Check this out!!!

Read Aloud Revival is hosting another New Year Read Aloud Challenge and it looks and sounds fantastic. In fact, I'm going to sign up my three-year old. That's right. It's open to children ages 1-17 and its about them reading aloud, not you!

Check out all the details here!

We love everything Sara does to encourage families to spend time reading together and this is not a sponsored link. It's just something we at BFB think is pretty awesome and wanted to be sure all of you knew about it!

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Benefits of Reading Aloud

One of the most common questions we hear at BFB, is "Should I continue reading aloud to my children once they know how to read?" This question takes various forms including, "Should I still read aloud to my teenager?" or "How much of this curriculum should be read aloud?" And our answers are always, "Yes!", "Yes!" and "As much as you can!"

While it may seem counterintuitive to read aloud to your students and children once they're able to read on their own, experience has shown us that the more children are read aloud to, the better readers they become. Some parents fear that reading aloud too much can hinder their children's reading development, but we've found just the opposite to be true, especially with children who are struggling to read! The video below is an excellent primer in the benefits of reading aloud, especially in regards to allowing children and teens access to stories. When a story is read aloud it becomes much easier for the listener to engage in a meaningful way with the story which, in turn, creates the desire to read more. The video is only 10 minutes long, but well worth your time!

We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

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Reading Aloud and Brain Development

Anyone who is familiar with Beautiful Feet Books knows that we're huge advocates of reading aloud. Reading aloud at all ages is something we believe in strongly and know from our own experiences that reading aloud can have profound effects on children and their families. When the decision is made to commit to reading aloud as a family, some almost magical things happen. New research from Pediatrics confirms that reading aloud to young children is key to developing their ability to tell stories, to use words, to imagine scenarios and much more! You have all probably experienced this as you make the decision to turn to books instead of screens, as your children fall in love with the characters of classic children's stories, and as you look forward each day to the time when you all snuggle up on the couch to read.

As you embark on this new school year, keep in mind that some of the best learning occurs when you're simply reading aloud. "The researchers found differences in brain activation according to how much the children had been read to at home." As the study found:

Children whose parents reported more reading at home and more books in the home showed significantly greater activation of brain areas in a region of the left hemisphere called the parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex. This brain area is “a watershed region, all about multisensory integration, integrating sound and then visual stimulation,” said the lead author, Dr. John S. Hutton, a clinical research fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Interestingly this very area of the brain is very active when older children are reading to themselves, leading researchers to believe that the early and frequent exposure to reading aloud leads to easier and more developed reading ability later.

So, plan in reading aloud time. It's easy when you choose literature based curriculums! And make sure your children have easy access to beautiful well-written books. Frequent trips to the library, thoughtful purchases for the family library–these are all investments in your children. Of course, reading Going on a Bear Hunt fifteen times before noon can be the epitome of mundane but what you're doing is so important! For more, check out this article on the study.

While intellectual ability is obviously important, we're also going to be talking about reading and emotional development later this week, so stay tuned!

Our new 2015-2016 catalog is now available! If you want to view it right now it's available online here. And if you would like to request a hardcopy, click here.

We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!

The Loveliness of Reading Aloud

I came across this quote in an excellent article by Meghan Cox Gurdon on the joys of reading aloud. Having been given the gift of a childhood in which reading aloud took place every day, I appreciated Gurdon's passion for the subject. And now as a mother myself the article confirmed that the time I'm spending reading Little Blue Truck over and over again each day is an investment in a future time where my son will curl up next to me while we read The Wind in the Willows, The Boxcar Children, and other favorites from my childhood.

The author of the article also made several great points on the benefits of reading-aloud. In lives lived helter-skelter and rushing from one commitment to the next, making reading-aloud a priority has become increasingly difficult. Add to that the ever present allure of the internet, iPad, TV, and other screens, reading aloud can seem like a quaint and charming relic from the past. But it shouldn't be so

easily dismissed. As Gurdon states, "To curl up with children and a good book has long been one of the great civilizing practices of domestic life, an almost magical means of cultivating warm fellow feeling, shared in-jokes and a common cultural understanding." We've often talked about the power of story to connect our post-modern lives with a greater past and reading aloud to children (and young adults) is one of the most powerful ways of accomplishing this goal.

Reading aloud as a family also combats the individualizing effects of technology: "Unlike tech devices, which atomize the family by drawing each member into his own virtual reality, great stories pull people of different ages toward one another, emotionally and physically." When my 19 month-old son wants to read, he also wants to be physically near me. He's no longer a fan of sitting in my lap, but he scoots himself right next to me so that he's pressing into my side. I can't help but think that the familiarity of the story combined with the comfort of being physically near me helps him center himself in the rapidly expanding world of his toddler consciousness. And this doesn't stop when children get older. How often has reading aloud given confused teenagers an excuse to snuggle up to mom or dad? Art is replete with paintings of young loves huddled over a book and who doesn't love reading in bed with their spouse?

The article points out some very real obstacles to reading aloud. The first would be the nearly omnipresence of technology in our lives. Gurdon, while recognizing the benefits of technology, also sees its very real limitations: "IPads and audio books have their virtues, but they don’t have warm arms, they can’t share a joke, and they haven’t any knowledge of, or interest in, a particular child." The second obstacle is lack of time. It's so easy to skip over read-aloud time because its benefits can be hard to quantify. It requires more engagement than watching a movie together and, let's be honest, in the very young years, the books aren't exactly riveting! But like all investments, it's worth making. The author shares a story of a friend who was so committed to reading aloud that she would leave parties she was hosting for long stretches of time to read aloud to her children! 

I would highly recommend reading through the article, The Great Gift of Reading Aloud–I'm sure you'll find it encouraging and inspiring. 

And if you're looking for books to read aloud this summer, check out our Read Aloud Favorites series and our Summer Reading packs!

Books for Youngsters
Books for Middle Schoolers
Books for Jr. High Students
Books for High School Students

We are also offering some fun Summer Reading Packs on our website. Check them out!

Summer Reading Pack for Girls

This pack contains some of our favorite titles with stories of adventurous, strong girls! 

Summer Reading Pack for Boys

Share stories of courageous, generous, and loyal heroes to inspire your sons!

Our new 2015-2016 catalog is now available! If you want to view it right now it's available online here. And if you would like to request a hardcopy, click here.

We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!