21 Best Reasons to Read Aloud To Your Child

Here’s the truth: I don’t always want to read to my kids. Even though I know it’s wonderful and I enjoy it immensely, it can still be difficult to set aside time for reading and work it into our busy days. As the kids get older our choices of activities multiply and I feel I have to fight in order to protect our read aloud time! When we have so many choices of good things on which to spend our precious time, it’s important to know exactly why we are reading to our children, so that we have the courage to continue even when it’s difficult.

We know we should read aloud to our children – the teachers and the pediatrician and the mothers-in-law and the strangers in the elevator all say the same thing – but why? Why do I need to set aside the important chores I was working on and take the time to read a silly little picture book to my preschooler? What exactly are the reasons for reading aloud to your children?

Here is my reminder – first and foremost for myself, but also for any of you who might also sometimes forget. If you too need to be reminded why reading aloud is one of the most important things you can do for your child, no matter their age or stage, read on!

You Should Read Aloud Because…

1. It improves your child’s vocabulary + understanding of complex language. The best way to learn vocabulary is (surprise!) not through a vocabulary curriculum. The best way to learn new words is to hear them, in context, in a story; and then to hear them again, in a new context, in another story. Repeat this again, and again, and soon enough you have an excellent understanding of how that word should be used and the various shades of meaning it can confer. This works for adults, and it works for children too.
2. It gives your child a better understanding of correct grammar + sentence structures. Although I am a huge fan of quiet solo reading, and I hope my children will come to love it and continue to read on their own throughout their entire lives, it is not a great way to learn complex grammar and sentence structures. The reason for this is because when we read on our own, we skip things! We often breeze over small connecting words and skip vocabulary we don’t understand because we are just in a hurry to find out what happens. I do this all the time! However, when you read out loud to your children, you (hopefully) do not skip any words, and in the process, you are giving them the full sentence structures and grammatical patterns. As you continue to do so, they will absorb all of these patterns and start to understand how good grammar should sound. This grammatical sense is invaluable for their future writing and editing skills.
3. It gives your child better understanding of narrative structure. Picture books are remarkably excellent for this one! In the course of just four or five minutes, a picture book can take you through an entire narrative cycle: you get the setting of the scene, introduction of characters, a conflict or struggle of some sort, and resolution. The more you read, the more your child will naturally internalize this structure and perhaps even begin to write their own stories.
4. It improves your child’s empathy + emotional intelligence. Although our children are born persons, with personality and curiosity and intelligence to rival our own, their worlds are quite small and their experience is limited. One of our responsibilities as their teachers is to give them a wide range, a feast of ideas and therefore to broaden their experience. The more you read to them, the more they will come to understand other people’s feelings and situations, and the in process, gain more empathy.
5. It will give your child better writing skills. One of the best ways to become a good writer is to hear good writing. This works in tandem with points 1 and 2: better vocabulary plus better grammar results in a better writer. Can I just point out too that this is such a painless way of learning these skills? I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a child who would rather sit down and fill out a lengthy grammar worksheet instead of listening to Mom read a few chapters from the Chronicles of Narnia.
6. It will give your child better test scores. Personally I am not a huge fan of testing or grades, but I realize that they can open many doors of opportunity, and our children will probably need to learn how to take a test at some point in the future. The goal of our homeschool is much broader and more encompassing than merely “good test scores,” but it’s still worth noting – as a side benefit – that kids who are read to usually have higher test scores than those who are not.
7. It results in increased creativity. Creativity is not an innate trait but a learned skill. The more tools your child has to work with (such as imagination, large vocabulary, understanding of narrative structure) the more creative they can be. I am not a scientist myself, but it appears that they can actually see the changes in our brain after reading and the increased connections that are being made. That is amazing to me. Reading changes our brain structure for the better!
8. It results in decreased screen time. This may be stating the obvious – if you’re reading, you’re not on a screen! – but in a world where so much of our work and education and entertainment involves screens, any time spent off screens feels like a success.
9. It’s a way to show love to your child. If one of your child’s love languages is touch, this is a simple and natural way to show them you love them! Simply pull them into your lap, grab a few good books, and start reading. The cuddles are an extra bonus, and some kids thrive on that sort of touch.
10. It increases your child’s attention span. Contrary to watching a movie, where the scene changes multiple times a second and actually decreases attention span, a book can be hard to pay attention to! This is a good thing, because it means that the more we read, the more our children are learning to pay attention and exercising that necessary muscle. Perhaps you’ve tried reading to a very young baby and they start to fidget and push the book away after two pages; this doesn’t mean that this child “doesn’t like books” or is not a “book person.” Instead, this simply means that you need to keep practicing! If you do just a little more, each time you read, your child’s attention span will grow and before you know it they will be listening to lengthy chapter books and begging you for more.
