S/O of S/O did someone read aloud to you?

The only one I remember reading to me was my grandmother. I know she would read the comics in the paper to me. No memory of any particular books, though. She's the one that inspired me to read, though.

I read to my son all the time. By first grade, I was reading him the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was only 2 years old when we started chapter books.

It always brought joy to see him pick up his picture books and 'read.' I have a picture of him at about 2.5 on the couch engrossed in a Taste of Home magazine.

Reading is as vital as breathing.

One of the best things I remember is reading the Sunday comics with my mom. We would read Dagwood and Blondie for example and we would each pick which character we were going to read. So she might be Dagwood and I would be Blondie and we would split out the other people. Deep and shrilly voices included.
Otherwise we went to the library a lot and she would read us books. But she did not read aloud once we were older and reading on our own.

No doubt my mom, and grand parents read to me when I was younger. When I was about 8/9 I remember we read at the table after dinner. What ever book it was, everyone read, including me, a kid. We did that for years. I read to my DS. We all loved reading.

I am envious of those of you who had someone read to you. I do not recall teachers reading to my classes and my parents certainly did not read to us. I love reading and have from a very young age, as long as I can remember and have no idea where I picked it up from. I remember getting in trouble from my Mom for coming home late because I spent too much time in the school library - what an odd thing to get in trouble for. I loved books, wanted books and my Mom didn't see the point. I was lucky that my Dad did order from a few monthly book clubs for me and I even recall him taking me to a public library a few times, memories I cherish. In 8th grade I received a special award that was created for me as having read the most books. I kept a log of the books I read with all the information. I spent my free time assisting in the school library. They even let me have some input in selecting new books when they were ordering. I was such a nerd . I did get to go to the elementary school to read to the little ones occasionally.

Now...my kids - I have read to them since they were born. Books were and still are cherished gifts. My "kids" range in age from 23 to 30 now and 3 of them are avid readers, the other will read but has other interests. My 28yo son reads the most these days and he prefers non-fiction. He is a fountain of information and loves to watch Jeopardy and keep his own score. He is quite good and I am sure it is from all the words he consumes. My oldest daughter aspires to be a writer. They were raised in a library for as often as we were there. I spent so many hours in the schools volunteering to read to kids or be read to. I agree that reading is vital! The younger we introduce books, the better.

My mom read to me most nights, my dad would on the nights he wasn’t working late. Every teacher through elementary school would read to us too.

I watch my two nieces regularly and they each get their own stories at bed time, one goes down earlier than the other so they each get to choose stories. I hope to have my own children soon and I’ll read every night.

I had a fifth grade teacher that read to us every day. She read the Little House books. I still remember how much I enjoyed it. My mom and dad did not read to us but my dad started taking me to the library when I was three or four, before I started school. We went to the library every week until I was in junior high school.

I was reading for myself by the time I was in kindergarten. My next door neighbor was five years older than me and she was super smart and a straight A student. When she was around eight or nine years old she liked to play school and she was always the teacher. She would get me, my sister and her brother and sit us all in a row and teach us. She had a big chalk board and books and paper. I was reading and she taught me long division before I was in first grade. She ended up being a math genius. I swear that she was the reason that I did so well in school. I had such a head start from her playing school with us.

I bought books for my daughter before she was even born and read to her when she was small. I love books.

In elementary school (1970s) our school librarian went into every class and read from a new book for about ten minutes once a week. It was my favorite part of the week (and I loved every bit of school). I could not wait for her to arrive. And when it came time for our class to go the library that week I would run to check out whatever book she shared.

My third grade teacher read to us every day after lunch. She had a stack of carpet squares and we would all sit on the floor around her chair. I remember The Boxcar Children and Charlotte's Web especially. She was the only teacher I remember reading aloud to us.

When I taught, I did the same thing. And a stack of carpet squares was one of the first things I bought for my classroom after I was hired.

Sweet memories. Sweet thread.

ETA - how could I forget my first grade teacher!! She had a rocking chair she would sit in and read to us from, and each day a different student got to sit in her lap when she read! She was probably in her 50s but I thought she was like the best grandma ever. 

My parents both read to us when we were little. I remember my mom's soft, melodic voice as I drifted off to sleep. And my father's voice, he was the one who would do the characters voice and really get into the story. My mom told me when I learned to read at 4 years old I told my dad I did not want to listen to him read anymore. She told me he was so sad I had outgrown that.  I wish I had known that when he was alive and could have told him how much I loved him reading to me. 

All of my teachers read to us over the years but my favourite was my grade 4 teacher. Her name was Mrs Keeler and she was our school librarian as well. She would read to us everyday after lunch, to get us settled down and ready to learn again she said. She read us The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton. This is such a wonderful, read aloud book with great illustrations done by his daughter Patsy Berton. If you have not read this book with your children I highly recommend it. 

I read with all three of my children. My older two boys never seemed to settle down and enjoy it as much. My youngest wanted to be read to at bedtime until he was 11 or 12. We have read some wonderful books together. 

Today my mom is 81 and has vascular dementia. I have been reading books aloud to her.  My voice is calming to her and with her dementia it is hard to have a conversation. Reading aloud gives us time together without long, repeated conversations. 

OP - thanks for starting this thread. I have many happy memories of being read to and reading with my children and reading everyone's story makes this a feel good thread for me. 

Every day after recess, every teacher in my elementary school read to their class for 30 minutes. Ours was a small school and all students had lunch and recess together. The school was strangely quiet during those 30 minutes since no one was moving through the halls. It was a big treat when we had a guest reader come over from the high school side of the building. K-6 were on one side, there was a long hallway with the nurse and administrative offices, and then the HS on the opposite end of that hallway. My favorite reader was our elementary principal who also taught 3rd grade in the afternoon. He read the Little House books to every one of his classes until he retired. We could bring our own copy to follow along. I still have my set. My dad was also an excellent reader, He’d do voices and was very expressive.

Reading was a big deal in my house.   My mother read to us, told us stories, the whole shabang.  My teachers read aloud to us, as well.  I used to get to read aloud to the class, too.  I did voices and inflection and I guess it was more interesting than someone droning on and on.

I remember teachers reading The Boxcar Children and Charlotte’s Web to us.

I started reading to DS as a baby—literally for hours a day. I read to him until probably 7th grade or so. We read all the Harry Potters, the Percy Jackson series, the Hunger Games series and many others I’ve forgotten. It was such a bonding experience.

I don't remember my parents reading aloud, but I know they did. I distinctly remember going to the library from a very young age and bringing home bags of books every week.

All my elementary school teachers read aloud for 20 minutes coming in after lunch. Thinking back, I assume it was a school wide policy and may have been a pilot program as our school was partnered with the local university education department for a lot of curriculum development initiatives. I have always been a voracious reader and still remember my 6th grade teacher introducing me to Gerald Durrell (My Family and Other Animals) and Farley Mowat (Never Cry Wolf).

I loved reading aloud with my kids. Because of DD's processing issues, I continued to read aloud until through MS and DH would complain if we read a chapter before he got home.

Mother read to my little brother and I until she was widowed and then did not have the time. It was following along with the words when she read that taught me how to read by the time I was three. We had a set of children's books that came with our encyclopedias. It was a set of books for young readers that started with the basic nursery rhymes and went through Tom Sawyer and Little House on the Prairie. I still have those books 68 years later. They are precious to me. They remind me of a more leisurely time when reading to children, playing hopscotch, and workup softball were the norm. We were not rushing around to different activities everyday or booked up solid each week like so many children seem to be now days.