As parents, we have a duty to give unconditional love to our children, and to nurture the potential in each new child that is born into the world. One of the greatest ways to do that is to give your child the gift of reading aloud to them.
This can begin at a very young age with story books and bedtime stories. A child who is read to each day from birth will have improved vocabulary and brain development. By age five, a child can begin to make connections between written and spoken language, and in many instances, learn how to read themselves!
20 minutes of daily reading at home makes an important difference in the life of a child throughout all stages of development. A child who only reads five minutes a day is exposed to 282,000 words, whereas a child who reads for 20 minutes each day is exposed to 1.8 million words.
As children grow older, distractions start to creep in. Very few parents would argue the benefits of nightly reading; however, too often, it starts to fall out of the bedtime routine. In the fast-paced world we live in, it seems children can find the time for 20 minutes on an iPad, watching YouTube videos, and/or playing video games like Fortnite, but why can’t they find the time for 20 minutes of reading that will take them to places they didn’t know possible, expand their imaginations, and open their mind to new worlds?
This is where parents can be creative problem-solvers. As an educator and a parent of two active boys, here are some tips that can work for your family: