Nine Things Mem Fox Wants You to Know About Reading Aloud to Your Child

Mem Fox has been filling our children'due south lives with joy, laughter and exciting words for over 35 years with her many wonderful books.

She is not only passionate nigh writing for kids, but likewise encouraging them to enjoy stories from an early age, and believes that the experience of reading aloud to your trivial one offers incredible benefits to both parent and child akin.

In fact, hither are ix things Mem Fox would similar to yous know almost that very special fourth dimension:

ane. It'due south wonderfully soothing for the parent

Apart from the joy information technology gives your child, Mem sees the time spent reading to your child every bit utterly relaxing for yous, the parent. Especially afterward a long and stressful day of working, sitting in traffic or running around later children. It tin be a welcome relief to curl up with your little one and simply read a story.

"The peace that the rhythm gives you is almost meditative," says Mem. "Your temperature goes downward, your heartbeat slows; you're in a magical infinite as a parent."

2. It demonstrates honey to the child, and for the child

In this decorated world, your child relishes those moments that you spend together, one-on-1, abroad from everyday distractions. When reading aloud to your child, yous're giving them full focus and they admittedly honey it – and experience well and truly loved. "Your kid feels honoured by the attention," says Mem. "We're far too busy, especially in this globe of social media, I recall that kids can feel blocked out and that'south a terrible thing."

iii. It's divine for the child who feels safe and secure

When you read aloud to your child, he might be on your lap or tucked up next to you in bed, and while this offers a feeling of concrete comfort and care, Mem believes it actually provides a sense of overall security and prophylactic, which is full bliss for your child. "It's more than of a mental security," she says.

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4. Information technology increases bonding

The time spent reading to your child allows you both to connect and discover more about each other.

"You get to know your kid; the funny little quirks of his character, what sort of child he'due south going to be, and he gets to know yous, what amuses you, what makes yous pitiful," explains Mem. "Information technology's a beautiful fourth dimension of getting to know each other."

v. Information technology develops language

Mem firmly believes that if a child is talking well at the age of four, you lot can be guaranteed that she's been read to. "And it'southward not just because of the words in the books, it's because of the conversation that happens around the words in a book," she says. "There's really a lot of to-and-fro talk around the words in a book, and that 'to-and-fro' talk develops language."

6. Information technology develops brains

"The beauty of reading to kids is that it develops sight because they're looking at the words, information technology develops hearing considering they're hearing the words and it develops touch because they're close to us," she says. In fact, Mem wholeheartedly believes that reading to your kid stimulates their brain and therefore encourages encephalon development.

vii. Information technology puts a highly positive spin on books

According to Mem, reading your child plenty of fun and exciting stories, well and truly before they showtime school will give them an 'inoculation' against the boredom of books.

"If the first book a child meets is a school reader, and that's all he meets in the first couple for years of schooling, then why would he ever want to learn to read?" she asks. "Where'due south the advantage?"

viii. Information technology exposes children to rhyme, rhythm and repetition

Mem's books often draw on rhyme, rhythm and repetition, which is not only incredibly enjoyable for kids but besides makes it easier when learning to read.

Co-ordinate to Mem, every bit adults, nosotros base reading on three things: the impress on the page; guessing what the next give-and-take will or won't be, based on what we've already read; and our noesis of the world. "If we can innovate the thought to little kids of being able to predict through the joy of rhyme, rhythm and repetition, that gives them a great heave-ho into reading more easily," she says.

9. It'southward the foundation for learning to read at schoolhouse

As a retired educator, Mem recognises how reading to your child helps them with the process of learning how to read. "I know it's much easier for teachers to teach children to read if they've been read to earlier they go to school," says Mem. And while she believes information technology's our duty to read to our children for the sake of their time to come, Mem avoids the give-and-take 'duty', as this makes it sound like yet another task we must practise every bit adults. "I focus on the discussion 'joy'," she laughs.

Overall, the ritual of reading aloud to our children is made up of many beautiful ingredients that all blend seamlessly to create a wonderful experience for all. And to add together icing to an already succulent block, Mem has ten top tips to assist make the most of this particularly special time:

Mem'south 10 'read aloud' commandments

1. Spend at least x wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud. From nascence!
2. Read at least three stories a mean solar day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories earlier they can begin to learn to read. Or the same story a g times!
3. Read aloud with blitheness. Mind to your own voice and don't be dull, or flat, or deadening. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.
4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.
5. Read the stories that your child loves, over and over, and over once again, and always read in the same 'melody' for each volume: i.e. with the same intonations and volume and speed, on each folio, each time.
6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the volume; or sing any onetime song that you tin recall; or say nursery rhymes in a boisterous manner; or exist noisy together doing clapping games.
7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for immature children, and make certain the books are actually short.
8. Play games with the things that yous and the child can run across on the page, such as letting kids terminate rhymes. Finding the letters that get-go the child's name and yours is always a fabled game.
9. Never ever 'teach' reading, or go tense around books. Only reading with them is enough.
10. Delight read aloud every day considering you just adore beingness with your kid, not because it's the correct thing to do.

Mem Trick's latest book The Tiny Star, illustrated by Freya Blackwood and published by Penguin Random House, volition exist out in October.

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Source: https://babyology.com.au/parenting/family/9-things-mem-fox-wants-you-to-know-about-reading-aloud-to-your-little-ones/