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I Loove to read. I always wonder where I got the love for it since my parents never read to me as a child.
Me too (although both my parents are readers too....I vaguely remember them reading to me - but I think it was because I learned to read at a pretty early age so once I could read (and loved it) they figured that was that. OTOH, I read to my kids TONS and neither is a huge reader. They don't mind it if they have to but they don't go out of their way to (although they loved being read to). I think reading to your kids is great (and I miss it too) but honestly, I think if you're a reader you are a reader....just something you are or you aren't....
Also (and related): TALK to your kids. Use your grow-up words. I'm pretty disgusted by the young mothers (nannies?) I see these days, pushing their toddlers and babies in strollers whilst yammering into their cell phones instead of engaging their children. Hellllllllllo???
Add another to the list of those who endorse reading to your kids. You never know how it will impact them.
A few years ago, my daughter (then age 24) was helping me clear out a storage area and box up some children's books to give to my sister's small kids. She found a book of poetry for small children called "Jelly Belly," and idly riffled through the pages, glancing at the poems and the illustrations. I glanced over at her, and she was absolutely riveted, staring at the book, with a very odd look on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and she replied, "Mom, I don't ever remember seeing this book in my life. But when I read the first line of this poem, I can hear your voice reading it to me, and I know every word without even bothering to read to the end."
Both of our kids grew up to be avid book-a-holics, and both have been known to stay up all night reading a book that particularly catches their fancy. And, oddly enough (or not), both are more intelligent than average, and both have always tested in the 99-plus percentile for vocabulary comprehension and usage.
Read to your kids, even if you don't think they're listening.
Add another to the list of those who endorse reading to your kids. You never know how it will impact them.
A few years ago, my daughter (then age 24) was helping me clear out a storage area and box up some children's books to give to my sister's small kids. She found a book of poetry for small children called "Jelly Belly," and idly riffled through the pages, glancing at the poems and the illustrations. I glanced over at her, and she was absolutely riveted, staring at the book, with a very odd look on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and she replied, "Mom, I don't ever remember seeing this book in my life. But when I read the first line of this poem, I can hear your voice reading it to me, and I know every word without even bothering to read to the end."
Both of our kids grew up to be avid book-a-holics, and both have been known to stay up all night reading a book that particularly catches their fancy. And, oddly enough (or not), both are more intelligent than average, and both have always tested in the 99-plus percentile for vocabulary comprehension and usage.
Read to your kids, even if you don't think they're listening.
Awesome post!
My adult daughter was home over the winter holidays and raided my bookshelves. She took some of her old books, some of mine. We talked about reading and books and cooking during the time she was here. We visited our local public library together.
We went to see "Where the Wild Things Are" and then read the book at home (she's in her 20's now lol) . Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar was another favorite. We joked about how we would make the movie version of that story.
She gave me a Kindle as a gift. I'm not sure why, but at that point, it really came full-circle for me.
TALK to your kids. Use your grow-up words. I'm pretty disgusted by the young mothers (nannies?) I see these days, pushing their toddlers and babies in strollers whilst yammering into their cell phones instead of engaging their children. Hellllllllllo???
I so agree.
This cell phone stuff actually really makes me sad, because no doubt it is perpetuated. Children model their behavior from their parents.
My mom and dad were read-the-newspaper-or-if-desperate-read-the-cereal-box type people at the breakfast table. My husband and I were too, and both our kids are readers.
I do agree with Maciesmom that you are either a reader or you aren't, it is not a sign of sub-human intelligence if you do not favor books.
But I am glad both my kids turned out to be readers--now they both share their favorite books with me, and have turned me on to some good fiction and nonfiction.
There is also a very very small percentage of kids who end up in special needs classrooms largely because they receive zero mental stimulus at home and thus are often incapable of "staying on track" when they come to school so unprepared. Their parents don't inquire about homework, don't help with homework, don't read with them at early age, and yes, this can stunt the learning process. Teachers need to be held responsible for engaging and teaching each and every kid, but parents also need to be fully engaged with their kids learning process as well.
Great thread! Yes, read to your kids!!!
There is also a very very small percentage of kids who end up in special needs classrooms largely because they receive zero mental stimulus at home and thus are often incapable of "staying on track" when they come to school so unprepared. Their parents don't inquire about homework, don't help with homework, don't read with them at early age, and yes, this can stunt the learning process. Teachers need to be held responsible for engaging and teaching each and every kid, but parents also need to be fully engaged with their kids learning process as well.
In the region of the country where we lived before returning to the Midwest eleven years ago, it was not at all uncommon for a child to see a book for the first time on his or her first day of kindergarten.
And the interesting thing was that the parents of those kids were often the fiercest proponents of education in the whole school, pushing their kids harder than any of the more well-to-do parents did.
You see, those parents were the ones who had to leave school at the end of third grade, which used to be (and may still be) all the farther free public education was offered in Mexico. Those parents knew exactly what it was like to try to raise a family on the kind of jobs you could get with a third grade education, and they were determined that their kids were not going to have to repeat that saga. It was not at all uncommon to see those kids growing up to be teachers, doctors, nurses, and attorneys.
I stand by my statement that nothing is better than reading to your kids. But I have seen prima facie evidence that it is still possible for a functionally illiterate parent to raise a successful and highly literate child - it just takes them a whole heckuva lot more effort than it would if they could have read to the little ones before they started school.
But I have seen prima facie evidence that it is still possible for a functionally illiterate parent to raise a successful and highly literate child - it just takes them a whole heckuva lot more effort than it would if they could have read to the little ones before they started school.
Can't say enough good things about this thread. From the time our kids opened their eyes in the world they were spoken to in complete sentences and read to from the time the oldest was six months old. We read our way through a zillion Little Golden Books, progressed to Dr. Seuss, and haunted the library for Newbery Award Winners. I remember Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs vividly, but there were scores of others. Shel Silverstein's book of poems Where the Sidewalk Ends was a favorite, and we read several more of his but i can't recall the titles. Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories I kept and still read for myself at least once a year. I can't imagine any book more suited to a child above the age of six or seven.
When they got older we read our way through Alice in Wonderland, Black Beauty, Uncle Remus (I got a comprehensive edition that Emory University published and learned to read the rhythms of the dialect. The kids loved it and still quote Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Bear), and forty or fifty other classics including (of course) Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Puddinhead Wilson, A Connecticut Yankee, the Diaries of Adam And Eve, and a hundred short stories and essays by Mark Twain. They loved David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.
We also camped our way through 41 states and we read around campfires on many summer nights.
OK - I'm running long. I enjoyed reading to the children as much as they enjoyed listening, and we kept it up until my youngest was nearly ten and grew up too much to sit still for such foolishness.
The results - three kids, three academic scholarships, two of them full rides, and a world of memories.
Today they have all grown up, but I have a five month old grandson warming up in the bullpen, and shelves full of books here to share with him.
You'll never do anything better for your children or yourself than to read to them and teach them curiosity and the love of ideas.
I no no won will beleave me but I was never red to and rairly even spokan to as a child and my vocabelarry and grandmar is exsilent. Evin my spellig is pritty good.
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