"Read to your kids!" It's great advice--important advice. But there's more to the story. How you read to your kids determines whether or not they end up with a love of reading and the skills needed to be a great reader. To start, it begins at the beginning. We used to think of the womb as dark and quiet. Actually by 24 weeks the fetus has been seen to turn in response to voices and other noise––the fetus hears us!
I love to see mammas-in-waiting reading to their baby as early as possible. Its a bonding activity--very soothing for mamma and babe. It is also the easiest time to read to a child and make up voices and play with rhythm, the most forgiving audience you'll ever have. And, if you provide this experience early on your child will arrive already feeling what it is to curl up with a good book in the arms of someone who loves them. This is the greatest start to reading you could ever give.
Nurturing experiences, bonding, and sensory activation are what the first year is all about. Finding books which provide that experience is an importnat part of early reading/listening experience. One of my favorite books for early reading to fetuses and newborns and young children is You Are My I Love You by Maryann Cusimano Love and Satomi Ichikawa. The richness of language, rhythm and rhyme are delicious nourishment for the developing relationship and developing mind. This book will stay in your hearts forever. The lesson here is "Read great books with love in your heart whenever you read to your kids." It will help develop not only the brain in their head but the brain in their heart. Reading with love throughout childhood is one of the best possible investments of time--you are building your child's future.
I'll write more about reading with little ones in my next post.
©
Nancy Tracey
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