One of the best pieces of advice I can give to any parent is read to your kids every day. As an educator and now a mother myself, I cannot under-emphasize the POWER of reading to your kids DAILY. So, here are my personal reasons for why I encourage daily reading:
Daily reading helps children develop vocabulary.
Think about the words used in books that you would not likely use in front of your child, but you want them to know and understand. Reading to kids exposes children to vocabulary beyond standard conversational language that they will encounter when they begin to learn to read. Reading to kids provides them an opportunity to hear these words used in a context that is meaningful and memorable.
Daily reading helps children explore concepts beyond what they can experience in their surroundings.
We live in Florida. My son is not going to see snow, but he will definitely be exposed to snow and snowy weather concepts in school and in life. When I read him stories that take place in the snow, I can show him something he would not see otherwise.
Daily reading helps children build their schema.
Schema, or background knowledge, is the information you already know about a topic. Imagine your 5-year-old in school with a book in front of them. The story is about a family who visits the Statue of Liberty. You have read your child books and talked to them about famous landmarks. Your child is able to pull from their schema what they already know about the Statue of Liberty and is able to use this background knowledge to help them figure out new words.
Daily reading helps children develop print concepts.
Reading models for kids how to associate symbols with sounds and words with meaning. Kids passively learn how to hold books, how to turn the pages, how to track words from left to right. Kids who enter kindergarten without knowledge of print concepts will need explicit instruction. They will need to develop this understanding before they are developmentally capable of moving on to the kindergarten reading comprehension standards. Thus, children who enter kindergarten without an understanding of the concepts of print are likely to be at a deficit compared to their peers.
(Want your little one to learn about the concepts of print before kindergarten? Check out my Concepts of Print digital reading unit, currently available on TeachersPayTeachers.)
Now, when I say every day, am I being serious? Like, every. single. day?!
YEP! Communication is a daily part of life and that’s what writing is. Show your children written words every day and watch their communication skills grow every day.
You might be thinking, “That’s a lot of books and a lot of time, lady…” Don’t start sweating yet. Reading does not always have to be formal. You don’t need to sit down with a book for 20 minutes every single day for your child to benefit from reading. Not at all.
Read a recipe, a grocery list, or signs in the park. There are words all around you. Find them and read them together! It’s more about pointing out written words, associating the spoken words with the written words, and then putting those words into context through conversation.
Read to your kids every day, talk about what you read, and watch your little ones GROW!
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