At daycare or preschool, your child is exposed to a multitude of books. Whether your child sits one on one to read their favorite book, or hears a story told aloud during storytime, books are becoming an integral part of her life. Reading at home reinforces the love your child may be building for reading, and will do a tremendous amount to build verbal skills, social skills, and to help your child bond with you and her teachers.
Become a Reading Role Model
Everything you do fills your child with excitement. They learn speech and mannerisms from you. They learn to throw a ball from you. And when you take the time to read their favorite book, showing enthusiasm for the various characters’ voices and for the dramatic moments in the plot, you’re teaching them that reading is a worthwhile activity.
Learning to Love Reading
The experience of reading with you at home, or with their teachers at daycare and preschool, cements a child’s love of reading. It’s a bonding experience, which makes a child feel attended to and loved. It’s also fun and exciting! When your child gets used to reading time as a pleasant experience, it will promote a love of reading later in childhood.
Reading Provides a Vocabulary Boost
Every new word that your child hears as you read to them provides them with an opportunity to mimic your voice, ask questions about the word’s meaning, and eventually acquire new vocabulary to use on their own.
Reading Stokes Conversation
During the course of a reading session, your child may become curious. Why does Corduroy want a home and a friend? Are the insects I see outside really caterpillars before they become butterflies? These conversations about characters and situations in books promote natural, easy conversation between you and your little one.
Reading Introduces Children to the World
There are books about outer space. There are books about the past. There are books about children who do not look like your child. Books introduce your child to new environments, time periods, and cultures, which helps their imaginations to open up, and allows them to develop a sense of the greater world around them.
Do you love to read to your child at home? What are some of his favorite books? Let us know what your recommendations are in the comments section!