Reading With Your Children

Few will dispute the importance of parents reading with their children. Reading, starting at a very young age, helps improve vocabulary, oral and literacy skills, reading comprehension, and even social skills. In fact, a child's early reading habits can predict future success in this area. However, simply reading the words on a page is not always enough. Children will not receive these benefits if they do not understand what is going on in the story or other form of literature. Teachers alone cannot provide every need a child has in this category. Many parents understand the importance of reading with their children daily. On the other hand, many do not. Parents must take care in pointing at pictures and words and asking and answering questions during the reading process. Many children learn best when interacting with the story itself rather than just listening to a jumble of words. 
I will cover how each age can be best influenced by reading with their parents. I have broken them up into five basic categories: infant, toddler, preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary (approximately 1st-3rd grades). Each age group will include two "diary entries" from the child's perspective. One entry will be from the perspective of a child who actively reads with his or her parents, and the other will be from the perspective of a child who is not influenced by reading with parents whether it's because the reading is not engaging or because the parents simply neglect to read with their child. I hope everyone enjoys these entries and benefits from my posts!