It’s a question we hear a lot around here… how on earth is it possible to read aloud to the big kids when there are toddlers mucking about? And reading with those toddlers themselves- well, that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.
Girl, I hear you. I have six kids, and three of them are in the toddler set, so I get the challenges you’re facing when trying to build your family culture around books.
In this episode of the Read-Aloud Revival, we discuss strategies for keeping toddlers busy while you read to your older kids as well as ideas for how to make read-aloud times with little ones successful.
Click that play button below to hear the podcast!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Show Notes from today’s podcast:
Books we talked about during the show:
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Books from today’s episode:
- Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
- Sandra Boynton’s books
- Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
- The Spot books by Eric Hill
- Books by Leslie Patricelli
- Sheep in a Jeep and other books by Nancy E. Shaw
- Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
- Mr. Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham
- Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
- Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
- Fables by Paul Galdone
- Books by Eve Bunting
- Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
Other links from today’s show:
- Read the first three chapters of my book, Teaching From Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace for FREE
- To learn about gift subscriptions to the Read-Aloud Revival membership, head here and click on the “Gift” button
- RAR #19: Reading Aloud with Toddlers (The Why and How)
- My post: The Best Board Books for Toddlers
- Pattern Blocks
- Unifix Cubes
- Toddler Puzzles
- Twistable Crayons
- Glitter Crayons
- Safari Limited Toobs
- RAR #14: For Parents who Don’t Like Reading Aloud, Mystie Winkler
- RAR#1: Reading Aloud to Older Kids, Andrew Pudewa
- For more information about membership, head here: Read-Aloud Revival Membership
First off, I love this podcast! It’s so encouraging to me. However, as some honest feedback, I have quit recommending it to friends and librarians because there are so many advertisements for the membership site which I cannot afford.
Thanks for the feedback, Kimberly! I appreciate it.
I usually mention the membership site in each podcast to make sure new listeners know that if they like the podcast (the tip of the iceberg), they’ll love resources and community in the membership site.
Also, I should be clear that members fund the creation of the podcast. Producing a podcast like RAR is not free (not by a long shot, in fact!). But. We are committed to keeping it free to our listeners, always. :) And our members make that possible.
Many podcast creators run sponsorships (ads) in order to cover the costs of production, but we have made an intentional decision not to fill your headphones with advertising when you tune in. Instead, we just remind our listeners where they can get the best tools and resources we have to offer.
I hope that helps you understand where we’re coming from on our end.
Thanks for listening in and for offering your feedback. We’re grateful for you. :)
I am embarrassed by my rude and blunt comment. You obviously work very hard at this blog and podcast, and my feedback was unwarranted. I apologize. Thanks for your response, and all that you are doing.
No worries at all, Kimberly! :) Happy to have you as a listener.
There are some great ideas and some new titles I’m excited to explore! we have a toddler and an almost mobile baby to wrangle but my 6 year old still loves our read aloud time :-) thanks for recommending Wizard of Oz! We read it once and she is on her 3rd go round with the Audio book! The toddler is more than happy to follow her around as Toto :-)
Um, I need a transcript of this one! :) Right now as I’m listening, I’m starting & stopping over & over again so that I can type out some paragraphs that are really speaking to me in this season. Thank you for sharing your experience & wisdom & good perspective on this topic, Sarah!
By the way, a lot of the comments you make here that are resonating with me remind me of a great book I have along those same lines. It’s “Loving the Little Years,” by Rachel Jankovic. Have you read it? It’s wonderful & I think you’d love it!
There’s a transcript for it in membership. :)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that book (and others!) by Rachel Jankovic. She has such a helpful and inspiring perspective on motherhood.
Hi Sarah! I usually listen to your podcasts while folding laundry at home, but today I get to listen from the hospital where we just had our 6th baby. Your podcasts are so encouraging. Thank you for putting them together and making them available. Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh my goodness! So many congrats!!! Praying thanksgiving blessings all over you and baby,
I had to laugh as you talked about children liking quality literature. My almost five year old is starting to read, but she can NOT stand the beginning reader books like Tip and Dick and Jane. “Look. Oh look. Look here.” is not her idea of acceptable language! We are attempting to read harder books together, with me helping her more but her reading what she can. Any other ideas?
Yes! Try the readers from All About Learning- they are well done with lovely illustrations. They’re phonetically based, so your growing reader should be able to read at her own level with them. They’re our favorite:
http://allaboutlearningpress.net/go.php?id=713&url=2784
I will be looking at these too. I am in the same boat with my six year old beginning reader. Thanks for the recommendation!
Thanks for this podcast. I have a 2 yr old daughter. We have storytime right before naptime. I turn on the Jesus Storybook Bible Audio. We listen to 2-3 stories while she is roaming around her room and then read a few books while looking at pictures.
and I asked for a 3 month membership for Christmas!! I think I’m getting it!!
My boys are within a few weeks of your twins’ age and they love Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. They like the Lot at the end of my block but I’m tired of it. :)
Sounds amazing! Thanks for this!
accredited homeschooling
Hello, could you tell me what books were recommended by the kids at the end?
Hi, Mimi! Here are the books from Let the Kids Speak:
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
Green Ember by S.D. Smith
Pippi Longstocking
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Happy reading :)
In this podcast you mentioned that research seems to indicate that children listen to read aloud just as well or even better when their hands are busy. Do you happen to have access to some of this research that you can share? I have been trying to get my hands on somethin Scientific that discusses this for a while now and haven’t had any luck. I would love to share this info with my parents in group, but when I have brought it up in the past, I don’t think they believed me. :-) I just love your podcast thank you so much for the time and love and energy you put into it! I learn so much every episode.
Daicia–I went looking around for *scientific* research and couldn’t really find much. I did find lots of anecdotal evidence however. You might be interested in these articles:
Multi-sensory learning from All About Reading: http://blog.allaboutlearningpress.com/tag/multisensory-learning/
Marie Rippel on the Read-Aloud Revival:
https://amongstlovelythings.com/13/
Andrew Pudewa on reading to older kids:
https://amongstlovelythings.com/1
An article on kids sitting still during read-alouds:
http://growingbookbybook.com/2014/10/27/sit-still-when-reading/
And I’ll keep looking too!
I took a college course while I was working on my teaching degree, and there’s definitely scientific evidence that movement facilitates learning in general, but I can’t remember the name of the textbook we used. It’s a pretty widely known theory in educational circles though.
Here’s an article that might help. It doesn’t speak directly to the idea of tactile sensory input improving listening ability, but I think that conclusion can be drawn. You may want to look up some books or articles that discuss the concept of brain based learning.
http://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-05-tactile-learning-how-your-child-learns-through-touch-and-their-tactile-system/
I’ve just started listening to the podcast and have already listened to nine episodes over the past weekend (while cleaning and gardening and folding laundry). I was surprised not to hear Herve Tullet books mentioned in this bunch. His books are very unique and quite entertaining. Some of them, I agree, may be best for elementary age instead of toddler but his book “Press Here” is a favorite with my toddlers. “The Book with a Hole” is a great one too to inspire participation from kids of all ages.
We love Press Here, too! :) So much fun. I haven’t seen his others, so I need to add them to my library list.
I am so grateful for the information in this podcast! I’m beginning to see how all books are Not created equal. It has always been a challenge getting my 3 year old to sit and read, until we borrowed Dear Zoo. The first time she heard it, she fell in love! We read it 20 x over. Then she wanted to hear more books. So we read The Bear Snores On and then Caps For Sale. We read for an hour straight! So thank you thank you for your podcast and all recommended readings. I will be spreading the word!