Reading Aloud Project WHY READ ALOUD TO CHILDREN?

"A good children´s book is three times richer in vocabulary than conversation"
"The more you read, the better you get at it"

Taken from Jim Trelease.

Phonics is part of the essential mechanics of reading, the decoding part.  you might also call it the "How to" aspect of reading.  The other part is the "Want to" all the "How to" drill work is not going creat a life time reader.  Your reading aloud is what builds the child´s "Want to".
Words are the primary building blocks for learning and there are only two efficient ways to get words into the brain: either through the eye or through the ear.
The best source for brain building in a young child is through the ear, what we send into that ear becomes the "sound" foundation for the rest of the child´s "brain house".  Those meaningful sounds in the ear will help the child make sense of the words coming later through the eye (reading).
We read aloud for the same reasons we talk with people: to reasure, entertain, bond, inform, arouse curiosity and isnpire.  But reading aloud goes further than conversations when it:

• conditions the child to associate reading with pleasure.
• creats background knowledge.
• builds "book" vocabulary
• provides a reading role model.

We approach what causes pleasure and we withdrew from what causes displeasure or pain.  Everytime you read to a child you are sending pleasure message to the child´s brain, conditioning the it to associate books and print with pleasure.  There are, how ever, "unpleasures" the child comes to associate with reading and school.  Learning can be tedious or boring, threatening and without meaning - endless hours of worksheets, hours of intensive phonics instructions and hours of unconnected - test questions