5 Awesome Benefits of Reading Aloud to Children

In the Charlotte Mason method, when our children are not yet strong readers, we as parents read aloud to them. This is because we use excellent living books from a young age. Sometimes it may be because the child isn’t reading yet, or if he already is reading, because his reading level could not yet grapple with longer words.

But just because he can’t yet manage to read four-syllable words, it doesn’t mean he can’t understand them.

This is one reason why we, before we knew better, bought twaddle books for our kids. CM defines twaddle as books that have been dumbed down with the mistaken notion that children could not understand complicated words. Perhaps some twaddle books came about because the writers thought children could not read those words.

And most likely, they can’t, but that doesn’t mean we should deprive them of excellently-written stories until they become stronger readers.

Charlotte Mason encourages us to have our children “taught to read before they learn the mechanical arts of reading and writing.” She separates the skill of “reading stories” from the mechanical skill of actually deciphering words on a page.

She continues to describe how “they learn delightfully; they give perfect attention to paragraph or page read to them and are able to relate the matter point by point, in their own words.” But she also gives the very important ingredient at grabbing our children’s attention:

What they want is knowledge conveyed in literary form

Or, in other words, they enjoy books that are written in an excellent, engaging, story form. Isn’t that enough motivation to start stocking up on living books?

What are the 5 benefits of reading aloud?

Reading aloud to our children has the following benefits:

It fills their minds with noble deeds to aspire for.

In Sally Clarkson’s book, The Life-Giving Home, she explains how reading fairy tales and stories of heroes to children gives them a model, heroes and heroines to look up to, and inspires them to similar deeds of bravery and nobility. Many a child would spend hours pretending to be Robin Hood, or King Arthur, or some daring knight off to slay the dragon.

It expands your child’s vocabulary.

When you read an excellent living book aloud to your child, chances are, the words in the book are those that he can’t yet read himself. But because he hears them in use, it becomes a part of his vocabulary. Many children educated with the CM method are known to use words not commonly heard in everyday conversation, simply because they hear them so often in their books. (Methinks that’s a plus point, wouldn’t you?)

It stretches their comprehension.

Do you know that before the age of 12, children’s listening comprehension tends to be higher than their reading comprehension? This means this is a perfect time to expose them to great ideas found in excellent literature, even with words that they may not understand when they read them, but which they can understand when someone else reads it aloud to them!

And when they already understand those words, by the time they read them, they may initially struggle at sounding out long words, but once they recognize them, they won’t be intimidated because it’s actually already familiar to them! (I was amazed when I first observed this in my second son, who started reading much later than his older brother. Despite his seemingly “late” mechanical skills of reading, he quickly recognized and understood words that I initially thought would be too difficult for him!)

It helps children associate reading with enjoyment.

One of my most favorite benefits of reading aloud to children is that it helps them connect reading and books with fun, relaxation and enjoyment. Research shows that this unconscious association forms a strong foundation for children learning to love reading as they grow up!

It forms precious memories of bonding between parent and child.

Last and certainly not the least, the read-aloud time becomes a shared memory between parent and child. I know a family of homeschoolers whose adult children still talk fondly about the time their mother read to them from The Lord of the Rings–when they were already in junior high!

(On a side note: Although the CM method requires children who are already able to read their school lesson themselves, there’s nothing wrong with having a family read-aloud even with older children in the mix. 🙂

Consider Reading Aloud an Investment!

With these obvious benefits, I daresay more of us would want to spend time reading aloud to our children?