Children's Books discussion

I was talking to other moms of seven-year-olds. They don't read bedtime stories anymore. I am pretty sure they don't read any books out loud.

We still do.... What about you all?

My husband and I sometimes read stories out loud to each other - such a fun way to experience a book!

As an educator, we encourage teachers to read books aloud to even high school students!

Yes, late elementary school is about the time that "bedtime" reading seemed to stop, even though my kid and husband read comics out loud in bed for a while after that. My daughter is 15 and the three of us (incl. husband) still read the "good bits" out loud to each other at the dinner table from whatever we might be reading. On short trips (45 min) someone reads out-loud in the car (I read excerpts from Northanger Abbey). On long trips, we listen to audiobooks.

Don't give up on bedtime stories until your child can read well independently! :)

We still read aloud to our third grader and he loves it. It allows him to sit back and listen and enjoy time with Mom or Dad. We try to read books to him that are a bit above his own reading level.

I, too, had "read alouds" with my mom until I was probably twelve or so as I had a younger sister and would participate, as did Bun! I really enjoyed it. As Chandra pointed out, we were doing chapter books a bit more advanced by that time. I really don't think there is a "too old" so long as your child is interested. I have some friends who run a ranch with their family and they still get together (even in their 20s) some evenings to read aloud from a novel together! A great alternative to TV :-)

BunWat wrote: "I am the oldest child in my family. My parents started reading bedtime stories to me when I was the only child but as my younger siblings came along they kept me a part of the storytime by having ..."

I was going to say the same thing, Bun. As the oldest I listened in on a lot of books, long after I could read myself. I used to read to my younger brothers, too, even when they could read on their own. (The oldest brother and I went through most of the Redwall books that way!)

To answer the original question, I don't think age has anything to do with it. I say read aloud until the child isn't interested anymore! Chances are, if they grew up in a house of books and reading aloud, that day may never come :)

have you children read smaller books until they can read eaisier and do your chapter book read alouds thats how I did it and I love to read again

Chandra wrote: "There was a great comment on Esme's blog today that I wanted to share:

I think it is easier to keep reading aloud to children when they are used to seeing/hearing adults read aloud to each other..."


Amen to that! I grew up not only with parents who read, but parents who got so absorbed in their books that it was like watching them emerge from a fog when they looked up. (In fact, it became a game with me: how many outlandish things could I say to my mom before she realized I was talking to her? I usually got as far as "And I've eloped, and am moving to the Bahamas . . ." before she would look up. Great fun.)

That part about words "tumbling out" . . . oh, I love it. I realized recently that's one of the reasons I love reading aloud to my students (and why I can be so picky about which books I read to them!). It's not just the sharing of the book and the great bonding experience that goes along with it. It's the way the words sound, that tumbling. Any time I hit a passage I really love I read it aloud, even if I'm just reading it to myself. So I'm with her, there. There's something so addictive about the poetry of language.

Never! I still read aloud to my son everynight and he is 14! What a marvelous time!

Beth wrote: "Never! I still read aloud to my son everynight and he is 14! What a marvelous time!"

I think that's great! My 15 year-old daughter is on a drawing jag, so she draws at her desk before bed now. We all still read the "good bits" from our current book(s) out loud to each other on a regular basis.

I read aloud to my 8 year old (grade 3) but I sometimes get him to read aloud to me. Or we take turns (paragraph by paragraph or page by page or chapter by chapter depending upon the level of the story). He is an only child and he didn't want to learn to read because he was afraid that we would stop reading to him. Once we reassured that we would keep doing it his independent reading took off.

My husband and I do not read to each other but our son does see us reading independently.


Often my son does the classic under the covers with the flashlight to read ahead of whatever we are reading ahead. For that we have resorted to allowing the light to stay on for an extra 15 minutes and then we come upstairs and take the book away (the only way to stop him and get him to sleep).

