Read With Your Kids

The things we choose to prioritize with our children, they WILL get better at. This applies to absolutely everything. If you don’t do something, how will you get better at it? Reading with your kids is incredibly important, because if we rely solely on school to teach our kids how to read, and how to develop a love of reading, then our kids don’t stand as good a chance. This is not the teachers fault, this is simply based on the exposure to reading. Teachers have lots of kids in their classes, and they do not have time to sit and read with each child individually to help them learn to read and develop a love for reading. Kids will learn to read this way, but if you want your kids to thrive, and love to read, we as parents must read to them as well. This has been studied around the world, and the studies always come back the same. “When children were young, parents who read to them every day or almost every day had kids who performed much better in reading, all around the world, by the time they were fifteen.” (Ripley, p. 108) The studies also talk about reading enjoyment. The kids that were read to while young, also enjoyed reading a lot more than other kids, and this may be the most important part of the studies. When our kids enjoy reading, they will become more curious, and curious kids have a much better shot at enjoying learning as well. This will help for the rest of their lives as they will be much more motivated to follow their interests, and learn through reading and discovery. Reading may just be one of the most important superpowers we can help develop in our children. As kids grow up, it is also important for kids to see their parents reading as well. “If parents simply read for pleasure at home on their own, their children were more likely to enjoy reading, too. That pattern held fast across very different countries and different levels of family income. Kids could see what parents valued, and it mattered more than what parents said.” (Ripley, p. 111) 

So, read to your kids, read with your kids, and read in front of your kids to help grow their reading superpower. 

Source, give it a read!

Ripley, A. (2014). The smartest kids in the world: And How They Got That Way. Simon and Schuster.