Read-Aloud schedule

[Uccnorsworth]

Do any of you have a schedule of genres for read-alouds? I haven't been doing this, but I thought I might try . . . I have been working on reading various classics and Aesop Fables to the kids, but it struck me that I never read non-fiction. I guess I just looked at it as "mature" material they wouldn't be interested in. Well, I found a series from Scholastic that introduces various types of animals, and the saga began. My kids love these books. So, I am thinking that I will try to do one night of non-fiction, one night of fiction, one night of poetry, one night of fables, one night of tall tales, one night of fairy tales, etc. How does that sound? Does anyone else do something similar?

[Faithr]

This is exactly what I do! Mondays we read a non-fiction book (This week we began The Story of the Orchestra), On Tuesdays we read fairy tales/folk tales, on Wednesdays we read Bible stories (doing the Life of Christ right now), On Thursdays the kids pick (yesterday they chose a biography of Audobon) And on Fridays we do poetry. I haven't gotten the poetry in yet today though! Maybe at dinner. I also have a read aloud going for my teens and a read aloud for my youngers. I'm reading Sophie's World to the teens this year. I just finished up Miracles on Maple Hill for my 3 youngers (wonderful tear-jerking story). We're going to start Farmer Boy after Easter.

[Rhesa]

I don't use a schedule, since I tend to be a "loosely structured" person.

I don't know the ages of your children, so what we do may not be applicable. Mine are 5 & 7, so reading aloud is a huge part of our school day.

In the morning, we tend to do nonfiction science or history. Right now, we're reading about the human body. In the past we've read animal books, earth books, anything related to our chapter in SOTW.

We read poetry once or twice a week. We use The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. My kids now have their favorites, so we often to read those first, then I'll introduce some new ones.

Then we have a few fiction books going on at the same time. A chapter read aloud, which can be read in the afternoon on a rainy day or before bed (Just finished James & the Giant Peach- starting on Babe); and tons of picture books that can be read in a sitting.

The picture books might relate to our chapter in SOTW. (I try to fit those in the morning's readings as well)

Anyway, that's how we do our reading around here. Depending on the day, it can be around 1 hour. But we've been known to go longer than that (not in one sitting though!:))

The library is our friend! I check out tons and tons of books!

HTH!