RAR #83: Why Read Picture Books with Older Kids?
Do you read picture books with older kids? Could this be a picture book year for your family?
Today, we’re chatting picture books – and why it’s a great idea to read them with your bigger kids too!
In today’s episode, you’ll hear:
- one simple and systematic approach to reading picture books
- how to do “classroom book a day” with your kids at home
- where to find great picture books recommendations
This episode is just what you need to kick-start a picture book habit this year!
Click the play button below:
Listener Guide
Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast:
- 3:15 How one team member Uses Picture Books
- 7:34 Author Surprises
- 10:12 Classroom Book-A-Day
- 13:30 Picture Books as Research
- 14:56 Building ‘The Read-Aloud Family’ Book Lists
- 16:49 Benefits of a Book a Day
- 19:45 Simple, Open-Ended Questions
- 23:57 Empathy and History
- 27:24 Beautiful Art
- 29:19 Books for the commitment-averse
- 32:32 Rich Language
- 34:03 Where to Find Picture Books
- 36:02 A Challenge for You
In this episode …
- A simple framework for reading more picture books with your kids:
Kortney uses a simple system for sharing picture books with her kids – she follows the alphabet. Consider using the alphabet or diving deep into an author’s work!
Sarah suggests finding a ‘framework’ that works for your family to reduce overwhelm.
- Could you read a #classroombookaday?
We talked about the #classroombookaday movement, started by Jillian Heise that encourages classroom teachers to read a picture book out loud with their students every single day- even students as old as 7th or 8th grade.
- The best part – conversations
When you read picture books with your kids, you can cover a lot of ground and read many more stories than you can when you stick to only longer-form stories.
The best part? When you read a picture book every day with your kids, you have the opportunity to have great, meaningful discussions with your kids about the topics you encounter in all of those stories.
- Use picture books for research
“A picture book is going to have the same information that an encyclopedia entry has, except that it’s going to have beautiful language, it’s going to have illustrations that help you expand on the ideas. It’s going to have all the things that really light that fire of imagination.”
Great research often starts with picture books! In fact, this is just what author Caroline Starr Rose does.
- The benefits of reading picture books with older kids
There are so many benefits of reading lots of books together. Keep reading and chatting – you’ll be amazed what your kids learn! We mention a few of our favorite picture books to read with older kids– and you’ll find those linked below.
Books from this episode:
(All links are affiliate links.)
Links from this episode:
- A-Z Storybooks from Kortney
- Elizabeth Foss’s Storybook Year Post
- RAR Premium Access
- Jillian Heise
- #classroombookaday
- RAR #71: The Research and Inspiration Behind Fascinating Historical Fiction, Caroline Starr Rose
- The Read-Aloud Family
- Serendipity (Elizabeth Foss)
- My Little Poppies on Instagram
- Year-at-a-Glance Calendar
Unique lodgings stage after beetle out:
http://shanna.forum.telrock.net
Just a moment ago I was enjoying reading The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore to my kids. Have you heard of this book? It is such a unique story. It made me think of this podcast about reading picture books to older kids. There is so much meaning in “Morris Lessmore” I don’t think I even get all of it. Anyone who enjoys books would love this picture book.
PS My mom, who is a librarian gifted it to my daughter.
PPS I haven’t actually listened to this episode yet, [sheepish smile]
Updated engagement page:
http://herman.projects.telrock.org
Soooo we had an unexpected start to our day today with my sweet Isaac who has Epilepsy. He had a seizure (albeit a somewhat mild one) as we were starting “normal” school stuff. Its his second one within a few days …. so though he was ready to plow on within a short time…. this shaky mama was NOT…. so I ran for my library crate and my olders read picture books to my youngers for a good long time giving mama a much needed calm down/prayer/ pacing up and down the hall breathing deeply interlude :). Seeing all 4 of them from age 16 down to 8 being all cozied up together and enjoying all the pictures and words…. it just brought such a feeling calm and security! And ALSO a feeling of THIS is what we need MORE of every day no matter how the day starts! <3 love you ladies ~ Carla
Following the advice of this episode and other times when RAR has recommended Calvin and Hobbs –I got the first one, just titled “Calvin and Hobbes,” at the library for my kids.
