If you need a boost of sunshine in your week, stop whatever you’re doing and listen to this podcast. Why? Because in this episode, Australian icon Mem Fox joins me to talk about the unique gift this specific time can offer us — the chance to read together, to connect, and to help our kids fall in love with books on a whole new level.
Mem Fox is Australia’s most celebrated author and the creator of many too many pictures books to count.
She’s a giant advocate of reading aloud, as you’ll hear, and someone I’ve been dying to talk with. On today’s show, we’re talking about how and why reading to our kids will change their lives forever.
In this podcast episode, you’ll hear:
- the magic that happens when kids and parents curl up to read together
- what reading aloud does for parents too – especially right now!
- and of course, Mem’s favorite books to read aloud
I’m also sharing the most encouraging thing I’ve read online in a long time (that happens at minute 1:13).
Click the play button below to start listening:
We talk about…
| 1:13 | An uplifting message (don’t we all need one right about now?) |
| 4:33 | Interrupted during reading aloud |
| 7:14 | On expectations |
| 11:27 | Australia’s best-selling writer (yes, the whole continent!) Mem Fox |
| 14:04 | Reading aloud: ‘ A lifeline of happiness’ |
| 17:14 | ‘Laid-back, hang-loose, let’s have fun’ |
| 20:39 | The role of accents in phonics |
| 24:18 | Bonding through Peter Pan |
| 26:39 | Like driving a car … |
| 29:11 | How to raise readers |
| 29:50 | A ‘craze about birds’ |
| 31:32 | Mem recommends … |
| 34:48 | Reading essentials |
| 36:24 | Remembering Tomie |
| 39:10 | Let the Kids Speak |
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Quotes to remember:
“A laughing child likes learning.” – Mem’s father
“When the child was given these essentials: encouragement, time, books, magazines, light, silence, warmth in winter, and coolness in summer, and the comfort of being allowed to read in bed every night, the problem was solved.” – Mem Fox, Reading Magic
Links from this episode:
- More about Sarah and Mem’s friend, Tomie dePaola
- RAR #145: The Importance of Reading at Whim and Developing Your Own Taste, Alan Jacobs
Books from this episode:
