Kabook

When my son was a toddler, I endeavored to rush home each night in time for the end of the bedtime routine: reading and snuggling. We read at least one book each night, frequently a couple, and sometimes more. While we snuggled after – still one of my favorite parenting memories – I’d ask, “Do you know what this is for me?”

“The favorite part of your day,” he would respond.

And it was.

As our children have grown older, we’ve read some of the hundreds of studies that say the number one thing parents can do to drive long term academic success is to inspire a love of reading. Reading to children has been shown to support cognitive development, improve language skills, heighten concentration, and improve creativity, in addition to establishing a stronger parent/child relationship. In his best-seller The Read-Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease says, “Every time we read to a child, we’re sending a ‘pleasure’ message to the child’s brain… You could even call it a commercial, conditioning the child to associate books and print with pleasure.”