The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids

by Sarah Mackenzie

We’ve all heard about how important it is for families to eat dinner together. Dr. Anne Fishel, cofounder of The Family Dinner Project, states that dinnertime conversations are important in order to “relax, recharge, laugh, tell stories, and catch up on the day’s ups and downs, while developing a sense of who we are as a family.” Dinnertime conversation has even been linked to lower rates of substance abuse, teen depression, and higher grade point averages. When we engage in conversation with our child—when we ask him how his day went, what he’s worried about, or what the best part of his week was—we communicate that we are interested in his life and that we have time for him. When we have a conversation with our child about books, then, we communicate that we are interested in what he’s reading and thinking about. Without saying it outright, we tell him that it is a priority in our own lives to spend unhurried time with him.