![\"\"](\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/read-aloud-together-make-memories-1-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thirty-four years ago with a one-year-old toddler in tow, my husband and I
\nbegan homeschooling my younger sister (Lisa) who was in eighth grade at the time.
\nIt was definitely homeschooling out of necessity due to some problems that
\nshe was having at school with bullying and meanness because of her
\nmoderately mentally handicapped condition.
\nI did not know much about homeschooling. I had read Dr. Raymond Moore\u2019s books, and I knew that they
\ncoincided perfectly with the teaching in my elementary education degree and
\nmy master\u2019s work in reading education (in terms of how children learn).
\nHowever, to say that I knew what I was getting myself into would be a great
\noverstatement!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So basically I did whatever Dr. Raymond Moore suggested, whatever we learned
\nabout in any books we read, whatever we learned at the Gregg Harris
\nhomeschooling workshop, and, eventually, what we were taught at homeschool
\nconventions and parenting seminars.
\nOur curriculum writer at the time, Dr. Raymond Moore (Growing Kids God\u2019s Way) recommended reading aloud quite
\nfrequently even during Lisa\u2019s eighth-grade year. Likewise, Mr. Harris said
\nthe same thing in The Christian Homeschooling Workshops. So we came home and
\ndid just they said to do!<\/p>\n
My first two children, Joshua now thirty-five and Kayla following three years
\nafter, were auditory sponges. They made reading aloud such a joy that we
\nquite literally spent three to five hours every single day five or six days
\na week reading aloud.
\nWe broke up our reading throughout the day and
\nevening, and we even called it by various names, like subject reading in
\nthe morning. This is what we called what people now call unit studies.
\nJoshua liked to call it subject reading because it made him feel like he was
\nreally doing school at a young age!
\nIn the afternoon, we had storytime. Various times of the day we had Bible and character time. And of course
\nbedtime stories and more. Some days we would have a \u201cread all day\u201d day in
\nwhich we would make sack lunches and not leave the sofa for five or six
\nsolid hours. Other days we had such silly times as
\n\u201cmatching-green-sweat-suits-read-aloud\u201d time! (Don\u2019t laugh at me\u2026.these memories
\nreally make me smile!)<\/p>\n
I had read Jim Trelease\u2019s *\u201dRead Aloud Handbook,\u201d plus had learned about read
\naloud benefits from the aforementioned seminars and books, but I couldn\u2019t
\nbegin to anticipate the huge impact those early years of reading aloud would
\nhave on those children and on our future children. We grew to love reading
\naloud so much that quite literally, I have read aloud at least a couple of
\nhours every day for my first twenty-five years of parenting!<\/p>\n
What about those benefits? Well, all of my children were eager to learn to
\nread. They had such warm feelings of being read to that they could not wait
\nto learn to read themselves. They have all become strong readers. They all
\nlove learning as a result of that early reading.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/read-aloud-together-make-memories-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For my dyslexic children and my late readers, reading aloud became invaluable. It built up their
\nbackground of experience and their listening comprehension dramatically.
\nThen when each one did learn to read, he or she brought that background of
\nexperience and auditory comprehension with them into their reading
\nexperiences, and they had amazing comprehension immediately upon learning to
\n\u201cread\u201d (decode words).<\/p>\n
Educational benefits aside, reading aloud has given me the warmest, fondest
\nmemories that a mother could ever ask for. There\u2019s a place in my heart, a
\nlittle corner of my heart, called the read aloud corner. It is warm. It is
\nfilled with good memories. Of snuggling with mama on the couch. Of rocking
\nwith mommy with books in her big chair. Of squeezing four, five, or six of
\nus in mommy and daddy\u2019s bed with a stack of books two feet tall. Isn\u2019t it
\namazing to think of the benefits that homeschooling makes available to us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thirty-four years ago with a one-year-old toddler in tow, my husband and I began homeschooling my younger sister (Lisa) who was in eighth grade at the time. It was definitely homeschooling out of necessity due to some problems that she was having at school with bullying and meanness because of her moderately mentally handicapped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1403],"tags":[1405,1404,188],"yoast_head":"\n