We finished reading The Hobbit on September 1. We started on July 24, so this was a long time in reading. It was quite a success.
My strategy reading chapter books to very young children now is not to force them. We’d tried Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Narnia and others during the normal reading time (when I do Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, Bill Peet, and Maurice Sendak for all the kids). This did not work. Books without pictures bore the two year old and can’t keep the attention of the four and six year olds.
Instead, I started reading The Hobbit after they’d gone to bed. With the four year old and six year old in bed (two year old sleeps in a separate room), I’d sit in my reading chair and go through 5 or 10 pages. If they were interested, they could listen. If not, they could sleep or play quietly. I’m sure neither of them heard or understood every word. But when Bilbo Baggins was talking with Smaug, I had their rapt attention.
In general, I did not stop to explain words (there would have been too many). I tried to voice act the conversations as best I could, so the kids could follow those. And, every night, before starting and after finishing, I would summarize the latest events in the book. I’d also bring up the latest events as part of our dinner time conversations.
The biggest problem is that the book continues for 40 pages after Smaug is killed, and the kids couldn’t see any point in continuing the story after that. It was hard keeping enthusiasm for the story after that.
My girls, now ages 21, 20, and 18, now tell me some of their fondest memories of growing up was sitting on the sofa before bedtime as I read to them. I don’t remember what ages they were when we read Lord of the Rings, but I remember being amazed that they could follow such a long, complicated story. Of course, using dramatic voices did help.
I continued to read to the girls every night until Al started missing evenings due to volleyball practice. We are talking middle school here. So you may have many years ahead of you.
Al has commented that reading to our children seems to be a common Steussy trait.