Read aloud selections question

[wow8kids]

Still here trying to figure out what we're doing next year, but getting more excited as I read more posts.

Wondering how the read alouds are laid out? In the catalog, it says classic, boy interest or girl interest or choose your own. Will it be easy to adapt it if I choose some from each list? For example, it looks like I might need 9 read alouds - if I put the 3 lists together, I have 9 of the books already. While I'm trying to economical about it - I am, honestly, looking for easy over cheap for next year. I want to be sure I'm giving HOD the best shot I can give it.

Thanks! I can't believe what a wealth of information you ladies have already been to me as I've been reading past and present threads!

Stacey

[MamaPajama]

I have no experience yet, but there are genres listed next to the books too (e.g. humor, mystery, etc.) I think you can mix and match from the lists as long as you have at least one book from each genre.

[MomtoJGJE]

yes you can use any book out of the genre, it doesn't even have to be listed Like for biography, it can be ANY biography, mystery ANY mystery... the book lists are for ease of ordering for parents like me who need the books all in a nice little package already fixed up for me

[my2guys]

Yep, if you already have a book for each of the genres listed, then you should be all set!

[my3sons]

You're set, Stacey! As long as you have a book that fits each genre, and that lasts 20 days for all the genres except for folk tales (which is 10 days of reading instead of 20) - you are good to go! Easy peasy.

In Christ,
Julie

[lovedtodeath]

Hmmm... I had the same question... but what if I want the read alouds to progress chronologically? I expected that they would be scheduled that way?

[my3sons]

The read-alouds that are History Interest sets progress chronologically and are scheduled as such in the HOD's guides. The Classics, Boy Interest, and Girl Interest sets are genre based, in which case they are not chronological but are instead read through according to the order of genres noted in the daily plans. HOD likes to change up the read-alouds focus, so you'll want to look at the guide(s) you are using to see what options are available for each. If there's a history-based option, it sounds like you'd enjoy that! Now the only hard thing will be choosing - they're all good. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[lovedtodeath]

Thanks Julie. I understand now, the deluxe package is by genre. I was looking at using the extension package instead of the deluxe package. That is where my confusion came in.

[wow8kids]

ACK! New problem. I need not only 9 (or was it 7?) books, but they need to last 20 days? What if I pick a shorter one? Do we then need 2 for that genre? How do I know how long a book will take if it's not on The List? How do I pick that many books that last exactly 20 days of reading? This feels like a new layer of complication. I'm certain I didn't see this anywhere in the catalog, although I do recall seeing number of days in parentheses here and there...but I didn't see that they were all 20, as I recall, they were pretty varied. Help!

[lovedtodeath]

I just looked up the books in the catalog and found out how many pages they have... most were around 100 and one was 173. Then you can somewhat match up the number of pages. I do wonder if using 2 shorter books would be okay.

[John'smom]

ACK! New problem. I need not only 9 (or was it 7?) books, but they need to last 20 days? What if I pick a shorter one? Do we then need 2 for that genre? How do I know how long a book will take if it's not on The List? How do I pick that many books that last exactly 20 days of reading? This feels like a new layer of complication. I'm certain I didn't see this anywhere in the catalog, although I do recall seeing number of days in parentheses here and there...but I didn't see that they were all 20, as I recall, they were pretty varied. Help!

I'm new, but I will try to help. I'm going to be doing BLHFHG, so I only have that manual. You need 9 books each of a different genre. It says in the manual to read the book for 20 days, so that's why you're probably not seeing that. In the Bibliography there is also a Suggested Storytime Titles section. It's usually the 3 we see online, plus atleast one more (again this is the Beyond manual). I think that all of these books will have different number of pages and say you just divide the pages by 20 days and that's how much you'd read each day. I think you'd probably want atleast around 100 pages in the book. I know I've heard mention here that it's about savoring a book, so it doesn't matter that you'd only read aloud 5 pages a day. I hope this makes sense. If you do pick a shorter one, then you'd just read 2 books for that genre. I'm almost sure one of the genres is usually shorter anyway and they suggest you pick 2 like you said. I can't remember the genre off hand though. HTH!

[my3sons]

ACK! New problem. I need not only 9 (or was it 7?) books, but they need to last 20 days? What if I pick a shorter one? Do we then need 2 for that genre? How do I know how long a book will take if it's not on The List? How do I pick that many books that last exactly 20 days of reading? This feels like a new layer of complication. I'm certain I didn't see this anywhere in the catalog, although I do recall seeing number of days in parentheses here and there...but I didn't see that they were all 20, as I recall, they were pretty varied. Help!

No worries here - this is not complicated at all. I'm wondering if you have the guides in hand? Everything is explained very well in the guides - they make it super easy on us moms. You just need to have 20 days worth of reading for each genre. Obviously the easiest way to do this is to get the read-alouds HOD has chosen. I just do that, and divide the book by 20 to know what to read each day. The guide clearly tells you to do this in the daily plans. I have a sticky note in the book that says "read 5 pages each day" or whatever the # of days were as a reminder to me. If you'd enjoy choosing your own books (which it seems like you would not as you are stressing over this ), you would just do the same thing. Find a book to read for 20 days that fits the genre, and divide out the total pages to know how many to read each day. If you want 2 shorter books, spend 10 days on one, and 10 days on the other - or whatever you'd like. This flexibility is the beauty of it - I can get the HOD books or pick them myself. I can read a bunch of pages or a few based on the length of the books. I can have my dc hearing books from every genre, yet I'm never scrambling to gather books or having to scurry off to the library. I know up front I need 9 books for the 9 genres for the whole year, and I'm set. The HOD manuals are awesome - and they explain things so well! This Storytime is super easy - so need to stress over it. Just get the HOD set or pick some books yourself, enough for 9 genres, 20 days worth of reading each, and you'll be set.

In Christ,
Julie