Reading Aloud Over Lunch
I haven’t been eating lunch with the kids since I started intermittent fasting. I still wanted to sit with the kids and enjoy each other’s company. On a lark, I decided to try reading aloud to them while they ate. I had always heard about moms doing that, but I never thought it would work for us for several reasons.
Those moms either ate before or after their kids ate. That wouldn’t have worked for me because I was always hangry by the time we sat down, and I never had a chance to eat before the kids. Now, I don’t have to worry about when I’ll be eating. I open my eating window mid-afternoon when the littles go down for their afternoon naps.
Until recently, I knew I’d have constant interruptions if we tried it. Even though we plate at the kitchen counter, there’s still the passing of napkins/condiments and the asking to help with cutting, heating things up, refills of drinks, etc. Now, I have enough big kid helpers scattered around the table that can assist little ones and model good listening. So, we tried it, and it’s been a huge it!
We’re about 100 pages in to The Secret Garden, and the lunchtime read aloud has become my favorite part of the day. I love having a read aloud that everyone’s enjoying together. Gloria (5) especially loves my accents. They’re probably horrible, but they provide some mid-day comic relief. My Martha sounds like Eliza Doolittle, and Ben Weatherstaff sounds like Admiral Boom from the Julie Andrews movie of Merry Poppins. If you paid me enough, perhaps I could be persuaded to share a video! Ha!
We still have interruptions as milk gets spilled, the doorbell rings, or one of the dogs needs to go outside, but we are learning to work through them quickly and quietly to keep the flow of the story going. My heart skipped a beat the other day when I said it was time to pause the story to go outside, and Harry (10) said, “Aw, man! Can we read more tomorrow?” Yes, dahling! We shall read all the books!
The Secret Garden lives in the drawer under the toaster. Jane and Walter are our resident lunch makers while I finish the homeschool morning with the younger kids. As they set the table, they put out the book with a La Croix Pure Water for me.
These little liturgies are the things we will remember most about homeschooling. They might not remember all of the details of the stories, but I hope they’ll remember my silly voices, laughing until we cry, and meeting Mistress Mary while munching on peanut butter and jelly.
My cup overflows.
What should we read after The Secret Garden? Vote in the comments!
A) Five Children & It by E. Nesbit
How funny that we are all reading it without knowing it! What do you think you’ll read next???
Fabulous! We have done lunch readings this school year. I call them Lunch & Listen time. We are just about done reading The Secret Garden! It's been a favorite for the kids this year.