by Suzanne Loring
There is so much information that comes at you as a parent as to why reading with your child is so important. Reading aloud increases vocabulary, it improves listening skills and imagination, and it sets your child on the road to greater success at school. All of this pressure to read to your child can be very overwhelming.
I realized a long time ago that in order to have fun with your children and to allow your kids to become lovers of books you have to let go of all expectations and just have fun. When my children were young, reading aloud was a struggle for me. Ironically, storytime was one of the things I looked forward to the most when I thought about having kids. Reality did not match the fantasy.
My children preferred to eat the books rather than listen when they were babies, refused to sit on my lap for more than two pages once they were mobile, and became seemingly uninterested when a book other than the Picture Dictionary of Trucks was pulled off the shelf when they were toddlers. Let me tell you reading the Picture Dictionary of Trucks over and over and over again while a toddler crawls on your head can really try one’s patience.
Do you get frustrated while reading aloud with your toddler? You pick out the perfect book. You get your child all comfortable on your lap. After one, maybe two, pages your little one tries to eat the book, hops off your lap and starts playing with a different toy, starts climbing all over you and in general seems completely uninterested in the story you are reading?
Don’t get discouraged.
Don’t stop reading.
This is all completely normal.
Your child is still listening and learning.
Reading with your child, young or old, on a daily basis is one of the best ways to ensure your child's future success in school and later in life. Here are 10 reasons why:
1. Eighty percent of a child’s brain is developed by the time s/he is three years old. Reading to young children stimulates brain development, improves listening skills and builds vocabulary.
2. Toddlers learn that there is a front and a back to the book. They also learn how to hold a book and how to turn its pages.
3. Reading nursery rhymes and singing songs spark children’s awareness of language and sounds.
by Suzanne Loring
Bedtime stories are a long-standing family tradition in my family. Growing up I was read to every night before bed, a chapter here, a story there, and now do the same for my two boys who are two-and-a-half and nine months old. Each night after brushing his teeth, my two-year-old picks a book off his bookshelf and the three of us hunker down in one of the big bean bag chairs we have sitting on the floor. Even though my oldest climbs around during the story and my youngest usually tries to eat the book, we have a great time making truck noises, turning the pages, and pointing out funny things in the pictures. It’s important to me that we are carrying on a family tradition and having a lot of fun together, with books, every night before bed.
Creating a daily reading routine with your child is more than just fun; it helps build vocabulary and listening skills, develops your child’s imagination, and encourages a love of reading. It also creates quality time between reader and listener and can be a wonderful conversation starter. And in thinking about your child’s future a 2007 study by The National Endowment for the Arts, To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence, found that children who read for enjoyment score higher on reading and writing tests and have greater success later in life. Talk about a win-win-win situation.