Shannon wrote: "I read aloud to my 8 year old (grade 3) but I sometimes get him to read aloud to me. Or we take turns (paragraph by paragraph or page by page or chapter by chapter depending upon the level of the s..."

My grandmother read to me until I was about ten years old (it only stopped when we immigrated to Canada). I think that was one of the main reasons why I was not originally that thrilled about leaving Germany, as I knew how much I would miss our reading sessions (she always read classic German girls' fiction to me, and my parents were not into reading aloud at all).

When I visit my boyfriend on the weekends, he usually checks on me about an hour after I have gone to bed (he usually goes to bed much later than I do), because chances are that I've fallen asleep with a book or two on my face.

My husband falls asleep, propped up in bed, with the book still open! I don't know how he does it -- I might nod off, but I usually put the book down! :)

My "only" was never concerned that we would stop reading. I guess she took it for granted that we would always read to her. Plus, I usually read stories during the day, too. And I read a lot of her lessons out loud to her in the early years of homeschooling.

Shannon, Aw. Cruel to take away the book. ;-) Your son is a rookie. Parents always seem to find out about the flashlight trick. I was more devious. I pretended to be afraid of the dark so the hall light was left on, which gave me enough light by which to read. I used to read until my parents went to bed. Luckily, I've never needed much sleep.

I love back & forth reading aloud even now. When I've tutored: ages young children to adults, I've always thought reading to them has been as helpful as having them read to me or to themselves.

I'm actually surprised I'm not an audiobook fan because I love to be read to even now.

Ah yes, the hall light, well, that is the real reason we take the book away, otherwise there are all sorts of ways to keep reading in the (more or less) dark. I have found him under the bed with the book sticking out in the narrow strip of light that falls into his room from the hall. It was quiet, a little too quiet! LOL

Lisa wrote: "Shannon, Aw. Cruel to take away the book. ;-) Your son is a rookie. Parents always seem to find out about the flashlight trick. I was more devious. I pretended to be afraid of the dark so the hall ..."

for above and "I'm actually surprised I'm not an audiobook fan because I love to be read to even now."

My son and I love audio books for our road trips in the summer. They are not all created equal but there are some very good ones out there. (Hardy boys on cassette tape are quite good). Now with ipods and downloads through the library our selection has broadened tremendously. I can hardly wait to start driving! LOL

Shannon, What a pleasure to have a kid who loves to read so much!

I remember reading by the hall light, too, but I think my brother was the biggest culprit. My sister and I slept in the same bed, so we played out make-believe games when we were supposed to be sleeping.

We take audiobooks on car trips, too, and find that juuvenile books are not only fun, but also the right length as they tend to be shorter.

Lisa wrote: "Shannon, What a pleasure to have a kid who loves to read so much!"

It is a pleasure and I am happy to keep reading to him. What I really love is reading the books that he writes! Harry Potter: The Years after Hogwarts (for one)

Shannon wrote: "It is a pleasure and I am happy to keep reading to him. What I really love is reading the books that he writes! Harry Potter: The Years after Hogwarts (for one)"

Oh, cool! I'd love to read that one!

Shannon wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Shannon, What a pleasure to have a kid who loves to read so much!"

It is a pleasure and I am happy to keep reading to him. What I really love is reading the books that he writes! Ha..."

Oh, that's so cool that your son is writing stories. My niece does the same thing. She has written (although I have not seen or read it, as she lives in Germany) a continuation of The Polar Express, and she told me that once she got through reading the Little House on the Prairie books, she would be writing her own continuations as well (I keep telling my sister she should privately publish my niece's stories for family reading).

Gundula, She definitely should! It would be great for your niece to have them too, when she's older.

Lisa wrote: "Gundula, She definitely should! It would be great for your niece to have them too, when she's older."

It would be a great keepsake, and who knows, maybe she will be a writer!!

Blank journals are the perfect gift for these kids. And yes, a private "publishing" would be a wonderful gift. My son's is hard to read because he is in french immersion and hasn't been taught english yet but he writes in english with "interesting" spelling. Love that these kids are inspired to continue their favourite stories.

