Our Big List of (Chapter) Books to Read Aloud

Updated July 6/2011!

Here are the chapter books we’ve read since we started “formally” homeschooling in the summer of 2010.  I decided it would be nice to make a list, since I’m starting to lose track.

But first:

Who are we?

In case you have no clue who “we” are – I’m Mommy, the main reader, and mainly who I read to are our two younger homeschooled children, Naomi Rivka, age 6.5, and Gavriel Zev, age 3.5. 

When do we read?

We don’t have a reading schedule, as such.  On most regular homeschool days, we have two major reading times:  one in the middle of the day and one at the end of the day.  I try to include the three “regulars” every day, but that doesn’t always happen.  It often doesn’t happen.

How we read:

Most of our chapter-book reading is just that, reading, with little or no schoolwork attached to it.  EXCEPT:  they are expected to narrate each chapter or section as we read it.  That’s simpler than it sounds.  I finish the chapter and ask the kids, “next time, we’ll be reading {Chapter 7:  The Big Surprise}.  What happened in {Chapter 6:  The Old Coat}, the chapter we just read?”  They tell me back the main points – 2 or 3 main events of the chapter. 

I’m confident that this helps them remember the story very well from one reading session to another.  Before we pick up and start reading the next time, I ask them the exact same question:  “This chapter is called {Chapter 7:  The Big Surprise}.  What happened last time, in {Chapter 6:  The Old Coat}?”

That way, we all know where we are before we start reading a new section.  This also helps in the rare case when someone is sleepy at bedtime and forgets part of a book we read – one time Naomi had been so tired, she remembered nothing of what we’d read, so I was able to go back and reconstruct it for her.

So - onward, to:

What we’re reading now (chapter books only): 

This includes our Series Reading – we usually  have all of the following on the go in addition to any other “chapters” we might be in the middle of:

• Little House book
• Magic Tree House Book
• Our Canadian Girl Book

We alternate one Little House with one non-Little House book, for variety.

We’re also working our way through a Summer Reading List of high-quality kids’ books that I “borrowed” from Five in a Row.  You could really use it for any season, and you can download a printable chart of all the books free here.  I haven’t included those books in this list because none of them are chapter books.

Books so far:

Future Books: