Since we have started formally homeschooling Kindergarten, we’ve added chapter book read-alouds to our day. With my older three children I feel like I rushed into chapter books. I distinctly remember reading the Little House series to my oldest when my second child was born, and he wasn’t even three yet! But, with our fourth, I have been enjoying the picture book phase and this is our first foray into chapter books.
We started out the year reading that classic of all classic chapter books, Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. There is a special kind of magic in that story. It was so much fun to introduce Charlotte, Wilbur, Templeton, the Old Sheep, and the Goose to my daughter. She is fascinated by every spider she sees, and of course, they are all Charlotte now.
Next, we moved onto Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary. As a child, Ramona was my absolute favorite! With my middle two we listened to every single one of these books and really enjoyed it. But, part of the reason I want to do read-aloud chapter books with my daughter is to help her understand that we’re reading words, those words create a story, and that you can have a story without pictures. To that end, we’re reading the Ramona series snuggled on the couch with the actual books.
We finished Beezus and Ramona this morning. I’ve been perusing the book lists that I have trying to figure out what we might read next. I think we’re going to keep going with Ramona and read Ramona the Pest which is about Ramona tackling Kindergarten.
But, I have also been busily perusing Everyday Reading and What We Do All Day for what we will read when we want to take a break from Ramona. These two websites are really great resources for finding books for kids. I use What We Do All Day especially to help me figure out what books my older three children might want to read.
How do you find chapter books to read-aloud to your kids?
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