11. It develops your child’s imagination. This is especially true of fairy tales, myths, fantasy, and folk tales. In a world that is changing constantly, where we cannot even predict the jobs that our children may be applying for 20 years from now, creativity and imagination are two skill sets that will be essential to our child’s future success.
12. It helps us all to calm down and relax. One of my favorite hacks for stopping a tantrum is to grab the screaming toddler, pull him into my lap, and starting reading a book. He won’t hear the first several sentences, and may keep kicking and yelling, but eventually – without fail – the story grabs him, wrestles his attention away from his woes, and he stops crying. If everyone is crabby and grumpy – read a book! If someone is sick – read a book! If you just can’t seem to focus on math today – stop, and read a book! I always find myself more relaxed after reading a pile of picture books, and for a busy homeschool mama, that one reason alone makes reading worth it.
13. It gives your child exposure to new experiences + cultures. We may never travel to Chad, in the middle of Africa, but we’ve been there through a beloved picture book. We probably won’t ever cross the plains of the United States in a covered wagon, but we’ve followed along with Laura and Mary as they and their family built a pioneer life for themselves. The more we read, the more our world is broadened and our eyes opened to the other diverse and beautiful cultures around us.
14. It builds a foundation for reading/phonics skills. Reading aloud is the first step to teaching your child how to read for themselves. As I wrote here, you must give your child a reason to read before expecting them to want to learn how! Reading aloud gives both that foundation for learning phonics and the reason they will need in order to want to read.
15. It’s the best way to teach a moral lesson. It’s your choice: if you want to teach your child a certain moral lesson, perhaps about the dangers of lying or the evils of selfishness, do you think it will be received better if you a) sit them down and give them a nice long-winded, dull lecture or b) read them a book that effortlessly shares this truth in story form. Read the Wingfeather Saga together and your children will come to see that choices have consequences but also that redemption is possible. Read Charlotte’s Web and you’ll understand what it means to be a faithful friend. Read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and you’ll see that chocolate is the answer to all of life’s difficult questions that rude and selfish children get what they deserve.
16. It can spark good conversations (and facilitate difficult ones). Some of our very best conversations have been a result of something we have read, that has sparked an idea or a question that otherwise probably would not have come up. If there is a difficult topic we need to talk about with our kids, I will usually see if I can find a book on the topic to ease our way into it. Reading what someone else has to say on a topic feels much less threatening than listening to Mom or Dad lecture on it.
17. It fosters a love of reading. Life-long readers are made in the laps of their parents. When our babies learn to associate reading with cozy cuddles with mom and dad, or our toddlers discover the joy of sharing giggles over a picture book, they are learning that reading is a source of joy and pleasure. What an invaluable lesson to learn!
18. It strengthens your bond with your child. Any time we can spend together, doing something we both enjoy, is a win in my book. As our children get older and begin to have interests and hobbies of their own – some of which I will never truly understand or appreciate – the value of this connection through books becomes even greater.
19. It creates connection within your family. This is probably one of my top reasons to read aloud together, and I love that it is true no matter your schooling choices or family structure. We are slowly building up a repertoire of inside jokes based on all the books we have read aloud together, and I am so thankful that this is something all of our children can experience together. Even if you are not homeschooling, and your kids are separated from each other all day at school, the simple act of reading a book together in the evening can create connection and memories that will last for a lifetime. Check out The Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie for more on this topic!
20. It’s free. Re-read the previous 19 points and ask yourself where else you can get these kinds of results for free. Granted, if you become a family obsessed with books you will start to buy them and fill bookshelves with them and that does cost money, but *theoretically* you could get all your books from the library and never pay a cent. Never, that is, if you always faithfully return them on time – which does not always happen in our family but I just keep telling myself that any fees I pay are supporting a worthy cause and entirely worth the investment.
21. It’s fun! Truly. If you make this a habit and persevere in it, you will get to the point where your children are begging you to “Keep reading!!” or “Just one more chapter!” Enjoying a well-written story together as a family is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and we all look forward to our read aloud times each day.

Friends, this list is for me too. Sometimes sitting down with a book feels frivolous or unnecessary and I forget why we do this! I need this reminder of all the excellent reasons to read aloud, and perhaps you do too. No matter how busy life gets, no matter how old your children are, no matter how many times the toddler interrupts you, keep on reading. It’s one of the very best gifts we will ever give to our precious children.

“I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
‘Blackbirds’ stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings–
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be–
I had a Mother who read to me.”

– Strickland Gillilan