The joy of Read-Alouds

We have really been into Read-alouds in the last month. Over at Higher Up Further In, which is a great blog for explaining how to give a "Charlotte Mason" education to your children in practical terms, I read about taking books slowly over a extended period time. There is no need to rush, let the children absorb the material and identify with the characters over a period of time. I had heard this before but for some reason this time it made sense and we put it into practice. The idea that you could have more than one book on the go at a time was okay, for example a book for literature, a book for science/nature study and a book for history would be just fine. I thought that it would confuse them but I thought I would try it out. Wow! has it ever been successful, they are both loving it and I am getting to spend more time with them.
This is the book I chose to start with. We had read two others in the series, the book on George Mueller and the one on Gladys Alyward, both of which were awesome so I knew it would be a hit. Wallace loved it, John liked it but sometimes the chapters were too long. (If I had been reading just to him we would have significantly shortened the length of each passage.) Michael had to finish the book for me, I sat there and bawled, it was so sad. I would highly recommend this book or any others in the series.

John and I just finished reading Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Thornton W. Burgess today. It has 23 very short chapters so it was perfect for his first ever experience with narration. He did a great job, although I had to work hard at not prompting him. He loved it, and each day couldn't wait for story time. He has picked this for his next book.

I think I will be looking for Collection of Thornton Burgess work so I can have all these wonderful stories in one place.

We have Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare out of the library but have my own copy on order from my homeschooling supply. Wallace and I are reading these aloud too. I know that some his age would already be studying the actual plays having read these earlier but since we haven't I didn't want to jump right into the plays. I thought it would help to know the plot and the characters prior to trying to understand the old English.

This one was just a happy surprise, we just started it today and both the boys are totally enamoured. John has been on a Owl kick lately and so I have taken every owl book out of the library and this was in the mix, seems like a great 'living book'. I read Farley Mowat when I was in school and never enjoyed him, but I think that is because they were pulling him apart rather than just enjoying him. I must say that I don't agree with everything that he stands for but I am not one to 'throw the baby out with the bath water' and will enjoy what is good and discard what isn't.

So as you can see we've been having fun with living books, and probably for the first time all because we are taking it slow and enjoying the process.

Edit: Wallace just walked up and grabbed the Owls in the Family book and asked if he could read it.....looks like a good sign.