Today marks the 15th year anniversary of World Read Aloud Day, and here at our house we’re celebrating by doing what we do… well, everyday! Reading aloud as a family.
As a family who speaks two languages at home (English and Spanish) and is immersed in a third language (Basque) in the streets, at daycare and school, in shops, etc., we get the joy of experiencing stories in many languages and from many cultures. But as many multilingual families can attest, reading aloud in a second or third language can be intimidating, perhaps even moreso if you are learning a language alongside your child.
If you are raising your child to speak Spanish but you are not comfortable speaking the language yourself, I have a tip for you to make read-alouds of Spanish books just a bit easier. If there’s a Spanish-language book you’d love to share with your child, head over to Youtube and search for the book title and “cuentacuentos,” which means “storytelling” in Spanish. There are quite a few channels on Youtube that specialize in read-alouds of Spanish books. If the book you’d love to master is among them, watch the video a few times and practice reading along with the narrator to practice your pronunciation, intonation, and general expression.
Even if you can’t find the particular book on Youtube, I encourage you to explore some of these read-aloud channels to get exposed to how a native Spanish speaker reads—and of course to enjoy a good story while you’re at it!
To get you started, here are three read-alouds of Spanish-language picture books you can watch on Youtube today.