My daughter can read. She’s six years-old and started first grade yesterday, and that girl can legitimately read books. Hard books. Real books. She can read books that I can’t believe she can read. My girl is a reader. And she loves to read.
And her brother is only three years-old and can’t read yet, but the boy loves books, too. He will sit in the car and turn the pages of book after book, as happy as can be. He begs for additional books every night before bed. He stares at the pages with intensity. He loves books and is well on his way to becoming a reader, too.
Here’s the thing:
I didn’t do anything to teach her to read, and neither did my wife. We are both elementary school teachers, and yet we have never delivered a reading lesson to our children.. No discussion about vowel sounds or consonant blends or the magic E. No running records or fluency practice. We barely participated in her kindergarten homework last year, but this girl can read.
As a parent who wants to take credit for everything that my children do well, this is disturbing. My little girl can read, and I’m not responsible.
Then someone reminded me that my wife and I have been reading books to our children before bed every single night of their lives almost without exception, and that we are often reading to our kids during the day as well.
We don’t trace the words with our fingers or point out high frequency words or discuss CVC words. We don’t ask them to try to read any words. We don’t use any of the literacy skills that we learned as elementary school teachers.
We just read.
Remarkably, less than half of all Americans do this. A survey in 2013 found that only one-third of American read to their children every night before bed. Children are more likely to be playing video games and watching television before bed than reading.
I can’t believe it.
PEOPLE! READ TO YOUR CHILDREN!
Sit down for 20-30 minutes before bed every night and read to your kids. Read the same damn books over and over again, even if you can’t stand them. Go to libraries and bring home piles of books. Ask your friends and relatives for books. Make sure that the last thing your child does every single night for the first five years of life and beyond is read.
Somehow, it works. And I should know it works since as a teacher, I know that all the research in the world says it works.
I guess I just never really believed it.
Best of all, the return on investment is enormous. In exchange for 30 meaningful minutes spent with your child every night, you will produce a child who will one day pick up a book and just start reading, seemingly out of the blue. You will produce a reader who learns her grade level sight words by October. You will produce a child who loves books and loves to read so much that she stays up late at night in her bed reading well after you have told her to go to sleep.
I did almost nothing, and I produced a reader. I’m amazing. I’m the best parent ever. I set my child up for lifelong success. I deserve a medal. Two medals. Two medals and a big-ass trophy.
And all I did was read to my kids.
My wife helped, too.
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I read nightly to my twin girls and spun them stories about "Hickory the Squirrel" until they were 13 years old. It’s one of my fondest memories of their childhood (and theirs, too). Made lots of mistakes as a parent, but did this one perfectly, and seems like you did, too 🙂
Thanks. You’re right. it’s also one of my favorite parts of the day.
I recently got out "Building Our House" my Jonathan Bean for my kids. Captivating illustrations with all kinds of little treats here and there if you’re paying attention. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Unfortunately, you can’t prove a technique based on one result. We read nightly to our twin boys up until about a year ago (they are 9 now). One of them is an extremely avid reader. It is hard to get him to do anything but read. The other has a hard time sitting down and reading for 20 minutes, which he only does because it is part of his homework. Two children, raised basically equivalently, yet a very different result.
Even the greatest and most effective strategies are not foolproof. But I think more often than not, reading to your children fosters a love for reading.
Also, doesn’t it make you crazy that one loves reading and the other doesn’t?
Yes, doubly so. One should be reading more, and one needs to read a little less. When you are supposed to be getting ready for school and walk into your room to do that but happen to see a book on the floor and pick it up to start reading it and then fail to be ready in time, it is as much of a problem as not reading enough.
When my son (now 25) was a toddler, we received a catalog like one from PBS. Inside was a cartoon that showed "Barney’s evil twin brother." A purple dinosaur wearing a black leather jacket and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Trey asked me what the caption said. Well it said, "I love you. You love me. What a wuss!" I did not want to introduce that last word into my son’s vocabulary already so, I substituted another word. I don’t remember now what the word I used by I didn’t take into account all the reading I had been doing for him. Trey was quick to point out, "Huh uh! Wuh, huh," as he sounded out the first letter. I think I ended up changing to wiseman.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing!