Reading to children

Reading a friends blog called Women Bible Life, and her blog about literacy in community, I was thinking about the reasons people don't read to their children. They assure themselves they are too busy, while having time to watch hours of tv every night. They reason that they don't have many books, when there is a perfectly good library where you can get them for free. They think their children are old enough to read to themselves and it is not MY reading that needs to improve.

Reading to children is only slightly about teaching them to read. It is far more about teaching them the love of reading, and of spending one on one time snuggling and chatting together. Yes you can snuggle while watching tv, yes you can chat while driving in the car, and you should. But books have a special place in your relations with children. The other thing about reading to children is that the child usually chooses the book where as other times the grown up usually chooses the entertainment or program they both share.

Last year when I was looking after a single four year old, I read to him every night at bed time, we went to the library every week, and he quickly grew to love both of these activities and found a favorite book called "My daddy is a GIANT". One day he asked his dad to read it to him but his daddy said no. The little boy came up to my room and cried and I read him the book we cuddled for a bit.