What We're Reading Now: Old Yeller

We've been working our way through our collection of 3rd/4th grade books that we got in our Sonlight Curriculum lately. We've recently read "Sarah Plain and Tall" and "Phoebe the Spy" about a young black girl who helps save George Washington's life from assassination. Currently we're working our way through "Old Yeller" which is just as good as I remember it being. Danya and Gloria have really gotten caught up in this one. The other kids aren't as interested because they've only gotten to hear bits and pieces of it when we happen to be reading it as they arrive home from school.

Outside of actual homeschool reading, we've been working on a few other books. Thumbelina just finished a collection of "Morris the Moose" books which are just the right amount of challenge for her, although it frustrates her when she gets stuck on a difficult word and Gloria looks over her shoulder and reads it for her. I'm trying to incorporate as many phonics explanations as I can for her, but since she has been taught to read using sight words instead of phonics it's slow going for her. Often she just guesses or substitutes any random word that makes sense to her.

For Snow White's required nightly reading we've been gathering together for read aloud time to read everything from "Junie B. Jones" to "Horrible Harry". We've taken side tours into "Nancy Drew" and "Cam Jansen" mysteries, but lately I've tried to stick to simpler plot lines since she can't seem to remember the longer stories. I don't have the time or energy to read every night to the kids, so it's usually every few nights that we sit down for a new book. I figure on average the older five kids are listening to books I read them for about an hour and a half per week (not counting books read only to Danya and Gloria for homeschool).

I detest having to write out those weekly reports for their teachers that list what we've read and how many minutes it averages out to per day. I think that teachers must not take into account family life when they come up with these ideas. Like somehow if my kid hears me read to them for 20 minutes a day they will magically learn to read by the sheer volume of exposure to books whether or not they ever have phonics taught to them. Having to document it all in duplicate or triplicate sure sucks the fun out of family reading time.