I've been reading The Read Aloud Family by Sarah McKenzie, and it is reminding me all over again of a primary reason why our family homeschools. There are so many wonderful books in the world, and I want to give my children lots of time to fall in love with them at a young age.
A couple of really important things that I did before we left the U.S. were buy an iPod and sign us all up for library cards. We were primarily using my card in North Carolina, but when I signed us all up for cards, that meant that we each got 10 digital downloads at a time per card. I'm very grateful that we still own a home and pay NC taxes so we can still take advantage of our excellent library system.
The boys will play quietly when they get up in the morning while listening to books like Ramona Quimby, age 8 or Pippi Longstocking or The Long Winter. They're even occasionally willing to listen to challenging books read well by an excellent narrator that I would never be able to get them to listen to if I was doing the reading. The video above is of Evan doing a spelling activity while listening to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Audiobooks are my biggest reading aloud "cheat." The boys are engaging with wonderful stories and building their vocabulary while I'm taking a shower or getting my breakfast, and I can definitely tell the benefits in the words they use when talking with me or in writing stories. This is vocabulary that they wouldn't be able to acquire by reading to themselves yet, but they can definitely get it from hearing books read aloud.
I've had some headache issues since moving to Asia, and whether that's because I'm getting older or because of the pollution, I've found that walking seems to help. I'll do 20 minutes of walking around the paths behind our building in the morning while listening to podcasts. The "Schole Sisters" podcast feels like teacher in service training for homeschooling moms. I've gotten some fresh insights to add to our school day by listening to that one. Other favorites include "The Read Aloud Revival" and Sally Clarkson's podcast.
I'm seeing my boys really starting to click with their reading this year. I love that I'm teaching them, so I get the chance to cheer with them and encourage them when they hit a new milestone. I'll often find Ben writing his own stories now, and that's so exciting to me. He even spells a lot of the words right!
Evan and I are reading Toliver's Secret together every day. He's at the stage where he doesn't love to read yet because it's hard work, so I'm trying to pick books that I think will really interest him, and then I'm helping by doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I read a page, and then he reads a couple of paragraphs, and we alternate, usually only reading 15 minutes at a session to keep us both from getting tired or discouraged.
Our evenings are quieter in Manila than they were in the U.S., and that means that we've covered a lot of ground in reading aloud as a family after dinner. David loves to read to the boys. He read the older two boys the entire Harry Potter series in the last year. At this point, he's going through all of the Chronicles of Narnia with them.
Ben is 7, and he just isn't interested in a lot of chapter books that the older boys like. That's ok. I've been reading picture books for 11 years now, and I have no desire to stop. We pull out books from our bookshelves, and I read to him.
We're a bookish family. That's just us. If homeschooling has given my boys the time to fall in love with books through lots of time to interact with them, I will consider that part of our educational journey as a success. I want them to love to learn and to turn to books to answer their questions and increase their wonder, courage, and empathy.
