The importance of reading to children.
When it comes to favorite childhood memories, one of the most potent for children is that of time spent with parents doing an activity that both enjoyed, such as gardening, playing a favorite sport, or enjoying a common hobby such as putting together a puzzle or playing an instrument. My favorite memories of childhood are the times I spent listening to my mom and dad read stories to us children. My parents often took turns reading stories depending on the content, epic stories like “A Wrinkle in Time” and “The Minute Boys of Lexington” fell to dad. My dad was a man always willing to read the occasional extra chapter when the tension grew too much after the customary nightly chapter had concluded. Mom read the calmer books, with relatable heroes and heroines, such as Laura in “Little House in the Big Woods” and Pippi in “Pippi Longstocking." I loved all stories, since it always meant listening to the sound of my parents’ voices as they wove the words together to create perfect mental images that still exist in my mind today. Every one of these stories came alive for my siblings and me through the voices of my parents.
Only now do I understand the important role that such stories played in the building of relationships between my parents, siblings and myself. For most parents, story reading is something done to coax the unruly child into bed, to calm them down after a long busy day, or to reward them for their good behavior. I do not know many parents who understand the value that this most wonderful of nighttime rituals has for their children. As one child who grew up with this most wonderful of gifts, I never cease to thank my parents for the wonderful gift of reading and love for stories.
What stories do is bring people together, enable them to experience something at the same time, create a memory, and feel connected, in a way that other activities cannot do as well. While playing a board game with the family is an excellent and worthy way to spend time as a family, reading stories does something more, and it forces children to use their imagination, challenge preconceived notions, and makeup their own minds about why certain things are or should be. Who has ever read Huckleberry Finn and not felt the anguish of Huck’s decision to protect his friend Jim from being sent back into slavery? The story may be intense, but what parents does not have the right to speak to their child about the vital importance of making decisions and living with the consequences, or the reason for abolishing slavery? Such issues can be hard for people to speak about, so for many parents, books can be a welcome means of letting their children know about issues going on in the world, ad answering questions that may come up.
The time I spend reading books to children is time I consider well spent, especially if the book makes a point that I want to resonate with the children, even if they do not understand the point at their young age. Story time is not just for the young, who does not enjoy a good story, and are not books on CD just a new method of listening to the words of the author?
Parents, if there is one activity I can encourage you to make an important part of raising your children, it is spending time reading to them, not only will you be establishing a love of reading and stories in their lives, you will be shaping memories that will last for decades. As someone who works in a bookstore, I never cease to smile when a person, no matter what age, pick up a book with a glow of delight on their face when they exclaim “I loved this book as a kid!”
You know that old story about teaching a man to fish versus giving a man a fish? The same does not apply to books, whether teaching a child to read, or reading to them, each is a gift beyond measure!
When it comes to favorite childhood memories, one of the most potent for children is that of time spent with parents doing an activity that both enjoyed, such as gardening, playing a favorite sport, or enjoying a common hobby such as putting together a puzzle or playing an instrument. My favorite memories of childhood are the times I spent listening to my mom and dad read stories to us children. My parents often took turns reading stories depending on the content, epic stories like “A Wrinkle in Time” and “The Minute Boys of Lexington” fell to dad. My dad was a man always willing to read the occasional extra chapter when the tension grew too much after the customary nightly chapter had concluded. Mom read the calmer books, with relatable heroes and heroines, such as Laura in “Little House in the Big Woods” and Pippi in “Pippi Longstocking." I loved all stories, since it always meant listening to the sound of my parents’ voices as they wove the words together to create perfect mental images that still exist in my mind today. Every one of these stories came alive for my siblings and me through the voices of my parents.
Only now do I understand the important role that such stories played in the building of relationships between my parents, siblings and myself. For most parents, story reading is something done to coax the unruly child into bed, to calm them down after a long busy day, or to reward them for their good behavior. I do not know many parents who understand the value that this most wonderful of nighttime rituals has for their children. As one child who grew up with this most wonderful of gifts, I never cease to thank my parents for the wonderful gift of reading and love for stories.
What stories do is bring people together, enable them to experience something at the same time, create a memory, and feel connected, in a way that other activities cannot do as well. While playing a board game with the family is an excellent and worthy way to spend time as a family, reading stories does something more, and it forces children to use their imagination, challenge preconceived notions, and makeup their own minds about why certain things are or should be. Who has ever read Huckleberry Finn and not felt the anguish of Huck’s decision to protect his friend Jim from being sent back into slavery? The story may be intense, but what parents does not have the right to speak to their child about the vital importance of making decisions and living with the consequences, or the reason for abolishing slavery? Such issues can be hard for people to speak about, so for many parents, books can be a welcome means of letting their children know about issues going on in the world, ad answering questions that may come up.
The time I spend reading books to children is time I consider well spent, especially if the book makes a point that I want to resonate with the children, even if they do not understand the point at their young age. Story time is not just for the young, who does not enjoy a good story, and are not books on CD just a new method of listening to the words of the author?
Parents, if there is one activity I can encourage you to make an important part of raising your children, it is spending time reading to them, not only will you be establishing a love of reading and stories in their lives, you will be shaping memories that will last for decades. As someone who works in a bookstore, I never cease to smile when a person, no matter what age, pick up a book with a glow of delight on their face when they exclaim “I loved this book as a kid!”
You know that old story about teaching a man to fish versus giving a man a fish? The same does not apply to books, whether teaching a child to read, or reading to them, each is a gift beyond measure!
