Reading, Reading, and More Reading

When our little one was an infant it felt like all we did was change her, feed her, and read to her. That was the majority of our day, anyway. With some tummy time sprinkled in here, and some Peter and the Wolf there, and lots of well deserved naps for everyone, she liked reading the best.

Since about 3 months old, she could really focus in on television, so we cut it out of our daily diet. That's right, in large part no television for the little one till she was 16 months. Now, there are such strict rules about television in our house that I get some strange glances from other family members when I tell them she can't watch that. It's mainly because we feel that television should be limited, but not prohibited. We allow her to watch mostly PBS aired programming and some Fraggle Rock.

Today, the little one has three regular story times: mid-morning, before the afternoon nap, and at bedtime. She looks forward to them, for the most part, and they seem to really settle her right down when her world may be feeling a little crazy. Each story time is about 15 minutes long, grand totalling to at least 45 minutes of reading a day.

From a non-expert, it is so important to read to children at least 15 minutes a day. It increases security, self-confidence, and self-esteem. It increases literacy, word decoding, and most of all creates a love for learning and reading that can never be extinguished. Send a book to a young someone in your life. You might be pleasantly surprised by the reaction that you receive.