Home » Education » Homeschooling » Homeschool Teaching

Reading Aloud to All Ages

Ranked #3,904 in Education, #89,740 overall

When Is It time To Stop Reading Aloud to Your Children?

Many people think that the main reason to read aloud to a child is because he hasn't learned to read yet. They want to share good stories with their children. They hope hearing these stories will make their children want to learn to read for themselves. Once their children learn to read at at about a second or third grade level, many parents see no need to continue reading aloud to their children anymore. After all, why read to a child who can read by himself? In this lens, I hope to show you some other reasons why it's good to keep reading aloud, preferably as a family, long after your children have passed the elementary grades. I will also offer some suggestions of books worth the time it takes to read them. The picture above is one someone took when I was reading to my nephew, who has now grown up. We were both younger then.

Contents at a Glance

In Case You're Wondering Why You Should...
Things you can do to prepare your child...
When Children are First Beginning to Rea...
Books to Read Aloud to Emergent Readers...
Why should I read aloud when I can get a...
What to Read to Those Who are Beyond Pic...

In Case You're Wondering Why You Should Read to Your Children

Mem Fox is a best-selling author and literacy expert. In this book, she explains how important reading aloud to children is in helping them develop the skills needed to learn to read themselves.

Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever

by: Mem Fox

Amazon Price: $5.18 (as of 02/15/2012)

Reading aloud is one of the best gifts a parent can give a child -- and not just children too young to read themselves. It is the best foundation for giving a head start in reading and listening and language arts skills. This book shows you why and how to make the best use of your reading time. Don't miss this book if you have young children

She discusses when, where, and why to read aloud and demonstrates how to read aloud to best effect and how to get the most out of a read-aloud session. She helps parents to define and choose good books and closes with tips on dealing effectively with the challenges that sometimes arise when children are learning to read. This new edition includes this new edition includes two new chapters on boy readers and phonics, a foreword, and a list of "Twenty Books That Children Love."

Things you can do to prepare your child to learn to read

The first is reading aloud.

Every Child Ready to Read: Literacy Tips for Parents

by: The Lee Pesky Learning Center

Amazon Price: $4.73 (as of 02/15/2012)

Improving literacy begins at birth -- or so say the experts. They suggest that reading aloud to your child, enjoying word play and simple games together are a good foundation for learning to read. The Lee Pesky Learning Center has created this reference book for parents with important topics geared for three different age groups: infant, toddler, and preschool. Parents will discover the best read aloud books for sound awareness, the best picture books for encouraging letter recognition, a variety of a ways to build vocabulary and verbal language skills, entertaining and educational games to play during car trips, and more. There are also some great gift suggestions for children included.

When Children are First Beginning to Read Real Books on their Own.

What books are best to read aloud to them at this stage?

The easy answer would be that you'd find interesting books above their reading level they want to hear. You might start by having them read one of the books they can read well to you. When they read with expression, comment on how well they are doing. Encourage them to really have fun with it. Maybe you could take turns reading by each of you reading the words of a different character so that you are both enjoying hamming it up. See When You Read Aloud, Ham it Up

Some books are actually designed for shared reading between either a child and parent or child and older child. One of these series is the Two Can Read series. These books also offer parents and teachers some discussion starters and activities on the last page. Follow the title links to order them . This series is now out of print, but I still have some. If I'm out of stock, I won't be able to get more, because they are no longer available from the publisher. We accept school purchase orders.

Below are some books that emergent readers will enjoy hearing that they probably won't be ready to read yet.

Books to Read Aloud to Emergent Readers at the Beginning Level.

Links on this list will introduce you to a variety of picture books arranged by subject.

