read aloud life
“I want reading to be a lifestyle for your child. I want it to feel like dessert, not like medicine.
I want your child to discover that books can give them the world.”
~ Elise, 2022
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This is the same child in both images, 6 years apart. The strategies I employ are great ways to create a reader like this!
Why is reading such a big deal to me? I mean, I’m a teacher, so naturally I want kids to learn to read. But why am I so passionate about reading TO young children?
Being able to read is the key to learning everything there is to learn. Being read TO is the key to learning how to read. Therefore, reading aloud to our children is arguably the most important thing we can do in order to prepare them for their own lives as readers and learners. Reading aloud is among the strongest influencing factors in academic success. But there’s so much more to it! Reading is also the greatest stress reducer. It’s one of the easiest and most pleasurable ways to bond with your child. It’s an extremely useful tool for teaching empathy, compassion, and other social skills. It’s a vocabulary-builder. Spending lots of time reading to your child (beginning right at birth) will benefit literally every aspect of your child’s life - there’s even emerging research demonstrating that reading improves our physical health!
If you’re looking for ways to squeeze more reading time into your child’s life, check this out.
Jim Trelease’s THE READ-ALOUD HANDBOOK was first published in 1979. It is a New York Times bestseller that has sold over a million copies - and for very good reason. Trelease discusses the critical importance of reading aloud to your child every day of their infant, toddler, preschool, and even elementary school lives. It guides a huge percentage of my parenting and teaching life, and is a central part of what I am hoping to inspire with this website. If you, as a parent or caregiver or educator read nothing else, PLEASE read at least the first half of The Read Aloud Handbook. It will give you some context for my utter obsession with reading to children, and very likely change how you view the work of raising and teaching a child.
Using books to improve every aspect of your child’s growth and development should become a very special part of your relationship with your child. Reading should be the most enjoyable and most influential gift you ever give them!
Head over to the Research Page for studies that back up the importance of reading aloud to and with your child as a building block to independent reading.