Read to Me!

Reading to your children provides a long list of benefits! So cuddle up with your child and a good book and enjoy some guilt-free entertainment.

Times spent reading books with my children have to be some of my coziest parenting memories. My daughters were smaller then, so we would snuggle up in our spacious rocking recliner. An arm around each of them, picture book held comfortably in front, I was hopeful that the story would help the girls slow down and be ready for a quiet hour on their beds.

(Nap? Not hardly! I was more likely to fall asleep than they were! “Mommy! Finish the story!” was said more than once.)

Some of those books we read—especially the ones that we owned and read multiple times—became part of our family’s inside jokes. To this day, any one of us might say, “Simple pictures are best!” (from the book by Nancy Willard by that name) as a reminder that we don’t need to make things unnecessarily complicated. “It was the shoe!” (from Helen Lester’s book It Wasn’t My Fault) is uttered when someone starts getting into the blame game.

Aside from providing such useful “code,” reading to your little ones is indeed one of the most pleasant and enjoyable ways to spend time with them. At the same time, it provides opportunities for teaching moral, character and biblical lessons and gives them a foundation for learning.

Books and learning

I grew up with books as entertainment. My family spent several of my early years in areas that were isolated. There was no television signal (and we didn’t have a television anyway). So evenings were spent reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood and other children’s books.

So I suppose it was only natural that I would want to do the same with my children. But it wasn’t until I heard a lecture in the late 1980s by Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook, that I realized what an influence reading aloud could have on how children do in school! I looked up Jim Trelease on the Internet recently. He’s retired from giving lectures now, but he’s still a zealot for reading aloud to kids.

In his pamphlet “Why Read Aloud to Children?” Mr. Trelease explains, “We read aloud to children for the same reasons we talk with them: to reassure; entertain; bond; inform; arouse curiosity; and inspire. But reading aloud goes further than conversation when it:

• “Conditions the child to associate reading with pleasure;
• “Creates background knowledge;
• “Builds ‘book’ vocabulary;
• “Provides a reading role model.”

Mr. Trelease continues, “The last 30 years of reading research confirms this simple formula—regardless of sex, race, nationality, or socioeconomic background—students who read the most, read the best, achieve the most, and stay in school the longest. Conversely, those who don’t read much, cannot get better at it.”

A long list

Studies have repeatedly shown the value of reading to children. For instance, a study at Rhode Island Hospital found that babies who were regularly read to from the age of 6 months had a 40 percent increase in receptive (listening) vocabulary by the time they were 18 months, in contrast to only a 16 percent increase for those not regularly read to.

Lists of benefits to reading aloud include such things as:

• Strengthening the bond between parent (or grandparent or other adult) and child.
• Helping distract and soothe a cranky child.
• Increasing a child’s attention span.
• Building listening skills.
• Exposing young children to fundamental reading skills (books are read from left to right, top to bottom; letters separated by spaces represent words; letter and number recognition; etc.).
• Exposing older children to knowledge and information not available in his or her own home (exotic animals; far-flung places; special interests, such as airplanes, construction equipment, outer space, etc.)
• Teaching about people, relationships, how to handle different situations, what is right and wrong, etc.

The most important book to read aloud

For Christians who want to pass on their beliefs to their children, reading is invaluable. After all, the Bible, the fundamental source of our beliefs, is actually a collection of books! It offers memorable stories that far surpass any other books you may read to your children.

Of course, we have to approach it on an age-appropriate basis. You wouldn’t start reading a college textbook to your baby, so it probably wouldn’t make sense to start with Leviticus or Ezekiel in the old King James Version either. Make it pleasant and enjoyable. Start with the stories—a good beginner’s Bible can help.

God wants us to pass on this knowledge to our children so that they will have an understanding that He loves people and has a special interest in children. He wants them to know that His way produces blessings, that they can turn to Him in times of difficulty, that He intervenes in miraculous ways in His people’s lives, that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die so people could have their sins forgiven, and that He will send His Son again to bring His happy Kingdom for all people!

Read to your children—you won’t regret it! It’s like pumpkin pie—delicious and so good for you!

Becky Bennett is wife to Mike and mother to Heather and Erica. They consider a good book to be a necessity not only on a long road trip, but also on long hikes and bike rides!

Read these interesting related posts:

• What Our First Baby Taught Me: Real Love Is Caring for Others
• Teaching the Way of Give to Our Children
• Time to Meet Your Child's Teacher