Mary Alice
I agree with Melissa on this. My oldest literally reads hundreds of books a year, she can easily ‘bolt down’ three to five books a day and as she is now 14 these include some pretty meaty ones. She ‘gulps’ down the first time round. Then re-reads often and then will often be found re-reading just her ‘favourite parts’. Truly it is a blessing in many ways to have a child like this as she has read so much and been exposed to so much knowledge I wouldn’t have been able to impart timewise myself. Having said that it is a challenge to pre-peruse what she reads as I don’t want her reading something that she is not yet ready for.

My kids know I consider Hardy Boys acceptable ‘twaddle’ so it doesn’t count as number of books read. I only record ‘worthy’ books. Last year I started recording what dd read and it made for a reassuring heartwarming list.

I have to credit Oak Meadow again, for helping me realize the value of hand work -and then we just put it together with the reading. He wove for hours when I’d previously pictured he should just snuggle quietly on the couch or something. He was working hard to de-school during this period, too (me too, obviously). What a great relief it was when we hit on weaving! So he did that and the little brothers would be doing other stuff and we just kept reading whenever possible, as much as possible.

Need to get that loom out for the now-ten yo!

Another thing is, all my kids are live wires, and as luck would have it, the youngest is the most physically precocious and energetic of all. He truly has been “off the scale,” and it was quite the task just to assist him in understanding the boundaries of living in a house that was not a play structure during his early years. I have long found that “reversing” what is often thought to be the normal course of the homeschool day has worked best for him. I’ve commented about it before - but as a little guy - unless he was scootering or physically engaged, he was most able to do “quiet” reading and writing at bed time. We now do most of our academic work between 8 pm and 10:30 pm in bed. I’m pleased to say that his capabilities in terms of being able to attend to things at other daytime hours is now what would be considered “normal” or even “better than normal” for a ten year old boy — but I still feel he is extra receptive in the late evenings. DH goes to bed early because of his early work hours, and I am more into Andy Griffith than American Idol anyway, so missing prime time TV doesn’t bother me.

We have the ability, as homeschoolers, to shape things so much more than many families. “Doing what works” sometimes means really examining if there is something different that might work better. Or — just doing what FEELS like is working and winnowing away the little pieces you can that are still bumps in the road. (I had trouble with the verbs in that sentence — no, the verbals — but I am not going to fix them). Then you can pretend you examined it, but really you just lived it! That is more or less how the “night-time academics” came to our family.

I think that coping with background noise and distraction can be really challenging, so I don’t mean to minimize that, and like I said, many of you have larger families and so the effect is a bit exponential. But I do think I have benefitted, and I know the kids have benefitted, from just sort of reading thru and over as much of it as possible, and of setting up the environment so that the Littles and Mediums can be occupied while the reading goes on.

And lest anyone think this teaches kids not to LOOK like they are paying attention, let’s face it, we have PLENTY of opportunities as they get older to point out what the general public sees as “attending behaviors” (eye contact, sitting up straight at the table, taking notes, nodding and giving other indicators of receptivity). I have seen that my older kids do just fine in their college classes and work meetings without any blocks to play with!

Jeanne and Cynthia, I’m so glad you both wrote about reading aloud while children are active. My dd always wants to wiggle and squirm while I read and I do get distracted easily but you’ve encouraged me to try to work through my own distraction and accept that she’s taking things in even when she’s doing something with her hands or her whole body.

In the comments on Comments on Comments, Jennifer mentioned that trying to read aloud to her daughter was one of the hardest transitions from one child to two and I remember crying after my second was born because every time I started reading to then 3 yr old which was my favorite part of our day, the baby would start crying. My 3 year old would want to me to just keep reading as though nothing was happening but my heart was racing as I tried to scream the words of the book and bounce the baby.

But now there are times when the baby will just crawl around playing while I read or she will cuddle on my lap and listen for a bit and my 4 yr old and I always have a long reading session after the baby goes to bed for the night.

I just wanted to chime in on reading aloud to the children. I have nine children and as they are in adulthood or moving that way, it feels odd to call them children. They are now 23, 21, 18, 17, 15, 13, 12, 10 and 8.

Our best memories are of the books I have read aloud. There was a period of time that I probably read aloud four hours a day. Those were during the years of using Sonlight Curriculum and that was while expecting my eighth child on past the time that my ninth child was born, so until my oldest was about sixteen years old.

I accomplished it by reading during meals . . . captive audience. I would always eat while preparing the meal so that as soon as they sat down, I could begin reading. Then I continued to read while they cleaned up the dining room and kitchen. I usually read to them before bedtime as well. We also would play clean up games that would entail me reading to them while they straightened a room. If they could finish before I finished a chapter or two (depending on how long the chapters were) then we would move on to the next room for more straightening and reading. The consequence of dawdling was supposed to be that they would still have to straighten the room with no reading … but it never happened. I would always slow down at the end of the chapter if they needed a few extra minutes.

I have found it more difficult to read to them as they have gotten older. As their outside activities increase, our time together has decreased. No one wants to miss out but sadly, they must at times. I don’t want to rob the younger ones of what the older ones enjoyed.

Even now, my 18 yos will ask, “are you going to read to us while we eat, Mommy?” Gotta love that!