“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.” – Dr. Seuss
There are SO many benefits of reading aloud to your children. I give three big reasons here, but if you want to read more about reading aloud to your kiddos, check out the links at the end!
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Read-Alouds were my “norm”.
I grew up in a family where read-alouds happened every night. As a kid, I assumed that’s how it was for everyone. It’s just what was done at bedtime. That was my “norm”. My parents were heavily influenced by Jim Trelease’s “Read-Aloud Handbook”. They took his advice and research about the multiple benefits of reading aloud and were motivated to put it into practice. Thanks, mom and dad! When my firstborn child was born, it was a no-brainer that we would read to her, because that’s just what you do, right?! Well if frequent read-alouds were your “norm” then yes, but if not, you may need more convincing.
There are countless benefits of reading aloud to your kids, but here I will discuss three that are key:
1) Read-Alouds Benefit Your Child Academically
Read-alouds help kids grow a richer vocabulary, develop their comprehension skills, and hear grammar used correctly.
When a child is being read to, they can relax a bit more and just enjoy the storyline. This will allow them to focus on building their comprehension skills. And for a struggling reader, being read to is especially crucial. Just because they struggle doesn’t mean they can’t grow their brains through a hearing a good book read aloud. We personally experienced this with our son, who was a late reader. Before he was able to read, we read to him A LOT, and his vocabulary was impressive. By the time he started reading on his own, he took off like a rocket. He had already built a good foundation of language (and this is a kid with some language processing difficulties).
According to the 1985 commission on reading, which Jim Trelease refers to in his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook:
“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”
I find it amazing that reading aloud to our kids can have that huge of an impact.
2) Read-Alouds Promote Family Togetherness
My two older kids are now great readers, yet I still read aloud to them. When we read a book together, we laugh together. We cry together (well maybe just me!) and talk about the characters. We connect over the story. It’s something we do together – a shared experience. Much like you share the experience of a family vacation or any other event. It’s a commonality you all have that you can reference back to. All the time my kids are saying, “Remember that book about…..”. It is a means of helping us bond as a family. It helps us connect in a non-confrontational way, where conversation comes organically and easily.
3) Read-Alouds Help Us Raise Up World-Changers.
I ask myself a lot – what is my main goal in educating my children? For me, my main purpose is that my children love God and others and would have a lifelong love of learning. Of course, I do hope they all get jobs and can be successful at whatever career path they choose, but that’s not what is MOST important.
In her book, The Read-Aloud Family Sarah Mackenzie states, “Education is at its best when we use it to help our children feel another person’s pain or joy.” Also, “We read with our children because it gives both them and us an education of the heart and mind.”
When we read a book, it invites us to see life from someone else’s perspective. Seeing things from a different perspective builds empathy, which allows us to love others better and show greater compassion. I think we could all agree that compassion is something this world is in short supply of.
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This post was inspired by the two books listed below (both mentioned in the article). If you want to read even more about the importance of reading aloud to your kiddos, check them out!
The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie
