This post about reading aloud to older children got me thinking about reading aloud. I remember being read too so fondly. Some of our family favorite included The Wind in the Willows, Watership Down, the Tolkien trilogy, and Stuart Little. I remember being cozied up with my brothers listening to my mom read Peter Pan during a thunderstorm. During a particularly dramatic moment, my mom read about how Peter spied, "PIRATES!" and with a clap of thunder, the electricity went out! I sometimes have conversations with families about their emergent readers. Sometimes they want to push their children to read aloud, saying, "But they can read! They should practice!" While young children are working hard to master the difficult task of reading, it is so important to hold onto the pleasure of discovering new worlds through reading together. So take the time to enjoy those moments...they are the stuff of imagination and memories!
