Hearing words spoken aloud is necessary for a child’s early development, and reading to your child can be a beautiful shared experience for both of you. Parents are usually already aware of the importance of reading to a child until they can read on their own, but Cindy Miller argues that this practice should be continued throughout a child’s education. She recounts five main benefits of reading aloud, drawing from The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, and shares how this has enriched her own family’s homeschooling experience. Cindy also provides a list of titles and resources to help you find good books for reading aloud, available here.
| 1. | Jenny Ginter’s Introduction |  |
| 2. | Cindy Miller’s Introduction | |
| 3. | Reading at the Miller House | |
| 4. | Early Development | |
| 5. | Continued Benefits of Reading Aloud | |
| 6. | BENEFIT 1 Empathy | |
| 7. | BENEFIT 2 Academic Performance | |
| 8. | BENEFIT 3 Fluency and Expression | |
| 9. | BENEFIT 4 Community | |
| 10. | BENEFIT 5 Enriched Time | |
| 11. | Q&A How do I find engaging books? | |
| 12. | Q&A What if my kids are different ages? | |
| 13. | Q&A Christianity and choosing books | |
| 14. | Q&A What about poetry? | |
| 15. | Q&A What about writing? | |
| 16. | Q&A Do you ask your kids to read aloud? | |
| 17. | Q&A How much time do you spend reading aloud? | |
| 18. | Conclusion | |
Cindy Miller
Cindy Dunn left the employee benefits management field when she took up the managing of motherhood and has experienced benefits beyond calculation ever since. Having two children born eleven years apart meant two overlapping rounds of homeschooling over 23 years, winding up a couple years ago. She describes her teaching philosophy as paralleling a definition of organic – cultivating without force or contrivance – and enjoys sharing practical and creative means for nurturing students, and parents too, into full bloom.
