The Importance of Reading to Children

Everyone knows it’s important to spend time with their kids, but spend time with them doing what?  Finding something that’s both interesting to the children and provides wonderful memories that will last can be somewhat difficult, but we know it’s necessary to building wonderful relationships with our kids.

Wouldn’t it be ideal if you could spend time with your children and create lasting memories while doing something educational?  Believe it or not, this is possible!

How?

Reading.

READ to your kids!  I know that seems too simple, but it’s true.  And it’s not just true for little kids – it’s even more fun with school aged children.

It’s like this:

How would you like your children to fall in love with reading into their teens and adult years?  This would ensure they never stop learning and growing, it will make them better writers, and you and your children will both have wonderful memories as a result.

Reading the Classics

I would recommend finding classic books to read.

I mean, doesn’t it make sense that reading classic literature is the best way to get a classical education?

Studying the classics with your children can be so much fun!  Don’t know where to start?  Visit Oliver DeMille’s websiteto find a complete book list for kids (and adults too!).

Another amazing benefit that some may overlook in reading the classics with your kids is the fun involved for both parties.  Be honest.  How many times have you been reading to your kids and gotten bored because the normal books for kids don’t offer entertainment for adults?

Too many times to count.

Obviously, when children are little, those books are fun to read, but what about when they reach the ages of 5 or 6 years old?

Well written literature, like the books on DeMille’s list, will help children to think creatively and spur on fun conversations between you and the kids about what’s going to happen next, why the characters make the decisions they make, and how to take the lessons from the story and put them into practice in real life.

And take it from my experience – when your children get into high school and beyond, they will want to reread some of the classics you read together, and will find new classics you haven’t read together to read on their own.  You will have brought up a life-long reader and learner!

Readers are Better Writers

Do you want your children to be excellent writers?  They must first be excellent readers!  And the only way they’re going to start reading books on their own is if they have you reading to them before they can read themselves; and even into the age when they can read themselves.

But you don’t want them reading just anything.

Read good, classic literature with brilliant writing, and your children will write with variety and creativity.  Have them reading mediocre books, and it will be much harder to write with excellence.  Taking good English courses is also essential, but reading has such a big impact in the area or writing, that to ignore is to ignore the most important part of learning to write.

Lastly, you have to be a reader yourself.  This is probably the most IMPORTANT step in getting your children to fall in love with reading.  I know…No fun, right?  Wrong!  You can find classical literature for adults too!  Being a reader yourself sets the example for your kids – They see you reading, and it’s only natural that they will start reading on their own too.

Reading as a Family

One final tip:

If you’re lucky enough to be all together as a family during the evening, you could initiate a family reading night.  Light the fireplace (if you have one), pop some popcorn, and read!  Instead of watching a movie, read a book as a family over a period of several months!  The cozy memories will stick with your children a whole lot more than watching ten movies ever would.

You know, the memories I have with my mom on the couch reading classics, or the time with my dad at night reading The Cornicles of Narnia are some of the coolest memories I have growing up.  I am so grateful that my parents took the time to read to me when I was little and for the books they gave me to read on my own as I got older.  Today, I read every day on my own and I LOVE IT!  It’s one of the best gifts you can give your children, trust me.

Reading with your children will draw you and your children closer together!  There is so much to learn, and so much fun to be had!  You are the biggest influencers in your children’s lives, so make it count!

There’s only so much time that your family will have to be together under the same roof.

Only so much time to influence your children for the better.

Don’t waste it.

Cherish it!

Until next time,

Hope Frances