You know which ones will most appeal to your children. Most appeal to both sexes. Some may have more appeal to one sex than the other. I will be adding to this list frequently. The title links on this page will land you on my shopping cart at www.barbsteachinghelp.com (hosted by tomfolio) so that you may purchase them through my secure server. Your card is not charged by the site, but I pick up your information, collect and weigh the books you order and process the card myself, normally lowering the postage to my costs if it is over calculated. If you have any questions, all my contact information is also there. Once you are on the site you can continue to browse. You can go directly to the site to browse for all the categories of children's books here: Barb's Teaching Help category search for children's books All listed children's books are in one of the many categories so you can choose the ones you want to browse.

Selected Picture Books about Animals: Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett: This book is just one of the many listed. Ugly horses were not allowed inside the walled city, famous for its beautiful horses. Fritz, a not-so-good-looking gentle and hard-working pony, was one of those who was excluded. More than anything he wanted to be ridden by a child. One day the bridge into the walled city breaks, and Fritz gets to realize his dream and become a hero all at once. For ages 4-8
Click the link above to find more.
Picture Books About Relationships with Family and Friends: Elbert's Bad Word by Audrey and Don Wood: This book deals with the effect on a small child who hears a bad word. Instead of being forgotten it lurks beneath the surface of his mind until it finally comes out his mouth. This book shows how a bad word overheard at a mostly adult garden party creeps inside the mind of a small boy, and later, to everyone's horror, escapes from his mouth when a mallet lands on his big toe later during that same party. And it shows how the chastened boy finds a solution to make sure the bad word has no more power over him.
Click the link above for more suggestions on books about relating to family and friends.
Browse Picture Books for Younger Children at Barb's Teachng Help: I have so many favorite books to read aloud to children who are pre-readers or emergent readers that if I listed all of them above this lens would go on forever. Your picks might be different from mine, and I haven't had time to list all I wanted for this section yet. Barb's Teaching Help has so many children's categories to browse through that you'll want to check them out your special interests. I hand select which category every book goes into. You can also search by author and title. My price for most books in print are 10% off the publisher list prices. Sometimes it may be less. This is only one of the children's categories. To see them all, go to the top navigation bar and click on Categories.

Why should I read aloud when I can get a CD or MP3 to do it?

There's no substitite for Mom, Dad, or Grandparents.

When a real human does the reading, he or she has the capability to enrich the reading experience and make it a lot more fun. First, it creates a connection between a loved voice and a book. It also becomes a genuine interaction that constitutes quality time with the reading adult as he or she shares an imaginative journey with the child. Your child is reminded that you care enough to take time from your busy day to read to him. It becomes even a better bonding experience if the child (or children) are close beside you on the sofa or sitting on your lap, looking at the pictures as you read.

Because the adult reader is able to see a child's face during this experience, she will be able to see if there is confusion or puzzlement and be able to ask questions or explain unusual words to make sure the child gets the needed information to clear any confusion. No recording is able to do that. The adult can also encourage the child to join in any repetitive refrains, guess what will happen next, talk about the pictures, and anything else that seems to flow from the story itself.

I always looked forward to the opportunities to read to my children because it gave me a way to spend quality time doing something we all enjoyed. The more interactive it became, the more we all enjoyed it. Reading aloud is one of those "invisible" lessons parents can teach, since the child is unaware of the vocabulary, reading comprehension, and language lessons he is getting . Even you may be unaware of it, but the cumulative effect of hearing a parent read for a few minutes a day will build your child's vocabulary as he hears new words in context, model the proper use of the English language by making it sound "right" when he meets it on a standardized test or in a usage exercise in a language book later on, and stimulate your child's imagination in matters related to what you've enjoyed reading together.

There is simply no equivalent substitute for a loved adult in the reading aloud experience. For that reading adult, there is no experience quite like that of ushering your child into the realm of adventure and imagination he or she will find through the printed word.

The book in the picture is one of our favorites for anyone who loves a good humorous, animal story.

What to Read to Those Who are Beyond Picture Book Level in Understanding

This is a great time to read folk and fairy tales and well-written short novels. Some children will be ready to listen to even longer novels at their interest levels. Children are ready at this stage to explore the world beyond their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. They are ready to hear the stories of people who made history. Choose well-written history and biography books. It's nice to pick well-illustrated books for the younger ages, because engaging pictures give children something to focus on as you read. Here are some of my favorite read aloud books.

