My first acting experience was reading to kids as a babysitter. I’d use different voices for different story characters, different facial expressions for different moods. My audience was riveted to my performance and always gave me a great review. Yes, I was a star, for sure.
I even encouraged audience participation. Pointing to the pictures I’d say, “What is this?” or “What do you think will happen next?” If the audience could read, we would take turns reading pages. Sometimes I would replace the character’s name in the story with the audience’s name which would make the audience feel like the story was about them.
I even read to babies who didn’t understand a word. I remember reading my homework to babies. They loved the attention and even added some drool in appropriate places. Reading to children gives you, the babysitter, some pretty good benefits.
Benefits to babysitters
In my book I show 3 ways how reading to children will benefit you, the babysitter. I also show 5 ways how reading to children will benefit the children. Then I list 4 must-have books.