Read Aloud Challenge

Debra at Footprints in the Butter is issuing a Read Aloud Challenge blog link up.  I'm hoping to link up each week. Maybe we'll get more reading done that way.

In her post she said,

"I think reading aloud is critically important. Andrew Pudewa, of Institute for Excellence in Writing, does a talk called Nurturing Competent Communicators that I think every adult who loves a child ought to hear at least once. He makes a strong case for reading aloud being the most effective way to get 'reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns' into our kids' brains."

I have also recently listened to that same talk (well worth it!) and want to make it a regular practice to read aloud.  Sometimes I do better than at other times.  Last year, we used Illuminations curriculum and always had a read aloud going on with it.  This year we don't have that scheduled into our day so I have just been picking books to read.  The younger children are using Beautiful Feet's Early American History which is literature based, but we took a break from that recently for Emma to do Pilgrim Story for a review.  

Right now we are reading:

Hero Tales by Dave & Neta Jackson (We read one chapter each morning during our morning devotions.)

At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald (I do have this on my Kindle but I also took it out of the library and I'm reading from the library copy.)

I am using a wonderful book, Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson to help choose read alouds.  I highly recommend it.

Our history read aloud this week was:

Jamestown, New World Adventure by James Knight

I also read some favorite picture books to the younger kids:

The Pig in the Pond

To Market To Market

Froggy Plays in the Band

Sheep in a Jeep

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

Danny and the Dinosaur

At night the kids have been listening to Sugar Creek Gang stories on CD (review coming this week) as well as Your Story Hour CDs.


Link up with what you are currently reading aloud at Footprints in the Butter.  What are you reading aloud right now?