31–37 of 37 posts
Does anyone have any book or website recommendations for getting better at reading aloud? For impersonating voices and accents? My eldest child is three and we both enjoy story time before bed; they are some of my fondest memories of my childhood. As I recall my father was a fantastic narrator and I feel I need to put some effort in!
Does anyone have any book or website recommendations for getting better at reading aloud? For impersonating voices and accents? My eldest child is three and we both enjoy story time before bed; they are some of my fondest memories of my childhood. As I recall my father was a fantastic narrator and I feel I need to put some effort in!
If you read aloud for 1+ hour per day, after a year you’ll be a whole lot better. Anecdotally, reading aloud a variety of books (including some that push your kid’s abilities, some that are easy, and some familiar favorites) is far and away the most important thing you can do for his or her language development and development of reasoning.
If you really care about improving you can try to film yourself and watch it back, and you can try to come up with specific aspects of your performance to focus on.
But if you’re just trying your best and enjoying yourself, and you don’t intend to make performing for groups a career or something, just regular practice and a little bit of effort (and focusing/staying in the moment, rather than devoting half your attention to thinking about something else) should also be fine.
Don't parents read to their children anymore? Is this actually a "lost art"? Our son is 12 and he still wants to be read aloud. Is this an aberration?
I read to my daughters all the time, but eventually one of them decided she disliked it (didn't like the pace) and the other is still preferring to listen to audio books while in college. It's an individual thing. Also I think a lot of parents don't look forward to reading aloud.
Do you find it easier to write code if you can talk to yourself while you do it? I don’t do it very often since there’s usually people around, which would make it pretty awkward. But somehow I find it makes it easier to stay on track - it’s as if a thought spoken out loud is easier to remember even after your mind has shuffled through five other thoughts. Almost like there’s an echo lingering in the room.
I find I do most things with more focus if I can talk through the process. It externalizes my inner monologue which is multithreaded and makes it more or less single-threaded so I'm able to stay focused. It also serves as a check on my brain. I suspect this is why Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors in Japanese workers [1]. Unfortunately it's not socially acceptable to talk to yourself. If only there was an invention…
Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_(Get_Smart) ?
I used to be horrible at reading aloud. My brain couldn’t simultaneously read aloud and comprehend the content so I never actually absorb the contents . Secondly, I didn’t like reading aloud because I couldn’t anticipate the meter/cadence do it always sounded like I was an illiterate idiot. As a result, even though I read silently a ton as a kid, I hated reading aloud growing up.
Fast forward to now after kids, and I am light years ahead! My pace and cadence is smooth, natural and fast. More importantly, I actually comprehend what I’m reading now. Like everything else, it just takes practice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find I do most things with more focus if I can talk through the process. It externalizes my inner monologue which is multithreaded and makes it more or less single-threaded so I'm able to stay focused. It also serves as a check on my brain. I suspect this is why Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors in Japanese workers [1]. Unfortunately it's not socially acceptable to talk to yourself. If only there was an invention…
> a sort of a "cone of silence" Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_(Get_Smart) ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife read and recorded the whole Harry Potter series for our eldest, now the second gets to either hear Mom read live, or listen to a recorded chapter everynight before bed. I've heard you should always read to your kids regardless of their age. They'll only ever read at their level, so even reading a poem or newspaper article or scientific journal to them when they're older increases their reading level.
wouldn't it be better to spend time with them and actually read it to them, rather than sending them to bed with a device to playback a pre-recording?