Kids and Reading

"It's easy to be blasé about reading and books – easy to take them for granted. Yet when I think about it, reading to me is the key to so much. The key to a wider reach of information, a path to learning, the joy of entertainment and the exciting of the imagination. It's just so much fun." - William McInnes, Australian actor and author and patron of the National Year of Reading.

My kids are readers. You have no idea how proud that makes me to say that. My kids love to read - with me, with my husband, with their grandparents, with their cousins, with random strangers, but, most importantly by themselves.

My daughter camping this year

My son, same camping ground, 18 months earlier

Now it would be fair to say that my kids have been showered with books from an early age. Both my husband and I are readers and as a teacher I knew the importance of reading. We read to our kids all the time and now they read to us. Both read above grade level, but what is most important to me is that they choose to spend a part of their day with their noses in a book!

10 year old boy book shelves

The Princess' book shelf

2012 is the National Year of Reading in Australia. It scares me that in a country as rich and prosperous as Australia in 2006,  almost 50% of adults "cannot confidently read newspapers, follow a recipe, make sense of timetables, or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle." - Source Australian Bureau of Statistics

That is a scary statistic. Almost 50%! How does that happen??

I'm a true believer that reading starts at home. It is so simple - a child who is read to, who sees their same sex parent reading is more likely to read themselves. 10 minutes a day, that's all it takes. 10 minutes of sitting with your child and sharing a book. One hour every week or two to take them to a library. These two simple things open the world to a child in extraordinary ways.

To finish, some of my favourite quotes about books and reading - a way to open many, many doors.

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.

^{- Confucius}

The connection between reading speed and comprehension; a film is made up of still images flashed in rapid succession to simulate movement. Slow down the film, and the movement and meaning slows and the film's impact is diminished. Viewers won't learn as much about the film as if it were shown at normal speed. With reading the same thing can happen. When a person reads word by word, like frame by frame, they are not reading on the level of ideas. You need to read on some level that's more conversational and allows things to coalesce into ideas themselves.

^{- Doug Evans, Institute of Reading Development}

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy.

^{- Edward P. Morgan}

Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.

^{- Emilie Buchwald}

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.

^{- Frederick Douglass}

<sup>(all quotes came from here)

Now, go read to your kids!</sup>