Year End Review: Our Read-Alouds this Year 2016

As a homeschooling momma, read-alouds are a big part of every school day.  At the beginning of this year, I made a couple of lists and scheduled out our read-alouds.  I made a Kindergarten list for Baby Girl and a combined read aloud list for Baby Girl and MMBoy. That proved the most difficult . . . I needed to read to a 6 year old daughter and an 11 year old son. Hmmmm . . .

At the end of last year, we had really fallen for Roald Dahl books.  They were great to read to both of the kids, the chapters were of a reasonable length so momma didn't get tired of reading or of hearing her own voice and many his books have been made into movies.  Now, we all know that the movie is never as good as the book, but it was a fun way to end Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.  This year, I decided to start out with another Roald Dahl book, The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

From there, I perused reading lists I had printed from amblesideonline.org and Higher Up and Further In (How sad I was when I went to find this link and I found this blog is not longer kept up.  She was one of my favorite blogs to read when I began homeschooling and provided me with many great lists, ideas, schedules, printables, etc.)

Without further ado, here are our lists!

Kindergarten read alouds (Read one book every day for each week):

• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
• The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
• The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
• One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
• Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
• The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston
• Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
• Winter in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Christmas in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• The Foolish Tortoise by Eric Carle
• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
• The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
• The Little Red Hen
• The Gingerbread Man 
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• The 3 Billy Goats Gruff
• Chanticleer and the Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer, Barbara Cooney
• I Can't Said the Ant by Polly Cameron
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
• I'm a Little Teapot (I like this one)
• Country Mouse, City Mouse
• The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright
• Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Martha G. Alexander

Combined read alouds (Read during our Morning Time on Monday & Friday):

• The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Little Women (Book 1) by Louisa May Alcott
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
• Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo
• Animal Farm by George Orwell*
• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz*

*these books were included because I read them aloud to my senior son and I'm pretty sure the others were listening just as he listened in on many of their stories - It does my momma heart good to know that he still likes to hear me read :)

Failed to read aloud:

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Treasure Island

Seriously?!  I am not sure how we never read How the Grinch Stole Christmas?!  I think maybe it was because we were reading Little Women and it was taking waaaaay longer than I expected.  Ha!  We were going to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn after MMBoy had read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . . . and that, too, took longer than anticipated. I'll forgive him as he's made up for with some mad reading skills and has completely finished reading the entire Harry Potter series this spring.

As we wrap up this homeschool year, what a great list to look back on!  Not only did we read some great books together, we learned the importance of family, our world and each person on it. We created some fun memories along the way; memories of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, memories of momma crying through the end of Because of Winn-Dixie (someday they will understand) and memories of snuggling up by the fire and opening up a good book into an adventure.

Rita