Reading Aloud

19 Jan 2020 at 21:17 // under Dyslexia Personal

One of the job requirements of being a parent is reading aloud to your kids. Unfortunately, it is something that I am not really competent at. I have tried reading silently but the kids are having none of it.

During my wedding, I had a short reading to deliver. As expected, I got part of the way through it and tripped over my words. Luckily, most of the audience though is was cute and lovely - clearly I was getting all emotional about the event and that caused me to choke up. My mum knew better. She knew that I simply couldn't read and speak at the same time. Eventually my eyes, brain and mouth all end up out of sync and it all falls apart.

Since then I have gotten better at reading silently, I will now happily read for pleasure, but until I became a dad, I continued to avoid reading out loud. For the first few years I really struggled, even with the simplest of books. Of course with practice these things become easier and the kids sure are keen on getting me to practice.

These days I am much better than before, though Mummy is clearly the preferred reader, I am only used if mum is not available. On those occasions when I am required to read the kids will quite happily have me read as many books as possible. I have to enforce a "no more than two books at a time" rule because I get tired very quickly.

Considering how bad I used to be, I am still happy with my progress. I wonder what other skills being a dad can help me improve.

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