Many people have heard about the importance of reading to children? But do you really understand why it’s important? It’s not about the children reading that is important, it’s important for children to hear others read to them. I want to talk a bit today on why reading is important and what you can do to make sure children are reading – whether the children are your own, your niece or nephew, someone you tutor, etc.

First off, and this is one of the most repeated things you read or hear: the ability for a child to read is closely related to their school achievement. In a white paper from The Center for Public Education the authors state children who fall behind in reading by the third grade have a hard time catching up to their peers. They even write about children who are behind in third grade are four times more likely to be high school dropouts!

One reason reading is important to learning is it is through reading that children learn new words, expand their understanding of the world, and use their imagination. These are just some of the benefits of reading. So what can you do to help your child stay ahead of the game? The most important thing is to read to your child and read to them early and often. Kids pick up on language and how to read long before they can read. But they can only learn the language if mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc read to them.  Bedtime stories can really pay off for your child long into the future!

Reading is a good way for children to soak in their knowledge of the world. Think of all the stories for kids! The books can teach them how to make friends, feel emotions, imagine their wildest dreams, and much more! Without the reading skill, your child will miss out on so many adventures.

What makes reading important to you? What do you remember about reading as a kid? How do you help children read?

Photo via Visual hunt

August fourth marked the third year anniversary of my original cardinal speech. I wrote it for one of the assignments in Toastmasters International’s Storytelling Advanced Manual. For this toastmaster assignment, I was to come up with a story with a moral. I wrote my speech in the living room of our house, my husband’s and mine. I sat on our couch. The coffee table acted as my desk. I recall, I just kept thinking about the cardinal that kept attacking my husband’s red Explorer truck on a camping trip we had recently taken. If my husband had not moved his truck, the cardinal would have hurt itself. Thinking of that incident evolved into my idea that one could keep trying something to a fault. With pen and notepaper, I crafted the story. The moral with which I came up was “It’s O.K. to quit on the road to happiness.” I gave my debut “performance” of my speech in the evening of that same day at an ACE Toastmasters meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. I used note cards during my speech. The speech was well received. I knew in my mind I wanted to get it published someday. The book launch of my story, Flip Flap Try, was July seventh of this year. I started working on this blog while on a plane trip. My advice to you: sing (even a plane has humming sounds in flight), play (look out the window, enjoy life’s experiences) and be happy (if something is not working, give yourself permission to try something new). And by all means, celebrate your successes! Yeah! I did it!