need advice for structuring free reading time

[coastalmom]

I have been reading through scheduling posts. I am very impressed with how Carrie, Julie, and so many of you structure your days. I always liked the idea of having a reading/rest time during the day. With 5 children, our days are very packed with meeting all the needs of school, family, and home. Before using DITHOR, at 2 everyday we would be done with school and everyone who wasn't napping was required to read or rest for the hour (first from a required book and then they could read whatever they wanted for the remainder of the time). Now we are using DITHOR which is great and my older ones are doing all the required reading from their guides, so I know they are reading great stuff all day. But I would also like to have a time in the day that they sit and read their own things that they are interested in. Do you all have a structured free reading time? My oldest daughter will read on her own during her free time, but my 8yr.old son would always pick playing outside, or Legos, etc. over reading books. Could you all give me some suggestions if you have a free reading time for your kids. How long this time should be? How to incorporate it into our homeschool day? I know they are already spending a good portion of the day reading and studying, so I don't want to overkill with books. Do you all incorporate this into a quiet time in the afternoon? I was thinking of having my older ones take turns having a quiet free reading time while I do one on one schooling with another child while my little ones are napping in the afternoon. Or possibly after lunch have them do their DITHOR books and then they can pleasure read the rest of the hour (maybe too much reading all at once though especially for boys). Scheduling things is not my strength AT ALL so I would greatly appreciate any tips. This is one of the many reasons why HOD has been such a tremendous blessing to our family. Everything we need to accomplish for school is so nicely laid out for us!
Thanks!

[Nealewill]

For us - we start winding down out our house around 8:00. At this time, we study our verses for AWANA, take showers and the kids read independently whatever they want. We storm the library every couple weeks so we have tons of books in a laundry basket and my kids can pick and choose what they want to read at that time. Then somewhere between 9:15 and 9:30 it is lights out and we read aloud to them for a couple of chapters in whatever book we are reading. Right now we are reading through the Rose Years series (Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter) and my kids love this. We also read the Little House series. We had a time period where we only read books that had won awards. And then we have read some stuff that is just plain silly.

But one thing that got my kids hooked on reading books is listening to them on CD. We pick up our fair share of these as well. Some I pick up are for older kids and others are for younger. My son's favorite book thus far has been Where the Red Fern Grows. He LOVES that book and still listens to it often. We just try and get a variety. We also got the book Hank the Cowdog - The Watermelon Patch Mystery. This book is hilarious. We are listening to Harriet the Spy now. Some we got weren't so great. But you never know until you try. My kids get very little tv so they love books and especially love listening to books on CD.

[TrueGRIT]

We do have a structured reading time for about an hour in the afternoon. My children quit taking naps, but Mom still needs one so this was one solution! We also give reading time at bedtime, if they cooperate and get to bed when they should.
I try to read to them also, and we have plenty of audiobooks for them to listen to.
Even my just turned 5 yo has been picking up books and reading aloud the few words she knows. Phonics is not fast enough for her! We certainly love books around here! We have 1000's of them. Literally. Often they pick up books without being asked- even my 6yo who prefers Legos, & Lincoln Logs. We give him time for those as well.

Your idea of have a rotating reading/school time sounds like a good one. If you have a really busy household, that may be the best way to get it done.

[my3sons]

Our kiddos head up to bed around 8:30, and after we do our getting ready for bed and together time routine (talking/prayer), they can either play board games or read quietly until 9 PM (7 yo), 9:15 PM (11 yo), and 9:30 (14 yo). They alternate between board games and books, but often choose to read. We have outdoor time in the middle of the day, after school and before dinner, so by the time they get to bed, they love to sit in bed and read. Each of them have a reading lamp attached to their bed and a bookshelf for the books they are currently reading in their rooms. We have a basement 'library' of shelves of books loosely organized by genre we've collected over the years. Every few months, we take off their shelves in their rooms the books they are ready to part with for a time, and get other books from the basement to replenish them. We also have a small CD player and headphones on little end tables next to each of their beds. We have audio books they can listen to, as well as "Patch the Pirate," Odyssey audios, etc. that they can pop in their CD players and enjoy. This has been a great wind-down time they look forward to each night, and I think it works so well for them because they have had their school with ample reading, with a totally different afternoon of work/play, family dinner/talk time, and then the ending of the night of reading for leisure. Every family will be different in what works, but this has worked well for us.

In Christ,
Julie