Do you read chapter books to your children?

[500Decibels]

I started Reading The Hobbit to my dcs (age 9 and 7) but it's going to take me forever to get through it!

Motivate me to carry on please!
How long do you read to your kids for?
Mine love it when I read to them but secretly I've had enough after 2 minutes!

Yes, I read chapter books to DD (now 8) and have done for about 3 years. I usually read for about 20 minutes, sometimes a little more if it's an exciting bit. I love it, partly because I've now read lots of kids classics that I missed out on the first time around. I particularly enjoyed Swallows and Amazons, Five Children and IT, and the Borrowers. I'm sure there's more that I can't think of right now. I also really like reading funny books together, even if they are ones that she could read by herself (eg How To Train Your Dragon and Mr Gumm). It's nice to laugh together.

The Hobbit is tricky for me too. And yet it's a book I have read to myself a few times but of course then I was able to skip bits! Perhaps you could get them to share by reading a paragraph or page.

I prefer to pick books that I find funny. Or are in episodes, like Sherlock Holmes stories and I read those on holiday when we had more time. Normal night time reading is 10 - 20 minutes on a chapter book.

Still do at 10 and can't see it stopping soon, I love reading sound aloud though, so it's not a hardship.

My dd loves me reading to her and she is 10.
Her brothers had sort of grown out of mums stories at this age, but she still likes it.
We are starting The Hobbit soon, having done loads of children's classics.

They do remember these times OP, if this helps with motivation.
My 23 and 19 year olds often reminisce about the cuddles and stories.
Hope this helps

I do want to read to them but I'm just knackered by 8 so would rather just flop on the sofa.

Thanks to everyone's input. I'm going to try to do 20mins every evening. Hopefully that's enough to get through the book fairly quickly.

Agree with them to skip any songs..

And do get them to contribute according to their abilities, both to share the load and the joy!.

Yes, I still read chapter books to DS (8) although he is a voracious reader himself. He's read to for about 20 mins per night.

I read to both DS and DD (10 and 9). DD flits around which book she wants but I do proper beginning to end reading with DS which is more satisfying although takes longer. Books stay in my mind better when I've read them out loud too.

Yes - 5 and 8

How to train your dragon books are good - chapters not too long.

They are both liking the famous five books at the moment too.

I've just finished reading The Hobbit aloud to DD. TBH it felt like a walk in the park after reading all 7 books in the Narnia series back to back

Yes. DD turned 5 in June and is loving my childhood favourite books, The Enchanted Wood and the Faraway Tree (Enid Blyton). A friend has lent me the series of Mr PinkWhistle so I'll be moving on to those next.

Plus I've ordered DD the Enid Blyton Christmas Stories to start reading in December.

What age did you all start chapter books?

DS1 is 3 and loves being read to but Im getting bored of JD/Mog/etc

I started on short chapter books when my two were three or four, I have stuck to things I liked, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, the Worst Witch. My daughter six now is listening to David Walliams new book, I generally only do a chapter a night, with some that are longer I paraphrase a bit too.

Yes, DS1 & 2 are 9 & 10 and I read them a chapter of something most nights - we're ploughing through a Pervy Jackson at the moment.

DS3 (5) still gets a couple of shorter books, Mog, How does a dinosaur, one of his endless supply of pirate books, I tend to read to him while the other two are sorting themselves out and then read to them afterwards.

I like reading aloud though and I quite like the Percy stuff, the Hobbit and How to train your dragon. It would be beyond tedious otherwise.

Go on - read the Hobbit so one filthy day in the winter you can bring your duvets downstairs and watch the DVD(s) together. They might cook you a Hobbit-style brunch (second breakfast).

Ah BlueChampagne that sounds like a lovely idea!
I think we ll be watching it in mid December then

Worth a try! Or have a big breakfast to sustain yourself for the read-a-thon. So many chapters the you can watch the movie (part 1 ... Then pull it apart). Good luck; mine are 7 and 4 so it will be a little while, but I can still remember my Dad's ace Smeagol voice!

I read Lord of the Rings at 6yo after dm got bored part way through book 2 and stopped reading it to me and dsis. Dsis read it, so I was determined not to miss out. She had already read The Hobbit.

The trick is to choose a book you like.
If I ask ds (7yo) to choose a book I find myself reading an instruction manual about planes or a list of greatest footballers.
So I choose. We've been reading all my favourites. At present we're reading "Power of Three" (Diane Wynne Jones). He often finds the first chapter (one chapter a night) unconvincing, but usually by the third chapter he's giving reasons why I should be reading two (or more). If it gets scary he hides under the duvet going "Please stop, please stop..." then when I stop "go on, go on..." Occasionally I have to give him a clue that things are getting better, particularly on end of chapters where there's a cliff hanger.
I have found a few books that I loved that have been very difficult to read aloud. Particularly lots of unname dialogue:
"Mummy"
"mmm"
"It's delicious"
"Glad you like it"
Is just so hard to sound exciting, and confusing to listen out loud.
If he's tired I do sometimes shorten long descriptions or paraphrase them. That's the advantage of having books you know well, you know what you can miss out.

He's my only one that I've read to much after age 5yo though. Dd1 decided on about day 3 of Rainbow fairies that she could manage to read on while I settled dd2. We had a week of "Mummy what does E.. X... C...I...T...E...D spell?" and after that she moved very swiftly onto Famous Five and others. I don't think I ever read to her again .
Dd2 was reading Rainbow fairies much earlier, but had already decided anything big sis could do, she would do too, so didn't want me reading to her. But she is very conservative about her choice, and often would read a series I knew she would love in case it was "scary". So I developped a technique where I would say that I'd read a book to her. We'd cuddle up in my bed, and she'd object when she saw what I brought in (I first did this with Famous Five), so I'd ask her just to listen to the first chapter and then we'd have her choice if she wanted.
At the end of the first chapter, she would beg to be read the second. And by the end of the second chapter (if I got that far) she'd be wresting the book off me to go and finish it herself.
I certainly never got as far as the fourth chapter!

I am really enjoying reading DD books I loved as a child. So Five Children and It, The Borrowers, currently The Secret Garden, can't wait to get onto Swallows and Amazons, Stig of the Dump, The Little Princess, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe etc (I have them on the bookshelf ready!). Not sure I could cope with The Hobbit. Why not choose books you like, and then you'll feel more inclined to read them, and will probably read them more engagingly too?

In fact if anyone else has any other classic children's books recommendations then do post!

Thirding the advice to only do it with books you like. Some books read aloud better than others.

I'm reading The Worst Witch Strikes Again to my 5yo ds and we're loving it, though 9yo dd insisted on taking over for last night's chapter and she was brilliant and did voices and everything .

Still reading to my 2, although separately. They are 7 and 10.

I like reading chapter books to my kids. They show interests on what will happen in the next chapter and we get to do the voices of the characters. It's enjoyable!

Yes have done so for a few years. We love Chris Riddells books - Ottoline, Goth Girl etc. So imaginative and beautifully illustrated. She also loves David Walliams.