Favorite Family Read-alouds from 2025

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I massively overhauled our homeschool schedule last year. I realized about a third of the way through the year that I had the kids doing way too much seat work.

So I eliminated a couple of workbooks and really focused on getting at least an hour of reading aloud in before even thinking about doing seat work.

In short, I have always read aloud our Bible (from Classical Academic Press), history (old version of Good and Beautiful History), and science. I started filling in this part of our day with more nonfiction and classics, and our school days felt so much richer and calmer as a result.

Since many are in the early part of their school year, I thought I’d share some of our school-time favorites from the last year.

God’s Big Book of Animals

This book was our favorite from the set and after I started reading it, the older girls would sneak it away and read ahead because it is so appealing. It is well-written and the pictures are fantastic!

Pocahontas: Young Peacemaker

After reading about the Native American farmers who helped British settlers, we wanted to learn more! So we picked up this fun tale of Pocahontas by Leslie Gourse. It was perfect for my age group of ages 4 to 10.

Mozart: The Wonder Boy

Every year I like to read a composer biography. I think we may have read this one about Mozart a few years ago but we all really enjoyed reading it again as older learners.

It is written by Wheeler and Deucher and you can purchase a separate CD to listen to the pieces mentioned in the book.

Shortly after we read this together, I read the third book of the Mystwick School series (The Dark Refrain) which had a strong focus on Mozart as a young boy. It was very cool to have refreshed my knowledge of Mozart right before reading about him in a fictional, magical setting!

The Secret Garden

I had never read this classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett before and thought it was a story about a garden.

It turns out it’s actually a story about an amazing young animal-whisperer boy named Dickon who changes the lives of those around him. We loved it.

Old-Fashioned Girl

We loved this book by Louisa May Alcott so much I shared it as a book recommendation! It was the perfect read-aloud for my little brood of girls.

Have you read any great read-alouds with your children this year? I’d love to hear about them!

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