Read-Aloud

I read picture books to my kids a lot.  But it's been hard for me to get into reading them chapter books.  I'm just not good at keeping to new habits and routines.  So I guess I was afraid that I would start a novel with them and then forget to read it for the next few days, and by the time we got back to it they would have forgotten what was going on.

But now we're ready for a change.  We're going to be reading more chapter books together from now on!  Here's what we've read so far:


Stuart Little by E.B. White- Primus picked this up on a whim last year but then it just sat on a shelf for a while.  So I finally gathered the kids around and started reading it.  They loved it!  When we went to Solvang, we took it with us to read before bed because the kids just couldn't wait to hear what happened next.  This was the beginning of giving me confidence to do long books with the kids.

Horse Diaries #1: Elska by Catherine Hapka- Secundus chose this one as her prize for completing Barnes and Noble's summer reading program.  I thought it was funny that it was set in Iceland (close enough to Norway) and the main character was named Elska (close enough to Elsa). 

Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book by Ridley Pearson-This one was recommended to Primus by a librarian when she was looking for a new book.  She checked it out, but also grabbed some of her fall-backs (Magic Tree House) and didn't seem interested in reading it.  But it looked interesting to me so I made the kids listen to it.  They quickly fell in love with the characters and were gripped by the adventure.  I may have to check out more from the series. 

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie- We started reading this one because of our planned literature study and because we enjoyed the Neverland book so much. We finished it a couple weeks ago.  The kids were not excited about this one because they were really craving pictures. 

Heidi by Johanna Spyrie- Secundus was given an abridged version of this one and we finished it a couple days ago.  We liked it just because we already loved the movie.  But I've read the original novel so I was very disappointed with how much was left out or simplified.

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien- This is one of Hubby's all-time favorite books.  He tends to pick a movie and then watch it for weeks on end just on repeat for background noise.  Lately the one he's been watching in his man-cave is The Fellowship of the Ring.  The kids have seen clips and were interested so he decided to try out The Hobbit on them.  The kids were so enthralled!  It helped that Hubby is good at doing voices. 
This turned into a really great family time because we decided to read it until the kids fell asleep each night.  We had been needing to get Quartus used to going to sleep in his own bed, too (instead of in Mommy's arms and then being transferred.)  So this way, I would snuggle Quartus in his bed while Hubby did the reading with a flashlight. 


Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll- Now that we're done with The Hobbit, we needed a new go-to-sleep book.  The girls picked this one and are really looking forward to it.