Reading aloud to your children is probably the most important thing you can do to enhance their education.
I started reading aloud to my firstborn as an infant on my lap, and his first words came at 7 mos as he crawled across the living room dragging a board book and looked at me and held up the book and said "Wee.... BUH!" At 15 mos old he would sit quietly and listen to the dozen Dr. Seuss books we'd gotten in the mail. By 3, he was listening to chapter books; we read all 7 volumes of the Chronicles of Narnia the year he was 4.
You'd think this would set the stage for some future disappointment as I had normal children afterwards. Kids who ate the books at 7 mos, scribbled in them after listening to only the shortest board books at 15 mos, and would barely sit still for a couple of Dr. Seuss books at 3 and 4.
My choice of Sonlight Curriculum was set by the oldest child who loved to read. Sonlight is literature-rich, but does toss in some "twaddle" (that's a term for Charlotte Mason followers) to relax between heavier books.
My observations over the years concerning reading aloud, specific to Sonlight curriculum:
1. The comprehension questions are absolute interest and enthusiasm killers. I have never found them to enhance our educational goals in any way.
2. The read-alouds must be read by a good reader, or they are murderous. If you aren't sure whether you are a good reader, try a library audio book and see if there is any change in listening skills.
3. The read-alouds must be on the child's level. If you aren't sure it's on your child's level, go down a Core level and see if there is any change in listening skills.
4. Children under the age of 7 or 8 usually need to start with short periods of reading aloud and slowly stretch to longer periods, and some children will never be able to listen without something for their hands to do. Some of my kids started learning to knit by age 6 and would do that while listening. Some jumped on the couch while I read. Some use silly putty or other tactiles while I read. Others color while I read.
5. I found that only my super intelligent and history-loving son could get into Core 1 or 2 at age 6-8. The rest of the kids were 8-12 before they had any interest or could attend to Cores 1 and 2.
