8 Reasons Why I Still Do Read Alouds to My Children

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It is recommended that a child should be read to even after he can read. There are many benefits to it. In this post, I list 8 reasons why I still do read alouds to my children.

If you are a mom to a toddler or a pre-reading toddler, it is expected that you do a lot of read-alouds. But what if you are a mom with primary school children? Children in their pre-teen years? Do you? Would you?

[Watch this 10-minute clip by Rebecca Bellingham on why we should all be reading aloud.]

I used to think, “Great! You can read on your own now! I can retire from doing read alouds!”

But guess what? There are still many benefits to reading aloud even when the children can read on their own as mentioned in the Ted Talk above by Rebecca Bellingham. But I was a slow and resistant adopter of it. It was only in the last 4 – 5 years that I have done it with some consistency.

Teaching Our Children to Read

In fact, in our homeschool, teaching the children to read independently was one of my first goals. That and teaching them to play alone.

Why?

Once they are able to read on their own, a whole world opens up for them. They are able to enter into it at any time they want to. They no longer have to wait for someone to help them enter it.

More Independence

When they can read on their own, they are able to help themselves. Independence! They don’t have to wait for me to help them in their schoolwork or to figure out instructions for a board game. They can do their own research too.

If they are bored or waiting at for a doctor’s appointment, they are able to open up a book and be occupied. They won’t get into trouble by running around or irritating the people around them.

Resistant to Do Read Alouds to Older Children

And so, for the longest time, I only read to the toddlers and the babies in the family. Then I met someone who told me – you should still read aloud to your child even if he can read on his own and is a good reader.

Huh?! Why?

In my mind, it was a waste of my time and energy (reading aloud takes energy as I am a very animated reader.) Bear in mind that when I heard this, I was heavily pregnant. Not a good time to be reading aloud since just breathing to stay alive already takes up so much effort.

When I asked her why, she couldn’t tell me. “It is good, la,” she said. Hmmm…. I need reasons to do what I do. I am a Questioner, according to Gretchen Rubin‘s Better than Before book. Questioners need to know why before they will do anything. So of course, I didn’t follow her advice. 🙂

Hooked on Read Alouds

Anyway, one fine day, I decided to do a read aloud during lunch time. Don’t ask me what possessed me to do it (too free?!). But I was hooked and so were the children. Most of them anyway.

I then started hunting for books to read aloud during lunch. Books that they had not read before. But it is hard to find something that all of them had not read before in a house of voracious readers. I resorted to buying and hiding books. Just so that they could not read ahead.

Not Just Books

I have kept up reading aloud to the children during lunchtime for a while now. Some days I am too tired to do it, am sick or am running late for an after-lunch appointment. We usually read fiction, occasionally non-fiction and news articles.

For example, the year our ex-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew died, I read to them what I thought were helpful and relevant news articles. It helped with the preparation for the National Education Quiz too! *

8 Reasons Why I Still Do Read Alouds to My Children

For our family, we have reaped these 8 benefits of reading aloud even though the youngest child is almost 8 years old and is able to read independently.

1. Bonding

Everyone hearing the same story being read gives us a common topic to talk about and make reference to. For instance, with the reading of CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books, we had lots of discussion during and after that. The same thing happened with reading Hannah Hurnard’s Hind’s Feet on High Places, and Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place

2. See Things Through a Biblical Worldview

Because I am the one reading the book, I get the privilege to provide a biblical worldview for them, especially younger ones. If the older teens are sitting in, I try to get them to share what they think the author is trying to say through the characters.

3. Learn to Read Between the Lines

I often like to interrupt long passages to ask them questions (I know, shudders, right?). I will do that whenever I see that glazed look on more than one face when a long or convoluted passage is read. So I will pause to either summarise what was read or ask them to tell me what they think is happening in that passage.

4. Learn to Listen

Being able to listen is a fantastic skill in today’s world where everyone is keener to be heard than pause to listen. On top of that, I get to assess their auditory comprehension skills! Think: Listening Comprehension skills for PSLE Oral.

5. Hear Correct Pronunciation.

They get to hear how certain words are pronounced. And then we all laugh at each other.

6. Learn to Read with Expression.

As they listen to me read with expression, hopefully, they will learn to read in their mind with expression too. Then, characters can come alive.

7. Unleash Their Imagination

Reading silently also accords this benefit but somehow, read alouds make stuff come alive more. Well, good read alouds anyway. And I like to think that I am quite good at it 😉

8. Expose Good Books to Children who Dislike Reading.

Read alouds are great for the reluctant reader. One of mine who shall not be named to protect the innocent – dislikes reading. Recently, on Facebook, a friend posted the image below. I laughed, leaned over to the said child, showed it and asked, “True?” “Noooooo!” came the answer. Said child would rather sit and space out than grab a book along for a doctor’s appointment.

It is no big deal. Said child CAN read and CAN understand. But just chooses not to.

Listening to books being read aloud reduces the reluctance to associate with books. As mentioned by Rebecca Bellingham in the TedTalk video above, reading aloud removes the added obstacle of decoding. Maybe that is what it is with this child. Said child once said, “I understand better when mama reads it.” So, there you go.

Do You Do Read Alouds in Your Home?

If you don’t do read alouds to your older children, may I encourage you to start doing so? If you think you do not read well, you could explore using audiobooks. I can’t recommend any that I have personally used since I have never done it. But the first place I would check is our own National Library. Some books are available as sound recordings – like Charlotte’s Web.

Another free site is Learn out Loud. They even have the whole set of the Chronicles of Narnia in there! Otherwise, try Librivox

If you don’t mind paying for better quality, there is Audible, which offers a trial free month, after which you have to pay $14.95 for their huge collection of books.

Try it and let me know how it goes!

• The NE Quiz is another requirement placed on homeschoolers by the Ministry of Education. A homeschooled child needs to sit for and clear it before he is allowed to take PSLE.

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