Reading books aloud as a family is the way we come together to start our homeschooling day. Included here is a list of what makes a good family read-aloud chapter book as well as the books we read aloud this year.
What makes a good family read-aloud book?
- Short chapters.
- Entertains many ages.
- Rich language.
While not absolutely necessary, short chapters are nice when reading aloud. We read at the beginning of the school day, and some days we just have time to read one chapter but other days we may read three or more. For books with longer chapters, we often listen to the audio.
I have school children ranging in age from 12 to 5 so it’s nice to find books that can engage them all. I love it when we find a book that can have us all laughing and relating with the characters.
Rich language is another nice thing to have in a read-aloud book. Good description helps us all picture the story in our mind and hearing the good language helps them in their own writing.
Books we read aloud in the 2020-2021 school year
- Little Women – We listened to this on audio and enjoyed it, especially my three oldest girls!
- Adventures with Waffles – A great one for kids of all ages. We shared many laughs while reading this.
- The Year of Miss Agnes – We all want a teacher like Miss Agnes!
- Homer Price – Another book that made us laugh! We love Robert McCloskey.
- Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry -A good book to go along with our history. It put us in the shoes of the narrator and shed light on a tough time in history.
- Happy Hollisters – A real page turner. My kids were always requesting another chapter as each chapter ends on a cliff hanger.
- Henry Reed’s Babysitting Service – Another fun one!
- Heartwood Hotel – A True Home – A cute, heart-warming story about a mouse. We all enjoyed this one as well and are currently reading the next book in the series.
We are always looking for new family read-aloud chapter books. What are some of your favorites? I’d love to hear! Tell me in the comments below.
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We love books! We spend a lot of time on the road so we listen to audio books as well. Our recent favorites have been The Story Girl by LM Montgomery, and especially Caddie Woodlawn. I hear the kids saying to each other, “Big Chief Sit-on-the-fire-and-put-it-out”, and “If at first you frickasee, fry fry a hen!”, making us laugh every time!
We love audio books too! I’ll have to add those two to our “to read” list!