My 10 year old son was then asking me about magazines with sex in them. I asked WHERE he heard about that and he said the comics we’d gotten at the library today. Looking more into the book, I saw more potential questions would be what a “skimpy negligee,” about people kissing who weren’t married, about Hobbes being a boy and kissing Calvin inappropriately during a conversation about romantic kissing, about the “millions of murders” children witness on TV… WOW.
I was not ready to answer magazine-related questions – yuck. Be sure and check the specific volume of those comics that you get!
In our homeschool’s elementary years, we studied the 20th Century using picture books. I agree that the powerful and beautifully written stories and art teach history in a personal way. The writing is at a higher level than grade-level readers. We read WWII books about Pearl Harbor, the US Japanese internment camps, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Europe who saved Jewish refugees, and Tokyo zookeepers who tried to save the animals. The biggest takeaway my 4th grade son wrote in his paragraph about the books was that “war is bad, but there are always good people who do good things.” We also love Patricia Polacco’s historical picture books!
Love your son’s takeaway! That’s really what we’re going for, isn’t it?! And yes to Patricia Polacco!
We are major book and picture book lovers at my house! I read a stack of picture books with my 10, 8 and 6 year old every morning all across the curriculum plus more at bedtime so I wasn’t sure how much I would really get out of this episode but oh my goodness so many wonderful resources – cannot wait to check out all these websites, books and ideas. I do keep lists of what we’ve read but thinking of taking a picture every day about what we read now and displaying in our home. So inspired! Thank you, ladies
I missed the title of the books about the squirrels. Anyone catch it?
The squirrel books are by Kazuo Iwamura. Start with Hooray for Snow!
Very timely episode-I spend a LOT of time in the car with my kids ( 6, 5, and 2) driving them to and from school (40 minutes one way) and we listen to a lot of audio. I like to actually sit down with them too though, but we never seem to have any time to get going on a chapter book. This inspired me to go to the library and get a ton out. (More than the usual ton ;) ).It’s so much easier to them “ok we’ve got time for 1 story” and nobody feels like they’re getting sort of cheated. I think picture books are the way to go for when schools in session, and we’ll save the big books for summertime. Thanks so much!
I just wanted to mention that Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life by Gladys Hunt is a great resource for finding books! There is also a teen version, Honey for a Teen’s Heart. I always take this book with me when I go to the library. The second half of the book has a great annotated book list.
This was a great reminder and episode. I love to use non-fiction picture books to supplement what we are studying in school. In fact I love to read them myself because they are short and I learn so much.Two summers ago, when my son was 12, every time we went to the library I brought home a huge stack of fiction picture books. At bed time we would read a few. It was so much fun to reread our favorites and read new ones. I think picture books appeal to people of all ages.
Great podcast!! I own a bunch of picture books but when I found the thousands and thousands of books that are out there, I started a list of book’s titles that will only include a moral value lesson.