Great Biographies for Children of all ages.: Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz. This book suitable for ages eight through adult, and is very appropriate for unit studies on China in the 1920's. Jean makes the Yangtse River come alive with its coolies hauling water, women washing clothes, swarming houseboats, and junks with eyes painted on their prows. She lets us know how it felt to be a proud American (though one born in China) in a British school, forced to sing "God Save the King" every day. And she gives us her child's eye perspective on the growing turmoil in China, especially in Hankow and Wuchang, as the Chinese people became more and more suspicious of foreigners, and warlords, Nationalists and Communists vied with each other for power. Being called a "foreign devil" took some getting used to, and several times the family had some very narrow escapes.

Throughout all her Chinese adventures, Jean never forgot that she was an American, and she was very eager to return to her native land. What she didn't expect was how difficult it would be to fit into American culture when she finally got home to her grandparents' farm in Pennsylvania. She was shocked when American children asked her what it was like to eat a rat. And she took offense when her classmates referred to the Chinese as "chinks. "

I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about either Jean Fritz or China. It would make an excellent book to read to the entire family, for there is much to discuss. From Chinese culture to the tactics of Communists in taking over a country, to how to fit into a new culture, there is much to learn.
Click the link above to browse more great biographies and autobiographies
Annotated Fiction for Elementary and Middle School Students.: The Courage of Sarah Noble
Set in 1707 in the wilderness of Connecticut, this chapter book portrays an eight-year-old girl's courage as she and her father travel to build a new family home. She bravely handles the new challenges in adjusting to a dark woods full of strange wild animals, camping out amidst them on the journey, and she cares for her father, cooking over the fire outdoors, as he concentrates on building a cave for shelter. Then John Noble begins to leave Sarah alone during the day while he crosses the river to build the house, and Sarah reads the Bible for both courage and entertainment. Eventually her father asks her to live with the Indians, whom she had feared at first but had become friends with, while he goes to bring the family to the new home.
When you click the link above you will find more great books to read aloud.
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson: How can a crusty old independent hobo who lives under a bridge in the streets of Paris stand up to a struggling mother with three appealing children who claim squatters' rights to his spot on the day before Christmas? Seems the only way he can have any peace is to share his home. But he knows they won't be happy until they have a real home of their own again. Can he help?

Middle School -- That Awkward Age -- Especially for Boys

When children get into middle school, they are often quite able to read most books for themselves that are recommended for their age group. This is the very time, however, that they are often most conflicted about their identity and most need to have communication channels open with their parents. That's why it's nice to have the habit of reading together as a family already established by then. Even if it's not yet established, it's never too late.

When my nephew was staying with us for a year, he was uprooted from his home at the age of 12 and dealing with a lot of issues. He had almost been raised by the TV. We didn't have one. My computer was used only for business, so he didn't have access to that, either. That made it rather easy, especially since we were teaching him at home, to establish a time to read aloud after lunch and / or dinner. He was not the type to ever read anything on his own he didn't have to. Nor was he read to much at home before he came to us.

We started with the Little Britches books by Ralph Moody. There are eight in the series, and we read all eight aloud together. These books offer a wealth of discussion topics that occur quite naturally as one is reading them. They also offer a common frame of reference that comes from the shared experience. This lead to a lot of private jokes in our family. Almost every major experience of growing up is covered in this series of biographies that begins when Ralph is eight and ends when he is a young man. I have written an overview of the entire series You will also see other pioneer literature I recommend for reading aloud on this page. These are much better read aloud together because this is the age when it's important to have neutral ground for discussing the generation gap, family relationships, peer pressure, character qualities, relationships with the opposite sex, death, justice, integrity, loyalty, ingenuity, and so much more. All of these are in the Ralph Moody books, and to make it even better, he is an excellent writer who uses the language in ways that are worthy of imitation. His characters are so real you think you know them. I could talk forever about these books, and I've never read them to a child that didn't like them.

