This is really the sweet spot for reading aloud for so many people. It’s the time when longer stories with more complicated plot arcs are introduced. Where we can spend weeks or even months sitting together with our children to share one big, long story.

This is also the age where we can make some of the biggest strides and the biggest mistakes in the reading lives of our children.

One of the biggest mistakes, in my opinion, is to stop reading to your child once they can read to themselves. Don’t mistake children who are independent readers for children who no longer need to be read to! With busy lives and hectic schedules, it can be easy to take the stance that now that your child can read to himself or herself that they should just do that. And, after years of establishing such a deep bond with your child around reading together, I speculate that it just might be possible that some kids won’t be as keen to become independent readers if they feel that doing so could become a threat to the time and attention they’re used to getting from their parents.

This is the time when you can begin to have very interesting and insightful discussions with your kids about what you’re reading together. But, as you’ll see in my next post, it’s important, even now, to make these discussions two-way and to encourage a sense of equality in readership. The more you can talk with your child about the books you read together as equals, each bringing your own experiences and understanding to the conversation, the longer this experience can be fun and engaging for everyone.

Reading together gives us the opportunity to open discussions with our kids about topics that might not otherwise come up easily in other ways. Talking about the experiences of fictional characters and their problems provides a safe way for kids to explore their own similar experiences. The key is not to use reading solely as a way of giving “messages” to your kids or making every book feel like a lesson they have to learn. I’ll discuss this more in the next post because it applies even more to tweens and teens, but now is the time to start watching your own patterns when reading to your kids.

Keep reading fun!

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