Reading Aloud to Children - Bring Read-Aloud Fairy-Tales to Life

Most children adore listening to stories about princesses, fairies, dragons and other mythological characters from far-away lands. It also stimulates their imagination, and helps them develop linguistic and analytical skills. If you learn some strategies for reading aloud, you can easily engage them in the adventure and make it a special family time. Reading stories aloud is a great way with to bond with your kids and build a close, warm relationship with them.

Reading tales aloud to your children while they are young brings many benefits. Firstly, it improves their vocabulary and their verbal communication skills. If you do it regularly, you will soon find that they are able to find their words more easily and communicate better. Secondly, exposing them to make-believe creatures and lands nurtures their imagination and creative thinking. Studies have found that kids who are read to every night are generally more creative when compared to others. In addition, it develops their analytical abilities and problem-solving skills. If you make these moments as enjoyable as possible, it is very probable that they will grow a passion for reading, which will last after they can read by themselves.

Let's not forget about the treasures of bonding with your family and how nice it feels to spend some warm and meaningful time with your children. Many parents nowadays have plenty of other responsibilities apart from taking care of their kids - such as work, social obligations and so on. All of these pressures determine them to spend less time with their loved ones, and often have to hire someone to take care of their children while they are at work. If you only afford to spend a few hours a day with your kids, it is only obvious that you try to make the best of it.

One of the main things is to pick the right stories. This depends on your children's age, passions, and what you are trying to convey. If you are attempting to teach them something, you may select a story that illustrates that idea. Make sure the plot is not too complicated for their age, but not too simple and straightforward either. Think about the things your kid finds most interesting and try to find something that fits these interests.

Before you start reading, you may improve your reading aloud skills just a little bit. Practice adjusting your voice along the way to fit the mood you are seeking to create. Also, think about what you need your children to learn from the story, and prepare some questions for them. You can ask questions at the beginning, during or at the end of the story. Go through the story once before reading it to them to see if there are any words that they would not understand. Adjust the vocabulary to their age. You can also choose to take out some sections completely if they are too long or too difficult to grasp.

There are a few things you can do to ensure you are all having a great time. First, check that everybody is comfortable, and the children are not tired or hungry. Look at the cover with your children and ask them what they think the story is about. Try to build the appropriate atmosphere. Let them ask questions and make comments while you are reading - otherwise they might not understand and end up getting bored. You can ask questions yourself to stress some ideas that you find meaningful. Also, kids adore pictures - so you can show them some pictures once in a while. It helps them picture the characters of the story. You can also ask them what they think is going to happen - it engages them in the story even more and provokes them to think.

Once you have started reading, you will realize it is much less complicated than it sounds. Most of these reading aloud strategies are pretty intuitive. You will often engage in the story yourself, and creating that special mood will be a lot easier. And the benefits that reading stories aloud brings to your kids and your relationship with them are certainly worth the effort.

Mike Neder is an Online Marketing Consultant with a wide experience both cooperating with large organizations and small start-ups. United Tech Store is one of the online projects he developed, and has an extensive children's book section.

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