When my nephew was here, he had to help us as we traveled to home school conventions across the country. I believe we were one of the first vendors to introduce these books, if not the very first. Bobby helped in the booth and helped to talk up these books with customers. With the money he earned from us, he actually bought all eight books so he could own them. I doubt if he'd ever bought a book with his own money before in his life. And that speaks a lot for these books. I have a few of these books left, and some may be below the Amazon prices since I've had them for a while. I'd appreciate it if you'd see if I have them available first if you'd like to own them. Where you see the underlined title links, just click and they should take you to the shopping cart pages on my e-commerce site -- if they are still in stock. I'm also going to list the Amazon links below in case you want to compare.

Ralph Moody's books are popular with almost any age old enough to go to school -- especially the first four. Another author I like to use with boys (and girls, too) is Patrick Macmanus. I call him the Bill Cosby of outdoor life. I always knew when my middle school age son was reading a Patrick Macmanus book in bed because I could hear the laughter as I walked by. Once when I was reading a story ("Mean Tents") aloud to a group of kids at our house, I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't keep reading. Many scout troops read these stories around the fire on camping trips. I will include some Macmanus books in my list below -- my favorites.

Two other books I like to read aloud at this age that also keep the boys' interest are Johnny Tremain and The Bronze Bow.

What Bloggers Have to Say about Reading Aloud

'Cyber' charter students reading names of students on waiting lists to draw ...: LANSING ? ?Cyber? charter school students and families are showing support for a bill expanding the number of such schools in Michigan by reading aloud the names of students unable to attend because of state enrollment caps. Students planned to read ...
Read-Aloud program unites art and literature: By Wm. Shawn Weigel (Staff photo by Wm. Shawn Weigel): Volunteer Elizabeth Buckley reads to children at the Brandywine River Museum's Read Aloud program. The children hear a story, take a brief tour of the museum, and then create a craft that reflects ...
Hooked After One Book: Volunteer to Read Aloud to Kids: Local community leaders and I read aloud to Ortega Elementary School students. You can, too. By Camden Swita Laurie Frater, Jefferson Union High School District Trustee, reads aloud to students at Ortega Elementary. Dave Yuhas Many community leaders ...
Braille comes unbound from the book: how technology can stop a literary crisis: On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Chancey Fleet reads the menu of Bombay Garden to four friends gathered at the back of the Chelsea-based Indian restaurant in New York City. Although she is reading aloud, there are no menus on the table.

These are some of the best books for family read-alouds at the middle school level.

Many are also good at the high school level.

Feel free to add to the list and vote for those you like best.

Reading Aloud to All Ages

When Is It time To Stop Reading Aloud to Your Children?

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

In Case You're Wondering Why You Should Read to Your Children

Things you can do to prepare your child to learn to read

The first is reading aloud.

When Children are First Beginning to Read Real Books on their Own.

What books are best to read aloud to them at this stage?

Books to Read Aloud to Emergent Readers at the Beginning Level.

Links on this list will introduce you to a variety of picture books arranged by subject.

Why should I read aloud when I can get a CD or MP3 to do it?

There's no substitite for Mom, Dad, or Grandparents.

What to Read to Those Who are Beyond Picture Book Level in Understanding

Middle School -- That Awkward Age -- Especially for Boys

What Bloggers Have to Say about Reading Aloud

These are some of the best books for family read-alouds at the middle school level.

Many are also good at the high school level.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

For more Information, check out these links

Did you get some good ideas from this lens?

If so, please remember to rate it if you are a member of Squidoo.

What do you like best about reading aloud as a family?

Feel free to leave any comments or feedback even if you haven't tried this yet.

More about BarbRad

Here are some other lenses by BarbRad you might like.

by BarbRad

Explore related pages

Of Cabbages and Kings: Random Thought of an Internet Bookseller

Related Tags

Want our Newsletter?