This month I wanted to read a whole chapter book out loud to all of my kids. The main stipulation was I wanted to make sure it was one none of us, including me, had read yet & I wanted to be consistent every weeknight. This was trickier than I thought, but we did it!
For some reason, after the kids do their reading for school, I read picture books to/with the littles, and we plow through family scriptures, even though reading together at bedtime is something that I really want to do, it always gets taken off the schedule when we run out of time, and we run out of time almost every.single.night.
(Anyone else need a few more "freebie" hours thrown into their 24 hr. day?)
The days turn into weeks, that turn into months, & my visions and good intentions of reading quality books together with the fam become nonexistent.
I checked Pinterest first for ideas and lists of great read alouds.
I talked with the kids about the list I complied from those lists and we came up with Mrs. Piggle Wiggle & Tuesdays at the Castle for our books to read together during March.
So...it turns out that the reviews were right, and they are both awesome books, but Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was published in 1947 so it had a few things-or a whole chapter-that made us giggle, like the crazy use of words that have new, contemporary meanings now. (I'm sure you can only imagine.) It surprised me how much my older kids (ages 13 & 11) really loved the book, though, about a silly lady who lives in an upside-down house and has all the answers to the undesirable behaviors of the kids in town. We referred to her frequently during the month when dealing with some of those same behaviors!
Tuesdays at the Castle was a great read, well written, and is also a series. Now we are starting the second book, Wednesdays in the Tower because we loved the first book so much.
Even though bedtime was pushed back around 30 min. later on many nights, I loved this time just relaxing and reading to my little team.
We had 2 "rules" for listening...1. you had to stay still & 2. you had to be quiet so everyone could enjoy the story.
My husband set up our tent in the loft towards the beginning of the month & we read in there on many nights. This was a pretty fun effect & gave it a little campfire story feel.
Have a great April!
Have a great April!
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April's goal is to create family photo books for 2012 & 2013 & I may have overdone it on that goal, but we'll give it a shot!
4 comments:
This is true. Reading to the kids would be most ideal if it was the only homework assigned, right? Adelaide read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle to Paige all through December, they both loved it! Jessica Day George is a Utah author right? So what does Day 86 mean on the picture? Is it a scrapbook app or something? Thanks for the write up Kass!
That turned out wonderfully! We have that Mrs. Piggly Wiggly book, but I don't know that anyone has read it. We will hqve to look into the other one you recommend.
Such great books you picked! I read all the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books when I was younger and loved them!
What a fun post! I used to read to my older two boys every night. Now, I read to my younger two. It's hard to get all four of them interested in the same book! Hopefully, at least one of them will gain a love for reading! Ha!
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