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Read to your children often. You won't be sorry.May 08 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Start reading to your children at a early age, and as often as you can, and you'll raise children to be readers.
One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to start reading to your children when they are very young. The time you spend reading to your child can influence his or her attitude toward books, and will affect the success he or she will have learning to read. Reading also helps to stimulate your child's mind in a variety of ways. It reinforces concepts about print, that words are made of letters, and that print has meaning. Reading develops listening skills, comprehension skills and word recognition. It would be an understatement to say that the typical parent has a hectic schedule. A few activities that most parents can relate to are: work, cooking, cleaning, zooming kids to dances, baseball, Karate, scouts, soccer, (you get the picture). Now your probably wondering where I get off thinking that parents have time to read to their children every day. When my kids were young, there were some days when there didn't seem to be one free moment left for reading, but use caution in allowing that to happen too often. Just as we make time to eat, to keep our bodies alive, you must make time to read to your children every chance that you get. To read is to learn, and to learn is to be alive, and reading is food for the brain. To encourage your child to listen to a story book, substitute your own child's name for the Character's name written in the book. It will hold their attention, and you'll be surprised at the giggles you'll hear. For older children who are addicted to Nintendo, allow them to play the game for the same amount of time they read each day. So, if your child wants to play more Nintendo, it's a great motivator to read more. When I was raising my three children, I believed in good naps and would put them in their beds with a pile of books. We would read a few, then I would leave, and they could look at books as long as they wanted. But when I checked on them, more times out of ten, I would find them sound asleep with a book tented over their chest. All of my children have grown up and still love to read. What if you are committed to reading aloud to your child every day, but you don't have time to go to the library and you've already read every story in your child's home library 20 times. What can you read? How about your newspaper. That's right. Your newspaper is loaded with interesting things for children to read. Zero in on subjects you know will capture their interests, and if an article is too long or complicated, paraphrase where necessary. Reading the newspaper together with your child is a good habit to establish. The newspaper helps children learn about events in their local community, the nation and the world. We live in an age where we've gone beyond the phrase, "it pays to be informed." It doesn't just "pay," it's essential, and you have the power to make that happen. By including newspapers as a part of your reading mix with your children, you'll be raising some pretty sharp cookies, and that's a pursuit worth making time for every day. When my children were young I didn't have the time to be going to the library as often as I would have liked to. So some of the time I made my children pick out an article from the newspaper to read. My 2 boy's usually liked to read anything pertaining to sports. I watch my 9 year old grandson before and after school at my home, until my daughter picks him up. He usually manages to do all his homework before she picks him up. So some months back, when he had to write an article on something that he had read that month, I handed him our local newspaper. He spotted the article on the Seattle Washington earth quake. So I turned off the TV and we both sat done at my kitchen table, and read the whole article. He said he was going to write all about it over the weekend and present it to his teacher on the following Monday. If I remember correctly, he did get a 92 on that article he wrote. He probably would have gotten an even higher mark but he did misspell some words wrong. So let your child read a variety of things, books, newspapers, magazines, a letter, birthday cards, cereal boxes, billboards, road signs or even the signs in the Super Markets. When my kids went to the Super Market with me, I always had them read the signs above the isles. They always got a big kick out of doing this. Then they would tell me if I was in the correct isle for a certain food item that I was looking for. Set an example for your child, by letting them see you reading books, magazines or newspapers. This sets a positive example for your child and shows that you think reading is important. Thanks for reading!  |
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