"Reading aloud to children has been called the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for success in reading." -  National Institute for Literacy

When you were reading that "one more" bedtime story last night did you know that you were meeting two of your child's important needs?  

According to Mem Fox, author of Reading Magic, reading aloud not only provides the building blocks for success in reading, it also strengthens our parent-child bond. The conversations we have with children about the stories we read and the shared emotions we experience while reading a good story nurture closeness and connection and bring us closer emotionally. With so many parents having so much less time to spend with their children it is exciting to learn that the time we spend reading to our children counts double because we are meeting both their educational need to hear stories and their emotional need to feel connected to us.

It is never too early to begin reading to children. Literacy experts say children need to hear a thousand stories before they begin to read for themselves. Children don't start learning to read when they go to school. School teachers harvest the fruits from the seeds parents have planted by reading to their children. Literacy begins at birth. Just as children learn to talk by being spoken to and listened to, children learn to read by being read to.
 
When children listen to a story they create pictures in their mind of the scenes and characters in the story and they develop a part of their brain that is vital to learning. However, when children watch a story, on a television show or on their favorite video, the visual is provided and they aren't developing that part of their brain. A great alternative to turning on a television show or popping in a video while you prepare dinner is to turn on an audio book. Listening to stories on audio book does more than keep children entertained; it exercises their brain. Audio books in the car can turn stressful commuting time into calming story time.

While reading is a special part of the bedtime ritual, bedtime isn't the only time children benefit from being read to. Just as snacks help children make it from breakfast to lunch and from lunch to dinner in better humor, taking breaks from our busy schedule several times a day to read a story together provides little doses of emotional closeness that help parents and children make it through the day feeling calmer and more connected.

So, the next time you are reading "one more" story, whether it is before breakfast, after lunch, or bedtime, remember, every story we read or tell to our children, not only brings them a step closer to being able to read on their own one day, it also brings us emotionally closer to each other today.
 

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