Some people hate to read out loud. But our family looks for any excuse to read out loud. Fall, winter, spring, summer. Anytime is the right time for reading out loud with your family.
Year round, I piled classic books around the house to entice them to read with me. In Texas, August and September are too hot to play outside for long. After school, a relaxing book read out loud by Mom is a great way to cool off.
Whenever I homeschooled anybody, as part of our designated plan, I literally set aside the 3 coldest winter months for nothing but reading out loud in front of the fire.
Anna fondly remembers learning to read out loud.
“When we first began, we would read a word and you would read a word. Then we would read a page and you would read a page. When we got good enough, we would read a chapter and then you would read a chapter,” explains Anna.
At first, my kids didn’t love reading out loud. But they quickly did the math. Four people meant we only read 1 in 4 chapters. As young readers, they liked the way the story moved more quickly when we read together.
“Then, later we did it with the neighbor kids who were a little younger than us,” recalls Anna
Expressive: Reading Out Loud with Emotion
I also tried to keep them engaged by creating unique sounding voices for each character. It was always fun to hear my kids imitate the character’s different accents.
“It allowed us learn how to read expressively. To communicate emotions and voices. I hear my son already doing it,” adds Anna.
Camp Krafve Definition of Expressive – Able to use all the communication skills God gave us to pass on information and wisdom.
Anna’s son is reading chapter books like a champ now. But when he was younger, they took turns with him reading only sight words. She focused on reading her parts with expressiveness.
Her expressiveness made reading much more fun for him. Soon her efforts paid off. He rewarded her by adding expression to his question and exclamation marks as a young reader.
5 Benefits of Reading Out Loud
Still wondering if you can muster enough energy to do something you might dread yourself? Of course. Yet we all do things for our kids we wouldn’t do for ourselves. So, how can reading out loud help our kids?
Over the years Anna and I learned a lot of stuff about teaching kids to love reading. Here are some of the benefits of reading out loud with your kids:
#1 Ability to identify emotions.
Have you noticed how often other people poo-poo what we’re feeling? If you want your kids to enjoy self-awareness and trust their instincts, reading out loud can help them immensely.
#2 Confidence on stage.
Who doesn’t need to make presentations at work or church, at least occasionally? Speaking up front is almost unavoidable. Why not give your kids a boost now so they are more comfortable on stage as an adult?
#3 Story-telling skills.
Not only does classic literature teach your children to incorporate drama, angst, and victory into their stories, it also teaches them grammar naturally. Without any tedious English grammar classes.
“What I love about reading good, classic, well-authored, well-edited literature is the words they’re speaking are well-structured,” says Anna. “The sentences have been put together carefully. And edited to be good. Those things are going through your kids’ brains and coming out their mouths. So, of course—it seems to me as a mom—practicing good sentences out loud would improve the way our kids communicate.”
Or better yet, read the Bible out loud with your kids. Nothing will increase vocabulary like the scriptures!
#4 More persuasive communication skills.
We’ve all been in situations where the speaker (or, ahem, a spouse) was so monotone we drift off to sleep. But if they know how to adjust their pitch and the rhythm of their voice, it makes a huge difference for their listeners.
For instance, my speech coach (Tammy Whitehurst) tells me to pause. I tend to talk too fast!
“I get excited and want to use more words,” Anna adds.
Being expressive in the right way, with a lot of self-discipline, actually makes you a better communicator and much more persuasive. Clearly, we need better communicators in our world today! Why not equip your children to communicate well?
#5 Reading changes the culture.
Graham Scharf makes great points about how Love, Language, and Literature, even in their pre-school years, set your children up for life-long success. I especially liked the following quote from his book, The Apprenticeship of Being Human.
“When parents cherish and cultivate the virtue of their children, their children love learning and communities flourish.” ~Graham Scharf
At CathyKrafve.com find more about how to instill a love of reading in your kids, inspire them to create out of their own design, develop beautiful character qualities in your kids.
Reading Out Loud In Your Home
How can reading out loud look in your home?
Only you, the parent, knows what will work in your home. You know each of your children. You know the busy days and the late nights. The exhaustion, when you feel you don’t have the energy to do one more thing.
Maybe you take along a captivating classic when you road trip. Or, like me, maybe you read a favorite children’s book once at bedtime, recording it so they can replay it often. Perhaps you get the grandparents involved by asking them to record a book (or a chapter) for your kids. You can even pay older kids to read to younger siblings as part of their allowance.
Field guides, maps, yes, even comic books? All can be your allies when it comes to giving your child a love of reading. Don’t miss the many podcasts we’ve already done on building your children’s character and their love of reading. Plus, if you’re homeschooling, check out the easy, spontaneous lesson plans I shared during COVID.
Better Vocabulary. Better Life.
Vocabulary is a predictor of how well our children will succeed in life. Maybe you wonder if you have enough vocabulary to help your own children. If so, why not borrow some book from your local library?
Anna shares much more about making the most out of your local library in today’s podcast. You can begin a new adventure for your family in one borrowed volume. While you collect new words for your family, you’ll show your kids how life-long self-learners bless everybody around them.
Whatever creative approach works for your family, you won’t regret the time you spend together reading out loud!
As I close, here’s a thought question for us all: If “love, language and literature” can change a culture, how could that look in America today?
🙂
cathy
We LOVE to Hear From YOU!
What classic books changed your life as a kid? Which benefit of reading out loud makes you want to pop in at your local library soon? Today, how can you intercede on behalf of American culture? (For some ideas about how to pray for America, see today’s prayer below.)
May we pray together?
Dear good Father, we know You want us to be effective teachers, those who can tell others about Your goodness without missing a beat. Your Word inspires us to claim all the benefits of reading out loud for the future generations in our families. Help us read Your scriptures with the same enthusiasm we watch T.V. Now, that would be a miracle! Seriously, Lord, help us have an appetite for truth. Teach us the words we need to draw whole communities, a whole culture back to You, one conversation at a time. Have mercy on us, O good God, and let us start today in our own messy families. Bless us now because that is Your heart’s desire. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
More Favorite Quotes
“Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.” ~Henri Matisse
“I have a scavenger hunt in my art room; it involves a lot of reading actually. It includes things like, ‘Make a color wheel out of things in the room.’ My students have to find 6 quotes. I don’t leave the quotes up year-round either. Instead throughout the year, I put quotes in weird places, like Mona Lisa might have a talking bubble.” ~Anna Krafve Pierce, from today’s podcast.
“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. ” ~From Paul to Timothy, I Timothy 4:12-14 (NKJV, italics mine).
And, from our blogs together, here’s one of my all time favorite Anna quotes about reading:
“Can I read you something? Just surprise you with something?” ~Anna Krafve Pierce
What a brave mom I am! On air she says this to me. And then she reads something I wrote! I almost passed out! You can hear the rest of that podcast here — Recipes: Welcome to My Kitchen.
Finally, thank you for reading to the end of today’s blog. I try to fill it with stuff I hope blesses you. YOU are very dear to my heart. I wouldn’t bother to do this, if not for YOU!
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Cathy Krafve, host of Fireside Talk Radio and author of The Well: The Art of Drawing Out Authentic Conversations and Marriage Conversation: From Coexisting to Cherished. We welcome your stories, ideas, and questions at CathyKrafve.com.
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