Are your kids out of school yet? Many schools are already closed for the summer and the rest will be done with their school year in the next couple of weeks. It is a good time to check your home library and look at your inventory. Perhaps, you need to plan a trip to the library with your kids and see the books included in their summer reading. Maybe you can bring them home and if they don’t have them, you might consider visiting your local bookstore. They would also have their summer favorites that you can bring home and add to your collection.
When my children were younger, they enjoyed when my husband and I would read to them out loud. They would choose the books but instead of reading alone, they would prefer listening to a story. In fact, we would all take turns reading out loud at least three times a week. At the time, I would worry that they didn’t enjoy reading, but I figured, as long as they are listening and engaging in the story, that was motivation enough. Fast forward twenty years and I now understand the value of reading out loud to children.
In a recent TedxYouth talk educator Rebecca Bellingham discussed the benefits of reading out loud and how essential it could be for comprehension and connection. “When we read to children out loud, there is a special kind of access to the transformative power of story and an experience of what real reading is all about,” she said. It is easy to use our imagination and to place ourselves in the story when someone is reading it to us. According to Ms. Bellingham, reading out loud helps us get inside the story, it gives us the opportunity to better comprehend and connect with the story. And isn’t that what we want for our children? To take in a story and to understand and appreciate its meaning? It was for my children. They enjoyed the process of reading out loud and it gave them the motivation to want more.
Of course, every child is different and yours might like to read silently by himself or herself and that should be encouraged. What we want is for our children to lose themselves in a book, in a story that teaches them something, that transports him/her somewhere, that picks his curiosity, and lights up his imagination. Even better, when we read to them, they are more in tune with the sounds and the rhythms, the sentence structures, the words. And when we do the reading to them in two or more languages, their brains would welcome both! Because the goal is to develop comprehension and oral skills at an early age. That is what reading can do.
In the next few weeks, I will share some of my favorite new bilingual children’s books this summer. And because we should be a good example for our children, I will also share books for mamis y papis. And, don’t forget to choose books by Latino authors, books that will teach our children about their heritage and will instill pride, books that will spark their interest because they can see themselves reflected in the stories and/or the pages. For bilingual and Spanish books, don’t forget to check out, ReadConmigo, a free subscription program that promotes bilingual literacy for families.
5 Tips to Encourage Reading Out Loud This Summer
1. Invite your kids to look at the home library and do an inventory of the books they have there. Perhaps there are books that can be donated to the library to make room for new ones.
2. Schedule a visit to the library and ask to see their suggested summer list. Pick a few that you can borrow from the library to add to your home library.
3. Schedule a visit to the local bookstore and see if there is one book that your kids can buy as a treat for their commitment to summer reading.
4. Make a reading calendar for the week and include out-loud reader and book that will be read.
5. Make it FUN!
Remember, the goals are to improve comprehension, increase vocabulary, sharpen the focus as well as listening and reading skills. As important, to instill the love of reading!
Bai, Bai for now,
Maritere
Related articles
TedxYouth – Why we should all be reading aloud to children
Read Around the World Summer Reading Series
https://www.voices.com/blog/7_ways_reading_aloud_improves_your_life/
For books visit www.readconmigo.org
