I am joining Sarah over at Amongst Lovely Things in her efforts to inspire us to do the important work of reading aloud to our children — a lot.

And therein lies the rub. I am reading aloud, but not as much as I feel I need to. I have yet to reach a volume of reading that I think is the most beneficial to the kids. That is one reason I was so excited when Sarah introduced RAR to me. Then I never even bothered to print out the tracking sheet. The original is on my computer. I didn’t even have to download the thing and somehow it just never got done. (In my defense I do have to make a special trip upstairs and hook up the laptop to print.) Yes, I know.

So I’ve known this little period of (self)reckoning was coming. I have been thinking about where we are falling short. I am trying to come up with some plans to help get us over the hump and on to the amount of reading I would like to see consistently. The key is making it a top priority. I know this is the best thing I am doing for my kids in a school day, but why does doing those math and reading lessons always seem to crowd it out for importance in my mind? I am grappling with the idea of moving it up to the first thing of our day. I know I should get started about an hour earlier each morning with school and do just that. My lazy side is resisting. Kind of like how it resists exercise (though I enjoy the reading so much more).

Ideally we would read a bit every morning during circle time, some right after lunch, there would be an audio book period in the afternoon, and then right before bedtime. It really doesn’t seem that bad when I write it up like that. (Yep, I need to print out that form.) Eventually the goal would be to start with 10 minute blocks and then stretch them into 30 minute or longer ones by the end of this school year. We also listen to audio books in the van (these have taken a hit since we started practicing memory work and Spanish in there as well) and Olivia listens to her own selections each night before bed.

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As for what we are reading, the Reading List Page is updated. I started it back at the beginning of August and upon review today, I can see that we have read a decent amount already this year. Right now we are also listening to Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers, but we are stalling on this one a bit, partly because the iPod always kicks us back to the beginning of a chapter when we have to stop listening — very frustrating to find our spot again. I also played the first two chapters of Story of the World, Volume 1 for them the other night to see how that would be recieved. They really seemed to like it, so we are going to continue with that as well.

As for other things, I made a combined list of books from Angelicum Academy, the IEW Book list, and Teaching the Classics. I pasted together all of the book selections for K-2 into one document and am using that as my basic reading list. I feel it is a good selection across the spectrum from picture books to fairy tales to chapter books — old and new. The rest of our reading selections include things that go along with our studies (usually what our local library has on hand for the topic) and old favorites from our shelves or recommendations from friends. As always there are far more good books than the time to read them.

So my goal for next month will be to read each day consistently. A total of about 180 minutes is a good place for us to start and build from. That and to actually print the tracking sheet and use it. Jump on over to Sarah’s for more conversation about reading aloud.

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