Why Reading to Your Child is So So So Important

Good points. I don't think most kids read enough anymore, but I think it more because of other electronic reasons, LOL.

Excelellent points, Jenysie. My ex and I read to our son while he was still in the womb. (We sang and talked to him too.) After he was born - while we were still at the hospital - we read to him there. Okay, that sounds odd, but that's how important reading was to us, and we knew it would be to him as well. By the time he was 18 months old, he had a library of about 100 books of his own. He went to the public library for the first time when he was 2. By then we also had some audio tapes of the books he loved, and he would pop in a tape to read to him when we weren't available. (Or when he didn't want Mom or Dad to read to him...you know, the "terrible twos".) By the time our son was 3, he had taught himself to read. And I discovered it in the car one day. He had been reading/recognizing logos and business signs for about 6 months or more. But this one day when he was 3, we stopped at a convenience store where we had never been. His dad went into the store for something, or maybe he was pumping gas. And our son said, "Help wanted. Full or part time. Apply within." He was reading the sign on the door! I was still skeptical, so I asked him to read something else on the side of the store. Still not toally convinced, I asked him to read something I had in my purse. A devotional book, I think. And he did quite well, stumbling over bigger words, but he was reading!

He also wanted to write, and got very discouraged that his writing skills didn't match his reading skills. :) So, he would dictate letters and stories to his dad and to me. We'd type them up on the computer and print them so he could see if it was what he intended.

As a teen, his friends' mothers loved my son. He encouraged all of his friends to read - not just what they were required, but other books as well. He told them that you have to be a good reader to get along in this world.

Wonderful Marilyn!!! A prime example of the importance of reading!!! You must be so proud!

I always red to my kids, and when they were older, they'd read an article outloud to me, and siblings, as I cooked dinner, etc...They are all avid reader, today.

I work with children in second grade on a regular basis and I can tell you that the ones who were read to at home developed an interest in books at an early age and are better readers because of it.