Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Reading Aloud Challenge: the Vacation Edition

We've been traveling since I last posted, driving 1000 miles to North Dakota and hanging out there.  The extent of reading aloud there was a couple days of The American Patriot's Almanac by William Bennett.  And a chapter of something else.

Unfortunately, all the books on tape (yes, real cassette tapes) and the playaway books (to be listened to using one of those little cassette converter things) are just taking up space in the van.  The tape deck doesn't work.  So we were limited to listening to the radio on our drive.

Late last week, we drove to Minneapolis.  The extent of the reading aloud here has been, well, ummm... nothing.

However, unlike my last post (a confession edition), I'm not feeling guilty about this at all.  

Because while I strongly believe in reading aloud in huge quantities, and I am very good at feeling guilty about all the things I'm not doing...

I think it is a good thing to have some time off too.

I'm feeling incredibly motivated at this point about getting home and taking the read-alouds seriously.  I'm excited about the possibilities.  Do we get back to Lord of the Rings?  Do we start something else entirely?  Do we grab one of the bazillion lists out there right now and choose something that looks interesting?  And which type of list do we go with?  I'm leaning a bit towards something that is dominated by fun books, not filled up with all kinds of heavy-looking classics.

Or maybe we do one of each.

A couple weeks without even trying to read aloud has done wonders for my attitude. 

How about you?  What are you reading out loud?  Because now I can read about it without feeling guilt...







2 comments:

A Learning Journey said...

Hi Debra! We use cassette tapes in Alyssa's listening center. It's a great way to change things up a bit. Sounds like a crazy week of traveling! What age are the children that you read Lord of the Rings to? I haven't read that series before . . . of course I have seen the movies. Oh my gosh there are so many amazing book lists to choose from - my goal is to finish the books we started. Alyssa has me reading several. I am surprised that she isn't confused or mixing up the stories. I would love to hear what you decide to read. Have a great evening!

Kayla Rice said...

My son Kyle would love this. He loves critical thinking and all kinds of learning.