By: Sarah Makenzie

Guest Contributor: Ashley Moss

Often, as children become independent readers, reading aloud to them begins to decrease, assuming they don’t need parents to be as engaged in their story times.

The Read-Aloud Family serves to debunk that myth and instead provides the readers with evidence that reading aloud to our children of all ages only benefits them and should be included in our daily routine. Through reading aloud to our children, we help increase vocabulary, allow them to hear books that are slightly above their own reading level, and let them escape into their imagination without also having to focus on the structure of the book. It also creates family bonds and cultivates a love for books and stories in our homes.

The Read-Aloud Family is broken into three parts:

The first part is titled “The Time is Now” and it covers the benefits of pausing and spending a few minutes reading aloud to your children every day. The topics in this part of the book include how this time can help you be fully present, inspire virtues, and even nurture empathy and compassion through the beauty of stories and time together.

The second part is titled “Connecting with Our Kids Through Books.” Most parents want to connect with their children and spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do that at different ages and stages. Sarah Makenzie gives you tips on how to do just that by simply reading together. These chapters cover how to set yourself up to do this successfully, become an expert at picking books for your children, and how to ask the right questions during reading to keep your children engaged.

The third part of this book is titled “Meeting Them Where They Are” and it offers advice on how to read aloud to every age. These chapters are meant to be used as a reference. They are broken down into age categories (0-3 years, 4-7 years, 8-12 years, and teen years) and each chapter offers age-appropriate tips on what your can children can do while you read (by the way, it is never just sit and stare). She ends each of these chapters with a list of her favorite Bibles for that age range as well as a list of her favorite books for that stage of life.

Sarah Makenzie’s book will motivate you to pull out some books, sit down with your family, and enjoy that cozy, quality time together.

Audience:

Parents. While this book is not written exclusively for homeschool families (she does offer the benefits of reading aloud to children who attend private and public schools as well), Sarah Makenzie is a homeschool mother, so she does discuss that a bit.