Just as a side note, my apologies for not being a more regular poster! It is spring, fine weather has struck after three months of RAIN and I am trying to find my garden!
What do you do after you finish go outside?
We have lunch and read aloud
Princess Doc "reading" as an 18 month old
Why?
If you don't know why you should read to your children, try it for a week!
Here are a few reasons why I do.
I LOVE reading, I LOVE my kids. If I do this, I get to combine two passions of my heart and call it a "educationally enriched experience". Plus I get to read Muddle Headed Wombat, The Hundred and One Dalmatians AND Possum Magic!
I get to instill a love of reading through sharing a positive experience (otherwise known as "a cuddle") AND a book with my kids.
The kids get exposed to language on a greater scale than they do through "ordinary" conversation.
We create opportunity to discuss Life, The Universe and Everything (no, I don't read Douglas Adams to them yet!) through talking about the books - for example reading about Ping leads to finding China in an atlas, reading about Blinky Bill leads to finding a book about Koalas and reading about Esther leads to a discussion about being brave and standing up for what you believe in.
She was just SO CUTE!
How?!
As we finish up lunch I clean up the younger two and read them two or three short books - usually Christopher chooses at least one of them. The older two can listen but the babies get the lap and most if not all direct conversation is between them and me. I put the little ones off to bed (Christopher usually takes a board book, a toy car and his toy monkey - presumably so he can read to the car and the monkey!) and start reading to the older ones.
The older two choose a picture book each and we read those, then often Erin reads me one of her "readers". Currently Erin is working through the Fitzroy Readers and we find them pretty good. Then we read our 'Bible story of the week'. Each week we select a Bible story (usually the one from the Sabbath School Lesson Pamphlet) and read it each day. We read it from the Bible and then read several Bible Story books, checking their accounts against the Bible. This is kind of our introduction to Bible Study, but it is all very informal and mainly we just read them and chat. Finally (if Mummy isn't falling asleep) we read a chapter or two of our current read aloud. If Mummy is falling asleep, she goes and has a little quiet time while the kids have their own quiet time, then she has a coffee and finishes reading!
Books I select may have some connection to our other learning or they may just be one of the books on my personal "I can't let my children leave childhood without this book!" list.
There are some excellent books about reading aloud to your children, here are my favourites:
Cushla and her Books by Dorothy Butler
Babies Need Books by Dorothy Butler
The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
How to Raise a Reader by Elaine K McEwan
What about you? How do work "read aloud" time into the day? Why do you think it's important? What books do you and/or your children enjoy?
Leave a comment or blog about it and link back in the comments!
Come back next week for the next step in our walk through our day.
In case you haven't realised yet, the two things I think are VITAL for a child's development are books and...
LAUGHTER
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