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hmbress
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I'm wondering about two things. First - why read aloud to an older child or a fluently-reading younger child? Other than the pure enjoyment of cuddling up together, and the opportunity for discussion, are there other reasons?
Also - for some reason my throat starts to hurt after a relatively short period of time reading aloud. Like after 2-3 pages of James and the Giant Peach. Or after just one picture book. The same thing happens when I sing at church, but not when simply talking (good thing!  ). I know about diaphragmatic breathing - it seems to be more an issue of not being able to relax the throat? I'm not sure. Any ideas? I'm wondering whether I should hire a vocal coach for several sessions because this is driving me nuts!
Thanks,
Heather
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JodieLyn
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my throat will hurt if I'm trying to push volume from my throat instead of with my diaphram. And normal talking you aren't trying to push volume.
The big thing is to tighten up your abdominal muscles.. when I do that everything straightens out.. it's like the one part I forget to do the most.
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SusanJ
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I think that cuddling on the couch with read-alouds affects my posture quite a bit. I can talk for hours standing up but often get sore with read alouds as well. Try opening up the inside of your mouth a bit and speaking at a higher pitch (I have only very small amounts of voice training so someone step in here if I'm wrong).
Susan
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CatholicMommy
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hmbress wrote:
| I'm wondering about two things. First - why read aloud to an older child or a fluently-reading younger child? Other than the pure enjoyment of cuddling up together, and the opportunity for discussion, are there other reasons? |
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My first thought is that even though a child is reading, does not mean he can read everything out there and reading aloud can expose him to higher levels of reading skills than he is currently capable of, allowing him to step up to the challenge of reading it for himself if it's a great book (one thing I've seen done is for a parent to start a book, hook the child's interest, and leave the book on the shelf, unfinished - to encourage the child to read it for himself).
And I know that I would have better listening comprehension skills had I listened to more read-alouds throughout my own upbringing. There is also something to be said for common experience - everyone has heard the story and can relate to it. Different people read differently and the different perspectives between how I read it and how my child reads it to himself will only provide a greater depth for him.
This is from a Montessori theory paper with some resources, though it likely won't answer your question directly:
The New Read-Aloud Handbook (Jim Trelease) should be in every lending library for parents. The author is very effective and persuasive about the need to read aloud to the children every day. In the book he says that reading out loud should begin as soon as the child comes home from the hospital and should continue into the teen years, even five to ten minutes a day. We believe that children should be read to from before their ears and auditory abilities have developed in to the womb and family read-alouds should be done for children of all ages, including adults. A good part of this book is suggested readings with suggested ages. Other resources include A Landscape with Dragons, by O’Brien, On Reading by GK Chesterton and other books with purposes for reading, intentional reading, guides on how to choose appropriate topics and styles along with specific suggestions for ages, interests and abilities.
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Betsy
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CatholicMommy wrote:
The New Read-Aloud Handbook (Jim Trelease) |
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I was going to post about this book...very convincing read.
In my own personal experience I have found that after reading extensively out loud to my children for the past four years I can read much longer now than I could when we first started.
Betsy
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ekbell
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I agree that with practice I can read-aloud for much longer then I could at first. Good posture, some water, having a bit of practice with voice projection all help (I had a course in making short speeches at university).
(btw my throat reliably hurts when I'm stressing about it hurting-very problematical when family members have strep throat)
Reasons to read-aloud in no particular order.
Because you've read something fun or interesting and want others to hear this right now!-I read-loud bits of what I read to my husband or my husband to me all the time for this reason
For the purpose of discussion, we can more easily discuss a book or part of a book while I'm reading it aloud then if we have to wait until everyone has read it
So that the children can enjoy something above their reading abilities.
For enjoyment both on the reader and listener's part. I like reading expressively and dramatically, I like matching my reading to the tone of the book as well as the characters. My children like listening to me.
[btw I find that I can read longer when I'm enjoying reading the book then when I'm just trying to get through the book-avoid reading aloud books you find boring]
Becouse nothing but nothing encourages a child to read aloud then doing it yourself. I doubt that my oldest would have started reading the Wizard of Oz or The Narnia Series to her younger sibling otherwise. Reading aloud is not quite the same skill set as reading silently and it is a useful skill to develop.
There are some things which need to be read-aloud to be properly appreciated, shakespeare, poetry, speeches, ....,Robert Munsch books.  (He's started off as and is still an oral story teller and his books reflect that.)
Exposing a child to something that they were unlikely to consider by themself - if I want a child to enjoy a book it's better to read a bit (or a lot) aloud then to insist that the currently uninterested child read it.
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CrunchyMom
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My favorite reason is that we all have the book as a shared experience. We reference books we have all read together in daily life.
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Topic: Read-louds: why and sore voice
