Time Well Spent!

One of my most favorite things to do and/or be a witness to as a parent is reading with Emma-Caroline and Sophie. It is a time that draws them close, builds relationship, fosters imagination, and instills love for reading. The experts will tell you and encourage you to read with your child for at least 20 minutes every day. As a teacher of 12 years of children in kindergarten through second grade, I will tell you that the reading experts are absolutely RIGHT! You have no idea the pre-literacy skills that are being built and enforced when you read to your child, pointing out the illustrations as they correspond with the text read aloud. They see you tracking from left to right, they see you wondering about what will come next, they make their own predictions about the story, they learn to love reading even before they become readers themselves. How many times have you heard your own child pick up a book and repeat it almost verbatim from what you read, or pick up a book that is not familiar to them, but be able to tell the story from picture clues? Those actions are pre-literacy skills and are the building blocks to becoming a great reader!!! I use to have people ask me if I was teaching Emma-Caroline to read at home before she went to kindergarten. My answer always was, "We read books together every day." No, I never sat down and said to her, "This is the word cat, dog, etc." She got it from our continual reading. When she left kindergarten, she was reading on a 3rd grade level! And now in first grade, she is reading and comprehending anything she picks up and reads. But the most important thing to me that Emma-Caroline has as a reader is her LOVE of reading. Every child will develop their skill in reading at a different rate. Again I will say, the most important thing a child can achieve in pre-literacy and early literacy stages is not skill, but a love for reading. Skill in reading will come with practice, but love for reading in young children is something that is fostered and nurtured through connection with others and the books that are being read. So read, read, read with your children!!! It is time well spent!