5 Reasons We Read Aloud as a Family

Like many families we value our time together and love to do things together that not only solidify our bond with Christ and as a family, but also to educate. Well before our first child was born 14+ years ago, we had made a decision to read out loud each night before bed. The act of reading aloud as husband and wife became something that far outweighed our expectations. It not only made sure we spent quality time reading the Bible and other books together, but it created many beneficial life-long habits that have woven into the very fabric of our homeschooling family of five, all these years later. Today we are going to share with you 5 reasons we read aloud as a family.

1. Because it creates special time together as a family.

Whether we are reading educational books or the Bible together, read-aloud time is sacred in our home. Throughout the years we have established different times that we always read aloud. For our family it works best during meal times and bedtime. We also have sporadic times throughout our day that we read aloud in our homeschool as well. The most important thing is that all of us look forward to it!

2. Because reading the Bible out loud is building faith and speaking life into the atmosphere.

When we originally started our read aloud tradition it was just the two of us. We found out very quickly how much more faith we were building together and how much more intimate our marriage was becoming. By reading the Bible out loud, we not only honor God’s Word, we are also speaking life into existence in our life and atmosphere around us!

3. Because it helps babies learn language quicker and is crucial for early brain development.

Research suggests that reading aloud to young children is one of the best ways to stimulate language development and early cognitive skills. Reading aloud to young babies and children has been noted to evoke curiosity and critical thinking along with longer attention spans. I am sure we can agree that these are positive things that every parent would want for their child! One thing that is of crucial importance is to choose books that are created with literacy-based research in mind – our absolute favorite books for read aloud time are Usborne Books.

4. Reading aloud is a great way to work through tough family issues.

We can think of a handful of times where we didn’t have the wisdom to work through some issues our family has faced in life. And guess what? There were books on the subject that not only gave us the wisdom we needed, but also helped walk our family through some tough times! Reading aloud has helped us work through year-long combat deployments (5 to be exact), the loss of two children, bullying, and so much more!

5. Children who are read aloud to are more likely to become avid readers themselves.

This right here has been evidenced in all three of our children. Each one of our children love to read and choose reading over electronics any day of the week. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not trying to say that if your child likes television or other electronic devices that they don’t like to read. However, we have noted in our own family that our children have very little desire for screen time and would rather be read to, read themselves, or listen to audio books.

We hope that this list can inspire some of you who are looking to implement more read aloud time in your family to make it a priority to do so. We also hope that this list can help those of you who are struggling to get through read aloud times to push through the hard days and keep doing your very best to provide this family-building activity!