Books, books, books! I love books! I love a variety of genres. Some of my favorite times with my sons, as they grew up, was reading aloud every night at bedtime. From The Warrior series to Lord of the Rings, we were able to spend many quality hours together exploring different worlds and getting to know exciting characters. Reading aloud to your child regular has many benefits, no matter what age they are. Here are just a few of those benefits:

1. Quality time-From infants to teens, there is nothing like bonding over a good book. It is a great activity to share and builds so many important skills.
2. Exposing them to text-Prereading skills involve following the direction of the words, recognizing that letters have sounds, and listening for sounds. These skills are developed by reading to your child early on.
3. Building vocabulary-In our daily conversations with are family, we use a limited vocabulary of words that we repeatedly use. By reading to your child, you introduce unfamiliar vocabulary and provide a good context for understanding.
4. Introducing a variety of subject matter-Find books about subjects that your child is interested in. Choosing books that are at a higher reading level than your child reads introduces higher-level information that they would miss out on otherwise. Biographies are a wonderful way to get children familiar with important/interesting people in our history. Is your child interested in science? Choose a biography on a famous scientist. Are they interested in dance? Find a biography about a famous dancer. These inspire our kids!
5. Building proper grammar and sentence structure- We all have to admit that we can be sloppy with our grammar and sentence structure while we speak. We use so much slang and grammar that may not be quite correct. Reading aloud to your child exposes them to to proper grammar and sentence structure that we may not use in our daily conversations.

These are just a few of the benefits of reading aloud to your child regularly. While my boys were little, I enjoyed the snuggle time as we read. As they grew older, I enjoyed seeing their vocabulary and knowledge base grow. It was such a pleasure to see them picking up books on their own. Read aloud to your kids, enjoy the time spent together, and see them grow!