By: Sarah Clark, Arboro Empowered Coach
Local Firefighters of Ladder 22 reading aloud during storytime at Arboro Empowered. Reserve your spot at Arboro's weekly community storytime- every Thursday morning!
When I think about reading, I have two very strong memories.
Sitting in a circle with my 4th grade class while our teacher, Mrs. Govert, read The BFG at the end of the day while waiting for the bell to ring to go home. We would sit there drawn into the magic of the story so much that when the bell rang, we would exclaim, “Awwww we were just getting to the good part!”
Sitting in the recliner at 9:00pm as a moody 6th grader reading the required text that I procrastinated until the last minute to read. My dad, being the avid reader he was, and knowing my procrastination habits, picked up the titles from the library for him to read alongside me. On this particular night, my dad offered to read aloud to me (to which I quickly felt offended at the mere thought of him underestimating my reading skills). Still, as he began to read aloud, I felt my body melt into the recliner and fall in love with the plot of the story until we finished half the book that night.
We often think that reading aloud to kids is important in the early years as they are still developing their reading skills, but the truth is, even as an adult I find myself enthralled by a good read aloud. (I think it has fueled my love of audiobooks- or maybe it's that I am too busy to sit down as often as I’d like with a book!?)
The research is consistent throughout the years about the benefits of reading aloud.
Builds vocabulary, background knowledge, and the desire to read.
Increases an association of comfort, connection, and pleasure with reading books.
Immerses kids in the structure of a story, correct grammar, and sentence structure
Develops language skills to make sense of the world.
Creates experiences to hear fluency and expression when reading texts.
-adapted from Jim Treleases’s Read Aloud Handbook
I could go on and on about the benefits of reading aloud to kids but I will leave you with this quote:
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”
― Emilie Buchwald
From Arboro to Yours,
Sarah Clark
Celebrate the magic of reading aloud as a family with Jolabokaflod- A family winter celebration at Arboro on Thursday 12/7/23. Free for the community!
Learn more and reserve your spot by clicking here:
"I really like Hatchet and it's one of my favorite chapter books. My mom read it to me when we were in the airport and when we were going to Texas. When we got there my Uncle Gregg read some of it too and then he hung out and listened while my mom read the rest." -Leo, Arboro regular, age 7
"My favorite book to listen to is All the Sand at the Beach because I love my mama and she wrote it for me!" - Rosa, Arboro regular, age 4
Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder- We enjoyed reading this as a family because of the vivid language used to describe the suspenseful circumstances throughout the book. Because we’ve read other books in the series, we also feel like we really know these characters and had great concern for them throughout the story
- Jennifer, Homeschooling Mom to 2 Boys
“Our kids love Christmastime is Here because it is very interactive and has so many flaps. They also love Santa! A Scanimation Picture Book because the holograms are so cool in this one!”- Rachel, Mom to 2 Girls
“I like to read There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed some snow! I love to read rhyming stories for young children, so that they can read along together. This is another great holiday story in a terrific series.” - Chris, Grandfather to 3 kids