Read aloud every day, from when your child is a few months old until long after they can read on their own. Ten to fifteen minutes is enough. Reading aloud builds vocabulary, concentration and closeness, and children who have been read to a lot start school with a head start that is hard to make up later. It fits into everyday life if it happens at the same time and in the same place.
Seven o'clock on an ordinary evening in Bagarmossen. A three-year-old is lying in bed with a book about a pig in wellies that she has heard about forty times. She knows it by heart and corrects Mum when she skips a line. It takes seven minutes. It doesn't look like much. But those seven minutes, every evening for ten years, separate children at school more than almost anything else parents do. Here is why, and how to fit them in when the evenings are short.
Why it matters so much
Children learn words from the language they hear, and everyday language at home contains rather few words: eat, come here, where are your shoes. Books contain other words: lynx, despairing, behind, clearing. A child who is read to every day hears thousands of words they would otherwise never hear, and vocabulary at six is the best predictor of how reading is going at nine. Books give something else too: following a story from beginning to end trains concentration and memory, seeing what a character feels trains the ability to understand other people, and sitting in someone's lap looking at the same picture is a closeness that doesn't require talking about anything. School can do a lot, but it cannot replace ten years of bedtime reading.
| Age | What works | How long | What the child gets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 1 year | Board books to point at, rhymes and chants, pictures of faces | A few minutes, several times a day | Your voice, the rhythm, the sense that books are pleasant |
| 1 to 3 years | Short picture books with a clear plot, the same book over and over | 5 to 10 minutes | Words, naming things, finishing the ends of sentences |
| 3 to 6 years | Longer picture books, the first chapter books read aloud | 10 to 20 minutes | Stories, feelings, waiting for what happens next |
| 6 to 9 years | Chapter books aloud, their own reading alongside | 15 to 20 minutes | Words and worlds their own reading can't reach yet |
| 9 to 12 years | Thicker books aloud if the child wants, otherwise the same sofa and separate books | As long as the child wants | Company, conversations about what you have read |
How to fit it in every day
- Attach it to something that already happens. After teeth, before lights out. Not "when we have time", because you won't.
- Same place. The bed, the sofa, a particular chair. The place tells the child that it is book time now.
- Keep the books where you are. A basket in the living room, a shelf at the child's height, three books in the bag. Books that live in a cupboard don't get read.
- Read while you wait. In the waiting room at BVC (the child health clinic every family is enrolled in), on the tunnelbana, while the pasta boils. Five minutes is five minutes.
- Make the library an ordinary errand. Stockholm's libraries have children's sections, story times and free library cards. Swap books every other week and your child gets something new without you buying anything. Read our guide to Children's libraries in Stockholm.
- Read even when it's late. A short book is better than none. If you skip it when things are stressful, the child learns that the book is the first thing to go.
How to read so your child listens
Read more slowly than you think you need to. Change your voice when a different character speaks. Stop at the pictures and let your child point and ask; that isn't an interruption, that is the reading. Ask now and then what the child thinks will happen, but don't quiz them: a child who gets questions on every page stops wanting the book. Let the child turn the pages and choose the book, even when it is the same book as yesterday. And stop when the child loses interest, even if you are in the middle. What matters is that the book stays pleasant. A book that "has to be finished" becomes homework.
The child who won't sit still
Many children between one and four can't sit in a lap for ten minutes, and they don't need to. Children can listen while they build, draw or lie on the floor with their feet in the air. Choose shorter books with big pictures, let the child hold something, and read in bed where they are going to be lying anyway. A child who runs around while you read and can then retell the ending was listening. Don't force the sitting still; it comes on its own when the stories get exciting enough.
Don't stop when your child can read alone
The most common mistake is to stop reading aloud in year 2, once the child has cracked the code. But a child in year 2 reads at a level far below what they can understand. They can get through a book with big letters and few sentences on their own, while they could follow Ronia the Robber's Daughter if someone read it to them. Reading aloud is what gives the child access to those books, and those words, until their own reading catches up. That takes several years. Many children also want to keep the moment going well into years 4 to 6, even if they wouldn't say so to their friends. Read until the child says no, and try again in six months.
The phone and the book
It is hard to compete with a screen, and we don't think you should try during the reading itself. Instead have a rule that the screen is off for a while before bedtime, and that the book is the last thing that happens in the evening. The screen time recommendation from Folkhälsomyndigheten (the Public Health Agency of Sweden), at most an hour a day for children between two and five, leaves room for a book. And read yourselves, where your child can see it. Children who never see an adult read a book assume it is something you grow out of.
How we do it with our families
Sanna puts two children to bed in Nacka on Mondays and Wednesdays, aged four and seven. The book always comes last, in the big bed, with both children. The four-year-old chooses a picture book, the seven-year-old gets a chapter from a chapter book, and the four-year-old often falls asleep during the chapter. That is the idea. Sanna writes on the note which chapter they got to, so the parents can carry on on Tuesday instead of starting over. She also brings a new book from the library every other week, and it is read before the favourite, not instead of it. Having the same nanny means the book carries on from where it left off.
Would you like a nanny who comes on the same days every week and whom the children know? Book a free first meeting with the nanny in your home, and we will work out a quote for your hours.
Read more: Swedish children's books by age · Children's libraries in Stockholm · Bedtime stories for kids · Bedtime routine for children
Frequently asked questions
When should you start reading to children?
As early as you like, ideally from a few months old. The baby doesn't understand the words but hears your voice, sees the pictures and learns that a book means a moment of closeness. Board books from six months, when the child can sit up and turn the pages themselves.
How long should you read to children each day?
Ten to fifteen minutes is enough if it happens every day. It is the regularity that matters, not the length. A book in the evening, same time, same place, is what makes it stick. Many children want more, and then you give more, but ten minutes is a good minimum.
Should I keep reading aloud once my child can read on their own?
Yes, ideally until ten or twelve. Children understand far harder books than they can read themselves, so reading aloud gives them vocabulary and stories their own reading can't reach yet. It is also a moment together that many children want to keep long after they have stopped admitting it.
My child wants the same book every night, is that a good thing?
Yes. Repetition is how children learn language. The fiftieth time the child hears the same book, they hear new words, new connections and can fill in the gaps themselves. Read it again. Add a new book before the favourite if you need some variety.
What do I do if my child won't sit still?
Read anyway. Children can listen while they build Lego, draw or lie on the floor. Choose shorter books with clear pictures, let the child turn the pages, and stop when they lose interest, even if the book isn't finished. What matters is that the book stays something pleasant.