can get a couple of chapters of Boxcar Children done today and a couple tomorrow too.

How about you?  What are your goals, and how have you been doing?  Why is this important to you?