How fun! :)

Abigail wrote: "What creative kids! Gundula: does your niece know that there are a number of sequel series, to the Little House books? I think they've done series for all of Laura's ancestors - her mother, grandmo..."

I think my niece was talking about them. I'm trying to figure out which ones she has and which ones she still needs and/or wants to read. I've read some of the ones written about Laura's daughter Rose, but none of the ones describing her ancestors. However, the next series I want to send to my niece is the Betsy-Tacy series; I think she'd like it (I wonder if there is a boxed set available of the whole series).

I finally watched "The Blind Side" and I was SO touched by the scene where Leigh Anne is reading "Ferdinand" to Michael and S.J. and her teenage daughter is sitting outside the door in the hallway listening to them with the biggest smile on her face. I think it was such a beautiful moment in terms of showing that we probably never outgrow our love of hearing stories read aloud to us in the voices of those we care about most--even if sometimes we feel we are "too grown up" for it.

I read out loud to my son at bedtime every day from 5 months old until he was able to read on his own. Now he's 10, and I still sometimes read a book with him. As a matter of fact, after I read "Finn Family Moomintroll" for the International Thread in this group, I thought he might like it. The language is a bit different than what he's used to, so I am reading it out loud to him at the pace of a chapter a night. He's really enjoying it, and we're finding a lot to talk about as we go through it.

By the way, the routine that I started when he was so little has never wavered. Even when he is sick, or extremely tired, he will read for at least 15 - 20 minutes (on his own) before bed every night. When he has a book that is particularly interesting to him, he'll get ready for bed earlier so he has more time to read.

As a teacher, I wish more parents would read aloud to their children. It really shows when parents spend that time with their children. Even after a child is too old to be read aloud to, I still encourage reading together. There's a lot to be said for teaching your children to enjoy reading by simply letting them see you enjoy reading. Lots of children have required reading for school. During that time, I tell my parents to pick up a book themselves. Spend that time reading next to each other on the couch.

Don't stop reading aloud to kids just because they get older. Keep it as a special time. There are lots of things to read aloud as they age. You can even share read by taking turns, reading a page each or a chapter each. It can lead to good discussions about all kinds of topics.

Love the comments from Courtney, above, as well. She is right teachers wish more parents took the time to read to kids. There is so much learning going on besides enjoying reading.

I give kudos to Courtney's comments above. Seeing parents read and talk about their reading serves a perfect modeling for the child. I also hope more teachers continue to read books to their students each day. It's important for students whose parents may not read to them.

I so agree with Courtney. We have always read things together in our home and now that our children have grown, they even follow our model of always taking a book with them wherever they go. While in a waiting room, etc. they can read. On vacations we are all loaded up with books.

I don't know that I can add anything new to all the great comments already made, but I thought this topic really interests me. I'm definitely a fan of reading aloud to your kids and don't think there is a cut-off age. I think it's wonderful that so many of us still share passages out-loud with our grown children and spouse. Reading aloud To Kill a Mockingbird to both of my kids when they were in middle school remains as one of the (oops, I guess that would be two of the) best experiences in my life. When my son looked at me after I read the last sentence of this book and said, "Wow, that was a great book," I considered it to be a moment of pure joy. My daughter reads to their 9-yr.-old every night as a part of the bedtime routine, and both of them look forward to it, no matter how tired they might be. They've read some of our favorites lately, like The BFG, The Witches, and Charlotte's Web. The cycle of reading continues. Yay!

Kathy wrote: "When my son looked at me after I read the last sentence of this book and said, "Wow, that was a great book," I considered it to be a moment of pure joy.

Chandra wrote: Yep! It doesn't get any better than that..."

It sure doesn't!

I remember being very sad when my parents cut back and eventually stopped reading to me after my siblings were born.

My boyfriend could read to himself by the time he was three, but tried to hide the fact so that his mother would keep reading to him (didn't work for long).

