In a fast-paced, tech-driven world, family read-aloud time has increasingly gone the way of the dodo bird. At best, story time has morphed into something reserved for younger children learning to read. 

But gathering together to savor good books and poetry should be as much a priority as family dinner, no matter what our age or inclination. 

A Lost Art

Surprised? You’re not alone. 95 percent of parents say reading aloud to kids ages six to eight is “extremely important,” even if only 45 percent say they do it five to seven days per week. In the United States, that number drops to a mere seven percent once children reach age 12. 

However, reading aloud as a family remains crucial even for older kids, offering benefits beyond childhood. It nurtures family bonds, fosters intellectual growth, and encourages emotional well-being in ways that can be vital during the “teen and tween” years.

In my own family, as the kids get older, one of the best ways we can use our limited hours is reading together. We turn off the screens, pick up a book (often as not, it’s a great book we’ve read before), and take turns reading.

Worth Making the Time: Reconnecting Offline

Busy schedules pull the modern family in different directions almost every night of the week. Like a family dinner, reading together creates an intentional pause. For older children, who might have increasingly independent lives, this shared activity offers an opportunity to reconnect with their parents and younger siblings. 

Family read-aloud time strengthens the family unit in a way movies can’t. Reading a novel, poem, or short story together fosters discussion, laughter, and reflection. The family home becomes a space where challenging ideas and difficult emotions can be explored, encouraging meaningful conversation. 

A Time to Grow

Stories and poems are the original “safe space.” Teens and their parents can build a stronger sense of belonging through the shared experience of a novel’s world – especially important for adolescents navigating the complexities of growing up.

Family read-aloud time also enhances intellectual development. Even for older children, hearing a book read aloud can introduce them to more complex vocabulary, sentence structures, and literary devices than they might encounter in their individual reading. 

Shakespeare’s Not So Scary

When parents model fluent reading, with proper intonation and expression, they help their teens grasp deeper layers of meaning in a text. This can lead to greater comprehension, especially for challenging authors such as Shakespeare, Milton, or Dante, whom they may not attempt on their own. Read-aloud sessions expose older children to a wider range of genres and styles, broadening their literary tastes.

Fight Selfishness

At a time of life when children are tempted to turn in on themselves, great books invite them into the Great Conversation. Encountering their own smallness in that context and with their parents can be incredibly grounding for teens.

 Listening to books that tackle complex themes — such as faith, relationships, or perseverance — can also help older kids process and judge their own emotions, choices, and experiences. The shared reading experience often provides a natural segue into discussing difficult topics that parents and children might be tempted to avoid. Stories provide all of us with a way to understand the world and our place in it, often inspiring empathy and self-awareness.

Family read-aloud time is a powerful tool for maintaining emotional connection, encouraging intellectual growth, and nurturing emotional resilience in older children. As they prepare to step out into the world on their own, this shared experience becomes even more essential.

Recommended Reading List with Older Kids

• Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles and Mary Lamb
• Shachiko, by Shusako Endo
• The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
• A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt
• Paradise Lost, by John Milton
• The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong
• The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice Series), by John Flanagan
• Til We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis
• Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
• Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey