After you've chosen books, build reading aloud into not only your school routine, but also your life. Read at the breakfast table first. Kids will listen when their mouths are full. Start with small chunks of time, setting a timer for 10 minutes of reading at first. When your kids are good at listening during breakfast, start reading to them before bed. Don't waste this opportunity to teach from your unit studies by reading unrelated books. Read a story from the historical time period you are studying or look through factual books together.
If you have a child who is averse to reading or listening, be sure to let that child choose books at the library that he enjoys. Do not criticize his choices! The only exception is if your child chooses books you believe to have inappropriate content. In that case, make it clear to your child ahead of time that you will look through his choices and ensure the books are safe for him to read. Other than that, let him choose what he wants and praise him for being such a good reader.
When you arrive home from the library, if you want to read aloud from an educational or historical fiction book and your child complains, make a deal with him--if he listens for 5 minutes to your book, you'll read to him for 5 minutes from the book he chose. In this way, you not only get to have compliance about reading your book but he gets twice as much read aloud time because he wants to hear from his book as well!
I have had parents wonder to me if this is the best way to deal with a child who is defying a parent. After all, refusing to listen to a book is defiance, right? Wrong. A special needs child (and almost every adopted child can be considered special needs) only has so much tolerance for certain activities. You have to build his "listening muscles" so he can begin to enjoy listening to read aloud. After all, if you meet your child's frustration with listening (probably because of some deficiency in listening) with punishment--you may get compliance when what you really want is a child who loves to learn.
Reading is one of the best ways to begin incorporating learning into your everyday life. Your goal is to begin to change your educational philosophy to recognize that your kids can be learning all the time--not just when they are at a desk. If you are taking every opportunity to read something of value to them, you will add hours to your school day almost effortlessly.
Sandra Nardoni is a homeschooling adoptive mom of three children, ages 12,9, and 8 and mentors families who need homeschool help with adopted kids with severe behaviors. For a free audio course on homeschooling adopted kids, go to how to homeschool.
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