The Benefits of Asking Your (Older) Child to Read to You
Credit: A winter's tale of Sprites and Goblins, Dennis Miller Bunker, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Dear Friends,
Many of us know about the benefits of reading aloud. For young children, the benefits of reading aloud are obvious: it develops their interest in books and stories, motivates them to learn to read, and provides special bonding time with Mom or Dad. For older children, reading aloud is still beneficial. It helps them develop the background knowledge that is essential to reading comprehension.
In our home, we certainly read aloud frequently. But as a busy homeschooling mom, I was so pleased to find a new educational technique - having your older child read to you. I learned this technique from my great-grandfather’s autobiography. He grew up on a busy family farm in Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century. His mother - in an era before podcasts, audiobooks, etc. - had her children read to her while she milked cows, spun wool, and completed the million other tasks a busy farmwife tackled daily. This also provided a tremendous educational tool for her to educate her children.
So, if like me, you find yourself busy cooking dinner, folding laundry and cleaning, consider grabbing the nearest beloved child/victim and a good book off the shelf, and ask them to read to you! I think you will see some amazing benefits.
I love this! Sent part of this to my husband saying "kids were the orginal audiobooks" because I absolutely love them for doing routine work with my hands. Looking forward to employing this in later years.
*The note about reading aloud so as not to skim made me internally cheer. I have always been a slow, arduous reader, so my personal suspicion of people who physically read fast is that "There's no way you're reading it all. At some point that's just skimming." ha. I realize this isn't exactly true. But as one who enjoys and retains audiobooks while working with my body..... I don't really know how to read any faster than one could read speaking it aloud. And it does prevent skimming. :)
I love this! Our first grader has to read aloud for homework, and we take turns reading aloud a chapter book at night (parents and kids), but this opens up all kinds of possibilities. Thanks for sharing!