I will probably read bedtimes stories until my children ask me not to anymore.

My daughter is just learning to read, and when she first started learning last year, she started crying for no reason I could tell. Finally I got it out of her that she didn't want to learn to read because she thought that then I wouldn't read to her anymore! I explained to her that I would still be willing to read aloud to her books that were too complicated for her to read herself, and that's what we do. She reads the little phonics readers, and I read her novels like Chronicles of Narnia. I am guessing she will be 9 before she will read well enough that she herself can read all of the books she would like to read, and by then she probably won't want me to read to her anymore. But, who knows, she might - and in that case, we might simply switch to nightly Bible reading as a family togetherness thing. I think she likes the reading for the together time as much as for the stories themselves.

So, in short - for as long as the kids want.

Thank you Skylar, for that beautiful story about your daughter and her reading. I have a feeling your reading together will go on for many years to come. I love your idea of "Bible reading as a family togetherness thing." Think of all of the discussions that can lead to as well.

Aww, Skylar, what a wonderful story!

Yep, I'm still reading out loud to my 10-year old. Recently, we read "Finn Family Moomintroll" together, and he absolutely loved it. Right now, we're reading something of local interest, "Oliver's Travels in Ohio." Very cute, about a mouse and his three ladybug friends as they explore famous places in Ohio. We're on our way with them to Thomas Edison's birthplace right now!

Usually, we read together almost every evening in the summer, and on weekends during the school year. (On week nights, he has required reading that he does on his own, but I'll usually sit with him and read something of my own and we often trade comments back and forth. I wish he liked to read out loud to me! But he doesn't . . . maybe the day will come when that will change.)

I love that story Skylar and can't wait to share many many years of reading to my baby girl. My husband and I love reading to her now together and plan on doing that as she grows too. I think it would be great fun to move up to novels as a family.

What a great story, Skylar. Thanks for sharing! And, Kay, that's great to know you and your ten-year-old are still reading together!

I think sometimes, too, it makes a difference if there are younger siblings. I was twelve and my mom was doing read-alouds with my younger sister (chapter books) and I loved to listen in!

I think Curious George was a perfect choice and what a great campaign.

Thank you for sharing this article with us Abigail. It was really valuable and I am thrilled that they are focusing on the importance of parents reading to their children.

Clever ad. My daughter giggled at George.

What do you all think in terms of GROUP storytime age limits? I'm going to be teaching ballet classes starting next month and I thought it would be really neat to share some picture book biographies and ballet stories with the kids. I will have ages 6-8, which I think should be fine with read aloud, but what about the 8-10 group--too old??? I don't want them to think I am babying them. Thanks!

Kathryn, I say yes. My favorite times in 4th and 5th grades (ages 9 & 10) were when my teachers read to us, and it seemed to be a favorite time for all class members. As far as the picture books, you can explain there is no time to read novels in ballet class and picture books are a quick and easy way to get to know about ballet and ballet dancers.

Great feedback! Thanks, Lisa :-)

Kathryn wrote: "Great feedback! Thanks, Lisa :-)"

I think it depends on how you approach the books. If you treat the books and the subject seriously and don't act as though picture books are meant for "only" younger children, the children will most likely love them (and, I don't think you would do such a thing Kathryn, as you, like many of us, enjoy reading picture books yourself).

Many years ago, I also taught ballet classes and I never thought of reading picture books about ballet to them. What a great idea!

Suzanne wrote: "Many years ago, I also taught ballet classes and I never thought of reading picture books about ballet to them. What a great idea!"

Thanks! I have never seen it done, either, so I hope no one will think I'm crazy, haha! I just see it as a great way to combine my two loves (dance and books) and expose the kids to a bit more of the ballet world since we don't have TVs or anything to show them stuff.

Bun Wat and Gundula, thank you for those great tips! It's funny how nervous I feel about it because I do LOVE books but I don't have any kids in my life so I have zero experience with read aloud! I think you both make some excellent points about how to approach it. Thank you! :-)