The Second Best Family Activity Ever

Obviously, the best family activity is prayer, but the runner-up is reading aloud. Once upon a time, reading aloud as a family was a common form of evening entertainment (before radio and TV, that is), but by no means is it obsolete.  I'm not just talking about reading aloud to little kids, which is awesome of course and very good for their mental development, but reading aloud to the whole family.  It keeps alive, or helps build, an appreciation for literature and a love of reading that can only serve to help a person in the long run.

Besides being "Good for ya!" reading aloud makes a great gap-filler when you have dead time between activities or extra time in the evening.  I am not suggesting, however, that you should substitute reading for TV: we certainly don't.  For us, it's more like pre-TV entertainment because we do like to watch a movie or show in the evening as well.  Typically, one of us will read while the others work on cleaning up the kitchen after dinner or while folding laundry.

We also enjoy listening to a story or three when we go on road trips, but it's usually easier on everyone to just get books on disc for that.  Attempting to read aloud in a car is much harder than it is at home.  You have to read loud enough for everyone to hear you over the road noise, which will wear your voice out pretty quickly; on top of keeping your place and avoiding motion sickness.  It's just generally not worth it, let the narrator handle it.

Some books make better read-alouds than others, but it's really up to your own particular taste and judgement.  Here are some of our favorites:

• Hank the Cowdog (on audio is best)
• The Boxcar Children series
• The Little House on the Prairie books
• The Hobbit
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy
• The Artemis Fowl series and other titles from Eoin Colfer
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (these are for a more mature audience, not kids)
• The Redwall books
• Dracula (easily my all-time favorite book. Again not really for the kids mostly because of some scary content, adult content is not an issue with this one)

For us, reading books aloud is almost an art form.  From Da Godfather and audiobook narrators, I've learned to read aloud smoothly, with inflection, and even put on different voices for the characters; now Beena is learning to do the same.  Being able to put life into the words on the page, not just for yourself but for an audience, can make a story much more interesting and fun.  I think it helps with overall reading comprehension, too.

Let us know what some of your favorite read-alouds are!