Thursday, May 5, 2011

Reading Aloud Challenge: May 5

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  And happy National Day of Prayer!  I'm going to read through That's When I Talk to God again, possibly with all my kids.  I linked my review... I'd love if you ranked it.  Blogging for Books is supposedly only sending kids' books out to people who have achieved a certain "score" and they just wiped the system to start over.  <sigh>

Dale & I were pretty sick Monday and Tuesday, so my reading aloud, well, wasn't quite what I'd like.  Good thing I behaved last Thursday/Friday.  And we made use of audio.  And I read a fair bit yesterday.

I've been thinking a lot again about why I do this.  I got Sarah Clarkson's Read for the Heart from the library last weekend, and that has me thinking a bit more too.  She isn't emphasizing the reading aloud aspect like some books I've read or people I've listened to.  Anyway, that just had me thinking.

I'm so grateful that my kids do enjoy being read to.  I really want them *hearing* those language patterns, not rapidly skimming over them.

Anyway... on to the reading!

More Stories from Grandma's AtticWe read a chapter or two of More Stories from Grandma's Attic.  Everyone is still insisting on listening in to this.  I may need to look into obtaining the other two books in the series.   

Attack at the Arena (AIO 
Imagination Station Books)William continues to read Attack at the Arena out loud to me.  This is going way slower than it ought to, because we are not being remotely consistent.

As long as I'm counting the kids reading real books aloud to me, Thomas is reading Robinson Crusoe to me from my Nook.  This is the version from Christian Liberty Press, and I can't seem to find it to grab a picture.  He's finally far enough into it to really want to keep reading, so he's reading 3-4 chapters at a sitting.

Andi's Pony Trouble 
(Circle
 C Beginnings #1)
Another review product, Richard and Trina are still listening to Andi's Pony Trouble.  We are about six pages from completing this one, so I'm going to finish it as soon as Trina gets up, and not post about it next week.  It's cute.  See my review tomorrow. 



Black Horses for the King (Magic Carpet Books)William and Thomas started listening to Black Horses for the King.  Connor wants to listen too, but he read this himself not too long ago, and I told him he has to get other schoolwork done.  I feel like a horrible mother banning him from listening, you know?  I don't do that often.  So, that basically means that we're trying to read while he is in Chemistry class.  Awful, aren't I?  Love the story.  Hate pronouncing names like Bwlch.  Ugh.

The Ravenmaster's Secret: Escape From The Tower Of LondonConnor and I finished up The Ravenmaster's Secret.   Loved how it turned out.  Why couldn't I have had books like this when I was 13?  This is the kind of stuff I wanted to read.  I just never rarely found anything that made me feel like I was learning something but was a great story too.

The Thieves of Ostia (The Roman Mysteries)
We're about 1/4 of the way into The Thieves of Ostia.  This would be the first book in a series.  We destroyed some of the tension of this book by reading #3 first.  Oh well.  We are enjoying it nevertheless.  This has turned into our "listen while the kitchen gets cleaned" book.

We also continue to read aloud various history, science, and Bible selections.  Including a bunch of stuff from Yesterday's Classics that I reviewed, uhh, yesterday

So -- plans for the week ahead. Again, mostly it is to finish what is above.  I'm supposed to be reading The Sherwood Ring to Connor, but haven't in days... I don't think we read any this past week.  I will need to be picking a new book out for the little two. 

How did your week go?  Sign the linky and I'll definitely come visit your post.  I will figure out how to be notified so I don't miss any!  What is your biggest challenge in reading aloud?


To see my first post when this turned into a linky thing, check here

7 comments:

Michelle Smith said...

You've done very well again this week, Debra. I only wish my own report were more exciting! Perhaps we'll have a more normal week next week.

Tess said...

Didn't do much reading aloud this week but took a short trip down memory lane remembering library trips with my mother.

Read Aloud Dad said...

Congratulations and thanks for listing your read alouds!

I love what you are doing and your kids are lucky to have such parents!

BY the way, I've been on the fence about buying The Roman Mysteries ... I haven't read the books.

Are they good as read-alouds?

Read Aloud Dad

Debra said...

Read Aloud Dad -- they are good as read-alouds. They'd probably make great readers. They are sort of predictable, in that you know full well the main characters are going to solve the mystery and not get sold into slavery or die :) but they aren't totally predictable either. There is some discussion of the gods of the Roman Empire, but the kids are Christian and it is all filtered through their eyes. The slavery is definitely painted as brutal and evil, but there isn't a lot of gory detail.

I love being able to discuss issues such as slavery from this perspective, as I think it is really important to understand that slavery wasn't invented in the American Colonies, and unfortunately it hasn't gone away either. It's "safer" to discuss slavery in Roman times though, somehow.

Cristi said...

It's amazing how much we read when we make time for it every day and when we don't hurry to finish up in a certain (short) amount of time.

Dawn said...

Hey Debra - so what exactly is the "Read Aloud Challenge"? I couldn't seem to find the beginning / instruction post. Can you email me or FB me with the info? We'd like to join in, I think. Blessings!

Debra said...

Basically, I posted a few weeks ago (I'll see if I can't link that in this post... check back!) about how I really needed to challenge myself to truly reading aloud to my kids again. It related mostly to Andrew Pudewa reminding me how important it is to hear the language patterns.

Anyway, it turned into a weekly check-in.

The rules are, hmmm, that you link up a post (or comment here) about what you are doing. I don't set goals for your family. :) If you are needing a push to read aloud, join in. We'd love to have you :)

I post on Thursdays, and leave the linky up through at least Wednesday. Post when you want, link up, visit other if you can, and be encouraging. LOL, like I have to tell you that...