Reading aloud to children is something I enjoy doing whether it is to my own children or not. I tend to really get into it using multiple voices, big loud booming ones and quiet timid squeaky ones. I use my hands and act out a knock on the door or stomp my feet and encourage the listeners to cheer along with the characters and get as into the story as I do.
As it tends to happen however, as my own children have gotten older I’ve read to them less and less. With my youngest now being an independent and as enthusiastic reader as I am the importance of reading aloud to them seems to have faded.
That was until Harry Potter as over the last year we read the entire series together and I began to really see the value of reading aloud to both of them again. My oldest listened because she was too impatient for me to finish reading them to my youngest before reading them on her own, which she then did anyways.
What I’ve noticed since then as I’ve read other stories to my youngest is how my oldest surreptitiously listens to the story I’m telling rather than reading the one in her own book open on her lap. Her eyes seem to lose focus and pages no longer turn.
So seeing as I have set my own goals to read some “better literature” I’ve decided in the next few months to do the same with my girls, reading aloud the classic children’s tales and whether they both admit to listening or not I think it will be well enjoyed.
1. Chalotte’s Web – E.B. White
2. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson
3. 3. The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams
4. 4. The wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
5. 5. Anne Of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
6. 6. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
7. 7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
8. 8. Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi
9. The Wind in The Willows – Kenneth Grahame
10. Through the looking-glass – Lewis Carol
11. Black Beauty – Anna Wewell
12. The Tale of Despereaux – Kate DeCamillo
13. The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis – full set
14. The Black Stallion – Walter Farley
15. The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
