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Haley Baumeister's avatar

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. :)

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Ivana Greco's avatar

It depends on the book! When I was a child, I was a voracious reader, and when I read fiction I “saw” pictures when I read. Now as an adult I read non-fiction with a pencil, and take lots of notes, so it’s slow! I’m so glad you liked the essay ❤️

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ESO's avatar

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!

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Ivana Greco's avatar

I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

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Annelise Roberts's avatar

I think I need to try this. Our home is similar to yours, in that the chapter books are read by my husband before bed. Sadly I often miss parts of these because I am DONE by that point in the day and/or I'm nursing the baby or reading to the littles. However, I think my avid reader of a nine year old could really benefit from this. There is almost always a kitchen task I need to work on, but if we employ the bar stool then perhaps it would also allow some of the 1-1 time that I know he needs but that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of screaming siblings...

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Ivana Greco's avatar

I am often *done* by bedtime also, but I love having my oldest read to me while I cook dinner. It also helps because when I read to the kids, I am often impatient with questions, wanting to “check off” something from my task list. But when my oldest reads to me while I’m doing something with my hands, I find I have all the time in the world for him to ask questions, for ME to wonder things out loud, and for long tangents.

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