My list got so amazingly big that it was going to be almost impossible to buy those many books, not only due to the expense of buying them but the storage! I found out that a lot of people and teachers were already reading some on Youtube, so I decided to create a YouTube video not only to help myself, but other parents and teachers providing titles of books with great moral values and character building messages. My channel now has not only picture books that I read but I books I borrow from other you-tube readers, and I have organized my channel by values. Currently I have over 100 values playlists created, and over 1000 book titles. You can either listen to them or get a glance of what the message is and buy it or get it at the library and read it yourself to your kids. All the books are organized by values and by age range. The 1st ones are for little ones and the last ones for kids 6 yrs and up. I also have books related to history, geography, science (organized by birds, mammals, human body, insects, etc), art, math, bible stories, etc, etc. In addition, I have books organized by authors, by series, by months and by holidays. One of my inspirations to create my you-tube channel and make the world a better one through providing kids with character building stories was the picture book Ms. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (Author). Even if only one child will get inspired with these books, my hard work was worth it! I have two channels, one in English and one in Spanish (since there are not as many picture books in Spanish as there are in English, I am in the process of translating the best ones into Spanish). If you are interested in taking a look to my two channels, here is the information:
-English Channel: Stories that build character and more…
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKlb-nJqzyK2D-9lsM0jvaA?view_as=subscriber
-Spanish Channel: Moldeando Valores Un Cuento A La Vez.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPF-gqnsYejA9F21ykkKFRQ?view_as=subscriber
I was wondering how I would get my kids to listen to all these books before they turn 8 years, this podcast has given me relieve thinking that I still have time if I should continue to read picture books to them even in highschool. Thank you for having given me peace of mind!
Rocio, thank you for sharing your wonderful work! We are a bilingual family, and this is such a treasure! ¡Dios te bendiga!
LOVED!!!!
This is exactly how we have structured our home-school year. We have a running list of quality picture books for our science, art, literature, poetry, and history needs. We get three weeks with our books from our local library. It has been such a great way to bond as a family. We specifically stuck with books that are a K-3rd grade level. It has led to great discussions and questions. I have learned so much about my children.
I love using picture books even with my Bigs (Jr. High and highschool). Last year, I taught a creative writing class at our homeschool co-op (ages 8-14) that focused on different literary devices. I used picture books each week to provide the kids with a “master” example of each device. The kids learned hyperbole, simile, metaphor, etc. all through picture books. The stories, which could be read in one sitting, gave very simple, easily-recognizable examples for them to mimic in their own writing. For one particular lesson, I even passed out a wordless picture book to every child and encouraged him/her to write a story to go along with the pictures. Instead of having to invent a wheel out of nothing, the pictures gave them all a launching point for their thoughts.
Awesome idea. Did you record the books you used for each device? I would love to see such a list. I checked your blog and could not find anything. Thank you!
Yay! Right up my alley! I collect children’s books and homeschool so I’m always trying to sneak picture books into EVERY subject. This feels like great validation plus such good ideas for new frameworks. Thank you!
Love the encouragemente to read picture books aloud to my kids (2nd and 4th grades). I’ve been feeling a nudge to be doing this and I appreciate the idea being so well-confirmed! Wondering about picking a theme for a week or a month, having kids chime in about theme ideas, and going from there. I think I’m going to try and pick some to go through the fruits of the Spirit and talk about what those fruits might look like. I have a feeling we’ll just grab plenty without thinking through the theme idea so much too.
We’ve done this forever because I like to find ways to include all 5 kids at the same time. Ala Poetry Teatime Brave Writer … the 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 yo kids all get different things from each book. It’s awesome! Even 46 yo me got something from The Button Box and hit the antique store with youngest in tow to sleuth out buttons and a tin. It’s a hit!
I am so excited to hear all the RAR Team! I loved your previous episode together talking about seasonal books for Thanksgiving. It wa some of my favorites.
This was a great episode! We LOVE picture books in our home. Boxes for Katja is certainly a favorite.
Koirtney, I love the A-Z reading plan as well. We may try that at the start of the next school year.
Thanks Ladies!
Oh my goodness!!! I was thrilled with this podcast topic! One of my goals this year is to read 1,000 picture books (broken down into about 25 per week with several “free” weeks in there). My 11 year old son isn’t a huge reader but he loves picture books. Now that I’m a couple of weeks into my goal, he and I have been having so much fun discussing which picture books we like and which we don’t (he “steals” from my pile and reads them before bed). Anyway, thanks for such an inspiring episode!!!
That is an *amazing* goal, Kristen. Have fun!
Thank you, Sarah!!! I will let you know at the end of the year if I met my goal or not! :)
I’m enjoying reading to my 10 year old son who is a strong reader- he gets more Lego time in- and I read books I like! :) Happy new year!