Tips For Reading Aloud

I’ve mentioned the benefits and importance of reading aloud many times already on this blog, so I’m not going to go into them again today (if you want to go deeper into the why I encourage you to read The Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie or listen to her podcast the Read Aloud Revival); instead I want to share some tips today that have helped my family incorporate more books into our days. I have been reading aloud to my kids since the oldest was a baby (I think she was two or three months old when I began to read her short picture books before naps and bedtime), and I can honestly say it’s one of the most life-changing habits we have formed in our home. But I also know how busy life can be and how overwhelming it can feel to think about finding even a few minutes in our day to add something new. Hopefully these ideas will help you see how you can make reading aloud work for your family.

1. Leave your read aloud book where you will see it. It’s so easy to get caught up in the craziness of diaper changes, snacks, and taking care of the house and get to the end of the day realizing you forgot to read to your kids. If you want to read aloud at breakfast, leave the book by the coffee pot or cereal boxes. If you want to read to them at bedtime, make sure they have books in their bedrooms for easy access. Don’t keep your books tucked away, leave them where you will notice them.

2. Tie it to food. I think we have probably all heard this one before: if you want to make a new habit work with your kids, tie it to a meal or provide snacks during it; it’s said a lot because it’s true! Which meal is your family most likely to be altogether for each day? For our family it’s breakfast, so we have always read the Bible together at breakfast. But I also usually let my kids eat a morning snack while we do our school read alouds, and we usually read something fun during their bedtime snack (a seasonal picture book or nonschool-related chapter book). During particularly busy seasons where we have struggled to do a lot of reading aloud, I’ll read a bit while they eat lunch, then eat my own lunch once the youngest goes down for his nap. There’s so many ways to make this work for your particular family!

3. Keep their hands busy. It is rare for my kids to pay attention to a story without their hands being occupied, and, if we’re being honest, I think the same is true of us as adults. This is why I take notes during the sermon on Sunday or do housework while listening to a podcast. Our kids are the same: research actually shows that we retain information better if our hands are actively engaged while hearing the information. So let your kids draw, color, do sticker books, or paint with watercolors while you read. There are tons of lists of ideas online for what your kids can do while they read, but I generally feel like each family (and sometimes each individual kid) will have specific things they gravitate towards. Some parents let their kids build with legos during read alouds, but I’ve found the noise of the blocks being shuffled in a bin is too much for me. I also banned magnatiles and puzzles after one too many tears over the toddler destroying somebody’s creation or half-finished puzzle. I like to stock up on activity books from companies like Paper Pie every couple months, usually things like sticker books, magic painting, how to draw books, and coloring books. Sometimes I’ll also just tell them to draw a picture that goes with what we are reading that day.

4. Choose to read aloud books you enjoy, too. If you find yourself dreading read-aloud time, it’s probably because you’re not picking good quality books that you can enjoy alongside your kids. A good children’s book (whether picture or chapter book) will be as enjoyable to you as an adult as it is to your child. I also want to point out that you won’t always have the same tastes as your children, and that’s okay. I don’t like reading graphic novels, but one of my girls LOVES them; I happily buy them for her to read on her own, but we don’t read them during read aloud times, and THAT’S OKAY. My kids also know that I’m not going to force them to keep reading a series of books they hate. I will sometimes stretch them by making them try something during a read aloud they don’t think they will like, but if they still really dislike it after giving it a good chance, I’m okay with leaving it and going on to something else.

5. Consider whole group and individual read alouds for different ages. If you have more than one child, you may want to look for times both where you read to all your kids at once, and also times where you read to just one or two similarly-aged children. I read a story to all my kids at once during bedtime snack, but then I also read a short story to each of the little ones individually before putting them to bed. We do our family Bible reading all together at breakfast, but I’m okay with the little ones heading off to play while I do school read alouds with the oldest two. Find ways to make it work for your family’s life stage, schedule, and ages.

6. Say yes when they ask you to read to them. I absolutely think you should have at least one time in your day where you consistently read to your kids; but I also think we shouldn’t miss the opportunities to simply say “yes.” We often feel bombarded as parents with a thousand requests a day from our children, and it’s easy to feel like you’re always telling them “no,” but a “yes” to reading a book is literally the easiest “yes” you can say. Snuggling and sharing books has seen me through the most difficult seasons of motherhood, when I was too exhausted from being up with a baby to get down on the floor and play legos, when I was emotionally drained from dealing with a defiant child all week, when homeschool, and homemaking, and ministry, and all the other moving parts of life just felt like too much. Try it: the next time you feel like throwing up your hands and declaring today a “fail,” gather one or more kids, let them pick their favorite book, and just read. You’ll make precious memories with your children, and you’ll feel refreshed, too.