“Reading is the heart of education.”
Everything we do begins with reading … following a recipe, reading plans to build something, learning to use a new digital device, searching for information, reading street signs and maps; the list is endless. In order for our children to be successful at whatever career path they choose, reading is at the heart of it all.
How then can we help our children want and love to read? Sharing our own love of reading with our children. Laughing along with Ramona’s antics, crying with Brian when he is stranded alone in the north woods of Canada, sharing Chrysanthemum’s sadness when a child makes fun of her name but beaming when she learns that her teacher has a special name too. Seeing a snake in your backyard and reading about what kind it is and how it lives … sharing the joy of reading is priceless in many ways.
We have always read to our children, don’t laugh, even before they were born … we explored Winnie-the-Pooh together. Sometimes I would read, sometimes my husband. When they arrived, each day we shared books together talking about the colors, pictures, the characters. The favorite part of our day was sharing books together just before they went to bed. When we went on trips, I would read aloud a novel. My husband missed many a turnoff from the highway, he was so engrossed by the stories (no GPS telling us when to turn). No one in his home had shared a book with him when he was a child. He couldn’t understand my love of reading, but he knew he had missed out on something special and he didn’t want our children too either. So he listened to me as I read to our children (it also had the benefit of the driver not falling asleep) and shared in our nightly ritual of reading together.
Both our children are avid readers today, even our youngest son who struggled to learn to read. My husband now loves reading … although with all the traveling he does for work, most of his reading is done by listening to books from Audible.
Don’t know what to read with your children? Check out a wonderful resource in our library or your town library … The Read Aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease.
Wishing you many reading adventures, shared together,
Cheryl Chase
Teacher-Librarian