Reading is FUNdamental

This week I am attempting to talk about reading… why it’s important, what it does for you, and why you should model it for your kids.

As soon as our oldest, Anne, was able to sit on my lap (without falling over) I started reading to her.

The books were cloth. While we read those first books, she would slobber on them, and chew the pages. She got a variety of sensory experiences!

Our next two children had the same experience… well, maybe with new books that they could put their own slobber on!

I have always loved to read… I could pass many a day, if I could get away with it, reading.

Why?

Well… it’s what allows us to become.

It allows us to become educated, entertained, informed, and literate.

Understanding the written word opens children’s minds to endless possibilities. When a child learns to read, they literally have the world at their fingertips.

Have you ever witnessed that  “AH-HA” moment when a child first understands something?  The instant their brain makes a new connection?  It is powerful.

Books do that.

Okay, reading anywhere and on anything can do that, but I am partial to the good old book. I like hardcover books the best.

You can hold a book in your hands. You touch it, feel it, and if you’re crazy like me, you can also smell it. Yup, I love the smell of a new book.

I am proud to say that I have passed these quirky traits onto my three kids!

As a parent first, then teacher, and now grandparent, I know that helping children love the printed word empowers them.

When you help a child read, encourage them to read, and help them become masterful at that skill, you set them up to be masters of their own destiny.

Think of the compelling stories of now famous people who understood the power of reading. Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain taught themselves to read… look what they became!

When you open a book, when your kids open a book, when anyone opens a book, endless possibilities begin.

A fiction book takes you on marvelous imaginative adventures.

Books about real people and real experiences inspire.

Books about how to do something can help you become anything. A rocket scientist, a painter, an engineer, the next social media mogul!

So, come on!

Give your kids lots of books!  Go to the library, have piles of them at your house. Teachers, have piles of them in your classrooms.

Let your kids catch you reading… who knows what each of you will become?

Until next time,

Pam