Reading Out Loud to Your Kids

Reading out loud with your children will provide many great benefits to both you and your child. By reading out loud, parents are able to introduce appropriate content to their children at a higher reading level. This gives the parent and child an opportunity to talk about many important events, questions, cultures, opinions, beliefs, and much more. This creates a special time where parents and children can bond and grow closer, forming trusting relationship centered on teaching opportunities.

Also, reading out loud to children is one of the best ways to help them grow in language development and grow a true love for reading. Reading out loud starts with your infant and should continue on to their teenage years. Studies prove that students who have been read out loud to do better in school. Right now among fourth-graders, only 54% read something for pleasure everyday. Among eighth-graders only 30% read for pleasure each day and by twelfth grade, only 19% read for pleasure (Jim Trelease). Trelease also offers a helpful and simple, two part formula for reading:

1. The more you read, the better you get at it; the better you get at it, the more you like it; and the more you like it, the more you do it.
2. The more you read, the more you know; and the more you know, the smarter you grow.

Reading out loud to your children will truly be a positive and beneficial experience for you and for your children. Nothing can replace this. I encourage everyone to add reading out loud to their list of summer activities this year and watch the many changes that will happen because of your effort.

Condensed list of great read aloud books recommended by Jim Trelease:

1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day By Judith Viorst
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs By Judi Barrett
3. The Foot Book By Dr. Seuss
4. Heckedy Peg By Audrey Wood
5. Ira Sleeps Over By Bernard Waber
6. Snip Snap! What’s That? By Mara Bergman
7. The Story of Ruby Bridges By Robert Coles
8. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs By John Scieszka
9. Dinosaurs Before Dark By Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House series)
10. The Hundred Dress By Eleanor Estes

**For more information on reading out loud and list of great books please look for The Read~Aloud Handbook By Jim Trelease