WE all hear it, “Read to your kids!” but how do we fit it into a busy day?
Some of my fondest moments in homeschooling were the times when we read aloud literature to each other. We plowed through so many wonderful books, and I honestly believe that my close ties with my adult children today have something to do with the many experiences we shared while reading together.
The way I structured my homeschool, which had anywhere from 5 down to 2 students at a time was that mornings were our read aloud time. We got up, ate breakfast, did our chores, then we prayed and read aloud Scripture (always our first readings) as a family (everyone had a part to read), and then we settled down for our literature readings.
I would say that prayers and Scripture would be about 10-15 minutes, and after that our lit readings were about another hour.
“WHAT?” You may say, “How could you justify a whole hour of reading with all you have to get through in a day?” And I would say, it’s simply a very high priority that my students are well read. Most medieval literature (for the higher grades) is in the form of poetry and allegory and it was meant to be read aloud, and so we read it aloud.
I am going to break this blog into two parts for reading aloud
1. Elementary years
2. Junior and senior high
Elementary Years
In the elementary years, my students all read a passage or a verse of Scripture, or a prayer aloud in the morning, and I did the brunt of the reading when it came to the literature. Our morning readings were a bit shorter then, than the hour I described above, since that belonged to high school. In the elementary years I read aloud wonderful stories like D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths, Trolls, and all their stories of Christopher Columbus, John Smith, etc. They have a long series of heroes, both mythical and legendary and historical, and we plowed through them all.
In order to get adequate reading time in, I spread the time over breakfast and lunch. Basically, we did prayers before breakfast, then we ate. I always finished my food before the kids, and then I read aloud from the books while the kids ate. Usually I would have one mythical or historical or legendary book to read aloud that had to do with the kids’ broad knowledge of history (D’Aulaire, The Children’s Homer, Aenead for Boys and Girls – see literature list below), and then I had a literature book like Little House on the Prairie, The Phantom Toll Booth, or some other fun story for kids. That was probably about 20 minutes of reading, and then that tradition continued over lunch. I would eat my lunch and be done way before the children and then before lunch clean up, I would read another 20-30 minutes while the kids ate lunch and quietly cleaned up after themselves.
In the evening Dad would read with the kids. He had his own set of books that he chose for his special time with them, anything from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson to Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle when they got older.
Junior and Senior High
As the students got older, we divided our reading into three sections, and we spent a whole hour reading aloud. (The lunch reading gave way to a historical or scientific 30 minute lecture from the Teaching Company’s excellent selection of lectures on every possible topic). The three sections were
1. A philosophy/essay topic 20 minutes
2. A play 20 minutes
3. A novel 20 minutes
Under philosophy/essay, we read Plato’s dialogues (of which there are many), as well as other ancient treatises, medieval allegories, etc. We basically tried to go through a bunch of the great books treatises that were so foundational to Western culture, and I figured that it was better to have them read aloud and discussed in an informal setting than assigning those difficult works to the students to just read and grapple with on their own. Under plays we did Shakespeare, the ancient Greek playwrights, Roman playwrights, and various more moderns, including Russian and French playwrights from the enlightenment and up, as well as funny modern things like George Bernard Shaw, Gilbert and Sullivan, and as an example of modern, my favority Copenhagen (about the nuclear bomb development in WWII). We always took parts in the plays so all the students were directly engaged in the reading. (Ditto for Plato’s dialogues, they are wonderful because everyone gets to read).
For literature only I read, and the students listened. For this we did all the lovely 19th century novels by British and Russian novelists, as well as scores of other authors from America and other places. The lists below from the CW literature pages are not exhaustive of all we read, nor of all that is available, but it is representative of the sorts of things we read.
We also found the time to do a little discussion after each section. So if Plato discussed the nature of justice in our selection, we would sit and talk about what justice was, how can we know if we are just, what are all the difficult fuzzy points where it is not easy to pin down justice, and so forth.
In the literature section, we would discuss, say, my favorite novel Bleak House, and have a marvelous time enjoying the characters and their virtues as well as their shortcomings.
The beauty of literature is that you have an opportunity to discuss people and their behavior and choices and motivations without gossiping. Also the behavior of, say, a Mr. Guppy, in Bleak House—a man who is insecure and socially awkward—is instructive and yet far removed from the kids’ own issues and insecurities. Literature is such a safe haven to explore feelings and measures of right and wrong, and with a brilliant writer like Dickens, there is endless material for discussion.
Before I share the books we have read and the books we recommend, let me end with this. I don’t think there is time better spent with kids than in reading aloud to them. They form language in their heads ‘by osmosis’ by listening to authors whose language may be a tad too hard for them to read on their own, but which they can listen to and understand readily. They get a chance to explore actions and ethical choices via characters in literature, and we get to discuss vital issues in life with them without having a real life crisis with a particular kid where emotions and stakes are often so high that the kid is defensive and not open to seeing the best way of dealing with things. You, yourself, get immersed in beautiful language and great thoughts, and you get to improve your education by increasing the list of books you have read. (I always think that in the end mom is better educated than her kids for all she goes through in the K-12 process). And as I mentioned above, those readings glue us to our adult kids later as we have so many shared experiences and so many reference points for understanding the same things.
Read in the Car
One last suggestion is ‘reading’ in the car. We have taken many many road trips with books on tape in the car (I think it’s called books on CD or audio books now). Homer’s Odyssey was a trip to Iowa. Don Quixote was a round trip from Denver, Colorado to Norfolk, Virginia. We didn’t do it constantly or obsessively, and we did pause to discuss the books we read, but what a wonderful way to spend a road trip, all engaged in the same story. Last year when we drove to Annapolis with adult kids, we listened to Anna Karinena round trip. And this year our trip to Annapolis featured Litte Dorrit by Charles Dickens.
What to Read?
I always proudly share this huge labor of love created by Kathy Weitz, a long list of wonderful books to read. These books correspond to the Classical Writing series and the works it goes through, but you do not have to use Classical Writing to enjoy any of these books.
Rough Grade Equivalents to literature lists
Grades K – 4 Primer: Assigned and Supplemental Reading
Grades 4-6 Aesop and Homer: Supplemental Reading
Grades 7-9 Diogenes: Assigned and Supplemental Reading
Grades 9 – 12 Herodotus: Assigned and Supplemental Reading
Plutarch: Assigned and Supplemental Reading
Demosthenes: Assigned and Supplemental Reading
Grades K – 12 Poetry: Assigned and Supplemental Reading