It’s such a simple thing, with great rewards.
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When we are reading at night (the night’s that I read, which go in spurts), depending on the book, doing the voices of the characters creates another level again of story-telling.
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Requirements:
- Be over the top!
- Try all different kinds of voices. The kids will quickly pick up if you forget and swap them around.
- If it’s a story the kids know, get them involved too (this is something I’ve only just thought of, and will be trying out presently).
- Be over the top!
Results:
- Adds more “theatre” to the story-telling.
- The kids minds are further exercised. They’re pretty awesome at spotting differences, and remembering the voices, attaching them to the characters.
- Provokes your own mind to be more creative, imaginative and passionate.
I’m sure as our kids get older things will change. Age though is not a problem. A few years back I read the Harry Potter series (the four of them at that time) aloud to my better half. I “did” the voices. It was awesome, according to the audience 
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
So true, so true… For some kids books (especially Dr Seuss), I can’t read them without bringing out the voices!
I most often do it. It is also great fun to use accents for some of the voices. It’s even more fun when the kids ask why grandpa speaks like Eeyore (grandpa has a southern accent and so has Eeyore in my interpretation of his whining).
Dustin, Fantastic. I struggle to remember the voices while my brain is trying to translate his wordage
Ha ha.
Mingus, Ha, I’ve never read the Poo books to the kids, but I imagine they would be a lot of fun to do.
Well said, Stu.
Doing ‘the voices’ is one of the best parts.
I especially love doing villianous characters (Mr Twit being my favourite) and making them sound as gruesome and nasty as I can.
This is a great idea that I highly recommend. It’s often the stories where I did the voices that the kids asked for again and again. After a while, I found I was breaking into those voices automatically when reading and didn’t have to think about it anymore. The favorite that comes to mind is the voice I created for the Lorax in Dr. Seuss’ classic tale by the same name. My kids are now 10 and 12, but I bet they’d still get excited if I offered to read that story to them. Actually, I might get excited, too.
Neil, My sister got the kids a bunch of cds with Roald Dahl books on them. Read by guys Stephen Fry .. Not sure I have a chance
Ari, Cool! Recently we’ve been reading a book called “The Three Little Bush Pigs”. It’s an Aussie take on Three Little Pigs. Doing the voices for them really brings the story alive. It’ll be something the kids remember for a while I think.
My kids enjoy my butchering of Charlie & Lola’s british english (Chollie!) well enough but my favorite is reading Jamberry in a sort of Tom Waits/Bebop beat voice, I have fun with that one!
Yes, I do the voices. I’m not even terribly good at it, but it makes the story more fun. Especially when it’s the same story every night for a month…or more.
One day, my husband commented that my son (4 at the time) was doing the voices while reading to his dad. He was surprised by that…until I said, “Oh, I do that. Don’t you?” It honestly never occurred to me NOT to do the voices.
Now my son does the voices for tons of things…each of his stuffed animals has its own unique voice.
Stu,
Great post! I love doing the voices. It would be fun to have everyone here who has commented on doing the voices, to pick out the same book, and record themselves reading it to their children. I would love to hear everone’s rendition of the voice of the same character!!
I do the voices so often that my kids have more than once requested I don’t do them. What’s sad is I’m really good at voices and most of the time I’m doing it for practice.
The hardest one is Elmo. My favorite books to do voices is Winnie the Pooh or The Lorax.
Without a doubt. It’s also a sort of entertainment for myself and my wife. I think it can be a real brain teaser trying to remember 4-5 different voices through the span of a short book.
Hell yea! I used to go really over the top, but as they’ve gotten older (11 and 9) I usually only do the bad guy. I love doing bad guy voices.
I hate doing girls voices though.
My kids are a bit older now, so it has ebbed.
But there was a long while where they’d remember, on que, the voice I added when they were little. It was sometimes very telling what really stuck with them.
“And a little old lady whispering huuushhh”
Years later, my first could be heard mumbling “goodnight moon”, in my pronunciation, to himself while seeing the moon out his window. :~))
‘Course I do the voices, Stu! That’s what makes it so much fun. One of the most amazing things about reading the Potter books is how close I came to the voices that eventually were heard on the screen when they were made into movies.
One of the most amazing things about reading these comments is how many Dads read to their kids. My two boys are now 13 and 14 and I’m still reading to them. We’re currently on Huckleberry Finn, with Douglas Adams’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” next.
theguth, Ahh, Charlie and Lola. Kids used to watch that a lot, cept it’s not on telly here anymore.
Sandie, Awesome! Giving the kids the opportunity to push their imagination is fantastic.
Eric, That is a really good idea! I guess it would have to be a piece of public domain? Otherwise, there are some crackers we could do. Any suggestions?
xadrian, The Lorax is a great book to do the voices with. All those magical words and sentence structures
Roger, Exactly! A real test of the mental agility.
Marc, Ahhh, the Bad Guy. Yeah. All my girl’s voices pretty much sound the same
, high pitched squeal.
Ed, Ha ha. That’s some fantastic memories for them, and you.
Francis, It’s great to hear that you’re still reading to them. Hoping it’s the same when my kids get there.
Of course – you have to do the voices. In fact, when my wife went in for Parent Teacher Conference last week, our daughter’s teacher praised kiddo’s reading skills, and mentioned that kiddo was doing the voices herself.
Which my wife immediately blamed on me.
Zach,
Ha ha, that’s awesome. Not the blaming part
The voices one.
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