Five Reasons You Should Read to Your Kids

Before I began my glamorous and illustrious career of being a home day care provider and spending my days making grilled cheese sandwiches, cutting fruit up into bite-sized pieces, and changing over two dozen diapers, I was a teacher. I also got my Master’s degree in literacy and reading. I know it is important to read to your children. I know this is true.

You probably know it too.

Why is it so important? I’m about to tell you.

1. You want your kid to learn how to read, right? You want them to learn to read and excel at it. They must do this to be a productive member of society. I mean, you can be bad at math or not great at remembering events in U.S. History and still hold down a job. If they can’t read, they might not be able to pass a driver’s education class and then they won’t be able to drive and you will spend your days and nights driving them everywhere and then they won’t get a decent job and then they will live with you forever and you will continue to spend all of your free time doing their laundry and cleaning up their messes until they are well into their 20s or even 30s and then…you get the idea.

2. If you really hit the ground running with your first born, then they will be competent readers and be able to read to your other kids. This saves you hours of reading the same old tired a%$ book to your toddler and trying to skip pages without them noticing so you can just get to the end. But you get to the end and they whine, “AGAIN! Read it again.” Reluctantly, you flip back to the beginning of The Gingerbread Man and act as surprised as you did the first time you read it when he gets eaten by the fox.

Teach your oldest to be a great reader…and you are golden.

3. You secretly (or maybe not so secretly) want your kid to be smarter than all the other kids in kindergarten, don’t you? You want to tell everyone, “Oh little Bobby is only five and can read chapter books. His teacher says he is on a 3rd grade level. He just zoomed through the summer reading list.”

Read to your kid and earn the right to brag your face off. Other moms will roll their eyes and talk about you behind your back, but you will get the last laugh when little Bobby becomes a plastic surgeon and can give you a free boob lift and Botox.

4. If you read to your child, they will become better readers and be able to read and understand the directions to all the video games and crap that they play. They won’t have to keep calling you over and saying, “What does this say? What do I do now? And now what does this say?”

Hell, just teach them the basics like start, continue, end game and you will save yourself a little of the hassle.

5. Finally, I don’t know about you but it would give me peace of mind if ALL kids could become better readers. Our future is in their hands. I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way…

Wait, I think that sounds familiar.

Okay, so are you convinced now? Then go read to your kids. Right this minute. No wait, you can read to them after you do the following…

Comment on this post and tell me how much you agree.

Great. NOW go enjoy a book with your little one.

Katie is a minivan driving mom to three wonderful daughters. Read more of her work at The Somewhat Sane Mom.