I began reading aloud to my kids from the time they were infants. Even though the oldest is now 18, they still enjoy hearing a good book read aloud. There are some tips for reading aloud to kids that will enhance the experience.
1. Enunciate. I’m not talking about saying each and every word distinctly and clearly complete with pauses between, but sometimes, when reading aloud, it’s a good idea to enunciate more than you would in your natural speaking voice. When you’re only hearing the words, rather than seeing them, as your listeners are, it can be easy to misunderstand if words aren’t spoken clearly.
2. Read slowly. I’ve read many times before the biggest mistake people make when reading aloud is reading too quickly. Again, your kids don’t want to hear you read in slow motion, but read a bit more slowly than you normally speak so that they don’t miss anything.
3. Use voices. I’ll be the first to admit that I am terrible at this and rarely do it. I often think, with envy, how much Robin Williams’ kids (does he have any?) must have enjoyed listening to him read. If you can pull it off, giving your characters different voices makes the story more fun and it makes it much easier to follow changes in dialogue for your listeners.
