I've always enjoyed reading aloud to my children. When they were young, our reading sessions were more about spending quality time with my little ones and instilling a love of books in them. Recently, I feel like the kids have not just been passively listening to the stories, but actually living them. They played Aslan versus The White Witch (from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe) for weeks. When one twin is being particularly demanding, the other tells her to stop being "Veruca Salt" (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). The other day, their plastic toy horses were being used to reenact the barn fire in Black Beauty. I could go on and on (not including all the literature-inspired artwork they have produced). As a bibliophile myself, it warms my heart to see my children feel such a connection with the books they read.
Three years ago, when I was looking for ideas for read alouds for younger children, I looked to blogs and Facebook for recommendations. I've been keeping track of the books we've read both for myself and also with the hopes of inspiring other families to create read-aloud traditions with their children. Here's the list so far...