The Read Aloud Handbook - Chapter 2 (When to Begin (and End) Read-Aloud

I enjoyed reading this chapter. I always try to express my beliefs to new parents and parents in my classroom about reading aloud to their child. Some of the points discussed in the chapter I have experienced with my own children (8 and 6).

 My 8 year old is a natural reader, we never sat down with him and “taught” him to read (he was reading before he started kindergarten). I remember him sitting on the floor in front of a book shelf when he was 18 months old and looking through books and “reading” them. It wasn’t actual reading of the words, but he had the rhythm of reading down and was talking about what he saw in the pictures and what he remembered us reading to him. 

As for my 6 year old, we are letting her learn to read at her own pace. She loves to sit with a book and read by using the pictures. She is now starting to look at the words and try to read the sentences in the book and does a great job, but I don’t push her. I know all of the sudden, she will get it. 

As for vocabulary, both of my kids have a wonderful vocabulary and I give credit to books and of course us, the parents. We have always read to them, since day one and have talked to them, not at them.

I also like how Jim described learning to read and comparing it to a baby understanding his/her home language. How he said that we were talking in a “foreign language” to the baby is so true.

Another section I liked in this chapter was comparing fiction to nonfiction.

I found this link to some great brochures that you can use with parents.  They come in Spanish and English.
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/brochures.html