I love reading with my kids. We all know it’s great to ready to our children, but there are several advantages reading with your children.
What are the Benefits of Reading to Young Children
- Bond with your kids over an excellent book – The earlier you start reading to your child the better. Plus, as children get older they spend more time on the move and less time snuggled up with mom and dad. Reading to your kids is a great way to sneak in a little extra cuddle time which we know is an awesome bonding time.
- Attention, kids need it – I have four children, my husband, and I read with each of them independently. Their reading time gives them a little one-on-one time with mom and dad that they all need. We have read to our girls since they were itty bitty and it’s awesome to watch big sister read to little sister and even pay attention.
- Reading is fun – The only way to show you children how fun reading can be is to read to them and have a good time yourself. They’re not going to buy it if you never read to them but tell them how much fun it can be, children are smart and they need to see mom and dad having fun reading too. So pick up a book and start reading!
- Reading can help a child’s attention span – Reading to children can help with developing their attention span, which is great before they head off to preschool and kindergarten.
- Have fun with your child – Reading to my kids is a time for us to have a little fun. I love acting out the parts and making my kids smile. They’ll eventually join in with me; it’s fun!
- Opening up the world with endless possibilities – I’ve always thought reading was like a vacation from real life where you could go and do whatever you wanted. Different books take us on different adventures and I feel like I’m sharing this world with my children when I read them.
- Reading to them early can help them not only love reading but become a better reader – My youngest really got into reading this summer when we did the Scholastic Reading Challenge. She is always asking someone to read to her and even reading a lot of the words for herself now. It’s truely amazing how quick children learn.
- Reading with your kids could result in a lifelong relationship with books – If we read to our kids, have fun with it and talk to them about what reading does and why you enjoy it so much it could result in a lifelong relationship with a book. Of course, you’ll need to support them along the way.
- Problem-solving – Talking about your child about the book can help them with problem-solving. When you speak about things that happened in the book, how we feel that would play out in our life, what would have happened if they would have made another choice, and how they would deal with a similar situation you’re helping them solve problems.
The Story Starts Here
As you may already know Scholastic is committed to inspiring and lifelong love for reading starting from day one.
To help ignite the love for reading from day one Scholastic recently launched their “The Story Starts Here” campaign. The Story Starts Here is a picture book campaign that grew out of Scholastic’s desire to bring variety of rich books to new parents and caregivers, and of course educators and librarians. By doing this they hope they will ignite a love for reading that starts from day one. They have an awesome and unique roster of characters and stories, stories and formats. There is a book at Scholastic for every child.
We’ve ready a few we received from Scholastic and we have a family favorite, it’s the best book I think any of us have read. If If You’re A Robot And You Know It is by far one of the cutest books we have read. My kids have asked my husband and I to read it more than 6 times already, lol. It’s super cute and I highly suggest checking it out. It will make you smile.
About the book:
It’s great, a classic version of If You’re Happy and You Know It as you’ve never seen (or heard!) it before. Sing along to the free downloadable song by the dynamic Musical Robot team, then turn the pages as David Carter’s clever pop-ups show the robot characters going through all of the call-out movements, from clapping hands to shooting laser beams out of your eyes! David A. Carter is the creator of the bestselling Spot the Dot app, as well as the bestselling Bugs books, One Red Dot, and many other books for children. He lives in Auburn, California, with his wife and two daughters.You can watch this YouTube video trailer if you like.
You’ll be able to find new and exciting books, book news and events, downloadable activities and assists, as well as author and illustrator bios, Q&As and fun facts about Scholastic talent when you visit Scholastic.com/StoryStartsHere and follow Scholastic on Twitter.
We also have a few free and fun activity sheets you can download for your kids. To access the activity sheets click on the below links and enjoy.
Enter To Win The Story Starts Here Giveaway
One lucky person will recent a fabulous collection of Scholastic pictures books, which include:
- Peek-a-boo Farm by Joyce Wan
- If You’re A Robot And You Know It by David A. Carter (lyrics by Musical Robot)
- Where’s Walrus? And Penguin? by Stephen Savage
- Zen Socks by Jon J Muth
- Friendship by Amy Krause Rosenthal (illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld)
This is a sponsored post written by us for Scholastic. All options are our own.
4 comments
Excellent points. I always enjoyed reading with my daughter. And when she was old enough to read for herself, I would ask her to read to me! You can bond together at any age – and even start a book “club”!
I believe reading to your children is so important for all the reasons you mentioned. These books sound great. I will have to check these out for my grandchildren. Thank you so much for sharing
I always enjoyed story time. It helped the kids unwind before bed. We all enjoyed that bit of quality time.
I agree wholeheartedly to these benefits. Moreover, by listening to you read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, your child is reinforcing the basic sounds that form language. “Pretend reading”—when a toddler pages through a book with squeals and jabbers of delight—is a very important pre-literacy activity. As a preschooler, your child will likely begin sounding out words on his own.