Child Reading the Read-Aloud

[Nealewill]

At what point is it okay for the kids to start reading the Read-Aloud to themselves? Usually I have always done the read aloud portion myself. However, the past couple of weeks have been insanely busy for me. In preparing, we are at the point in the guide where we are reading Viking Quest 1. Last week I had meetings every day (very rare, I keep meetings to one day a week usually). So I wasn't going to have time to read out loud to her. I told her and she said no problem, she volunteered to read it herself. Well, I can't deny that I am loving it! I looked a some of the future books that are scheduled and am sure she could read The Family Under the Bridge to herself and Twenty and Ten to herself. I will read The Door in the Wall out loud (tiny print and weird names) but will give her the option of me versus her reading The Wonderful Winter. Is this okay to do? I have heard other people who's children start reading the read aloud to themselves but I wanted to confirm if this was okay.

Also - I must confess that I don't really listen to her read to me anymore either. We do go over the names and I skim the books & the chapters for difficult words regularly. So I will ask her what words say to be sure she can read them correctly. But she usually does so I no longer have her read things out loud to me anymore. Is this okay too? Is there anything I need to be worried about with this?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[LynnH]

Officially HOD says the dc can take over their own storytime reading starting with RTR. I will preface my opinion with the fact that in MTMM I still do the read alouds with my ds and it is our favorite time of the day and we have great discussions during that time over some pretty deep topics, so I do have a bias. I understand with your time constraints why you want to do it that way sometimes, but I don't know that I would have a 9 year old do it on a regular basis. In CTC there are follow up activities that I think it helps if you have done the reading also. I guess I also feel like it is good bonding time when they are starting to become independent in so many other things. Since you already have readings that she is doing on her own and have to stay on top of it seems like trying to stay on top of the storytime readings could actually mean more work for you.

[Nealewill]

Okay - thanks for you thoughts. And I actually never really thought about her taking over the readings until recently. I am totally fine with reading things out loud until MTMM actually I only spend an 1.5 hours with her max a day currently. And my younger 2 both doing Beyond take about 2.5 hours a day total. So a 4 hour school day for me is perfect! Next year may be tight as my youngest is going to do Little Hearts alone and my middle will move to Bigger. But my middle has come a long ways and I think he (once trained and in the grove) will be able to do the journaling, vocab look up, general writing stuff more independently. But my husband helps when I need and will take on some reading if I need him too. So next year I think my day may only take 1 hour with her max including me doing the read alouds (dad is responsible for Bible) and hopefully a max of 3.5 hours on my teaching for the younger 2. That still keeps me at 4.5 hours of my time per day.

[Maadrose]

My daughter has read almost all of the read aloud selections in Preparing. There wee a few at the beginning of to repairing that I read out loud to the entire family, but she has read all of the rest on her own. Same for my daughter who did CTC and now RTR. They read the story time selections to themselves. I consider part of their history readings.

[mskogen]

My oldest took over reading story time to himself in Preparing. He was ready and could handle the reading level. I waited longer with my second. It was more out of necessity, I would have waited longer if I wasn't running 4 guides.

[MelInKansas]

So if they read the readings, do you then do the discussion with them afterwards? That would be my only thing is, I like how the discussion questions have really had us thinking together and making connections with the readings together. This is part of the skill that needs to be learned in this box I think. I will probably have my DD take over when it says for her to (Rev to Rev?), because she is a strong reader and enjoys reading to herself, but I notice that her comprehension and retention is lower when she reads (or she can't explain it well and I can't prompt her because I have not also read or heard what she is reading). I like how it is balanced, she is reading in her Independent History box and her Science box, and often for DITHOR she reads it to herself. Has your DD been reading Independent History and Science aloud to you? Those it seems to me like they are supposed to read to themselves. So that might be a way to shorten things down for you if you are doing that.

DITHOR I am starting to have my DD read more and we are transitioning from the 2/3 level to 4/5 level here soon. I think in 4/5 they most often will read it to themselves.

[Nealewill]

Yes we do the discussion questions. Actually, we did the standardized tests this year for my dd to see how she would score. And on reading and comprehension she scored a 96% (8.9 grade - obviously not really 8.9 grade level but that is the equivalent they gave her). She has great comprehension and is a natural story teller.

All this thought about her reading strengths if very new to me. At the beginning of the year she was SO slow at reading that I was worried about the volume come the middle of this level. But she is one that would read the words and then she would keep rereading it again and again to get this mental picture and story running in her mind. Now she has significantly sped up with reading, and she can tell you practically word for word what she read. It is a gift. I really haven't let her read her own story time until this past week. I only let her because I wasn't going to have time those few days and she asked. Seems like she kind of liked doing it. Now, I will say, I LOVE to read. So most of the books for her level, I already read them. I am also a little bit embarrassed to admit that I have already ordered and own CTC and Bigger for next year and have read several of the books for both of those levels because they looked good and I wanted to read them LOL. My dd recently kept getting mad because I wouldn't give her the Apologia Zoology 3 book when I kept yelling EWE randomly (I was reading about worms at the end of the book). I especially love non fiction books. My idea of a good read is an encyclopedia and no I am not kidding . This particular book that she reading is one that I grabbed and read right before we started reading it out loud. So I have finished it and it is GOOD!