Would you like to improve your children’s ability to communicate effectively? Would you like to help them improve their vocabulary and sentence structure as they talk? Are you tired of sentences filled with “Ums,” “Uhs,” “You knows,” “likes,” “he goes,” and “she goes” and all other violence done to the language of our fathers? Would you like to help your children learn to speak publicly? Would you like to help them have confidence when they open their mouths?
There is a key that helps with all of this. No, I’m not saying it is the panacea for all our generational communication gap woes. Nor am I saying it is foolproof or failproof. But it will really help.
READ TO YOUR CHILDREN!
Yes, absolutely. Read to them. I don’t care how old they are. If they live in your home, read to them. Obviously read age appropriate stuff. If your kids are ages 2 and 5, War and Peace is not likely to help much. At the same time, if your kids are 14 and 16, they may not go for Cat in the Hat after dinner.
Read to your kids before they know how. Read to them when they say, “I’m too old for this.” Read to them together. Read to them separately. Read to them Mom. Read to them Dad. Encourage them to read to each other. Let them read to you.
Don’t force them to only read classics. Let them read anything (provided it fits within the bounds of your standards of propriety, etc.). Maybe the only like to read sports related books, while you wish they would read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Illiad. Listen, any reading will help them.
Further, let them see you reading. Dads, don’t let your boys grow up thinking reading is for girls. Moms, don’t let your girls grow up thinking reading is men’s work. Just read to them.
Trust me, it will help (even if you can’t always tell).
If you wondering how to start, Jim Trelease has a great book The Read-Aloud Handbook: Sixth Edition (Read-Aloud Handbook)
Edwin,
You are absolutely right when you say read to your child. When I was teaching in the public school system, so many of my parents solely relied on me to teach their child to read. It just doesn't work that way. If parents would just start early as you said, reading to their child daily, that passion for reading would be naturally instilled thereby making my job a lot easier. Parents allow their children to have too many other distractions,TV, computer, video games, thereby causing them to view reading as boring. The Read Aloud Handbook is awesome. I recommend it to my parents often.
Edwin,
Another home run post!!!
I have become a HUGE advocate of reading to your children. MANY influencing factors have led to my passion for reading out loud to your children. Let me just share one of them. I have interviewed many people for many different things. (preachers, children of preachers, leaders, etc.) One of the groups of people I have interviewed are people who have done well academically, and were generally accepted as being "smart."
The reason I interviewed them is because I wanted to see what their parents did to cultivate that diligence in them. I did well on tests, but was completely unmotivated to participate in my school's work program. 🙂
Keep in mind, I was concerned with people who were not JUST viewed as being smart…my primary focus was ability COMBINED with diligence and personal industriousness.
THE SINGLE GREATEST commonality between all the people I interviewed was that when I asked them how and when they learned to read, the answer was the following. (or close to it)
"I don't know. I guess, as early as I remember my mom/dad/parents just read to me so much that I pretty much just picked it up."
SO many lessons there.
1) If acquiring the skill to read is an "effortless" byproduct of your family culture, think of all the potential mental blocks that some people have toward reading that will NEVER become an issue.
2) Some people, in talking about economic disparity between minority and "majority" families, mention the concept of transferred wealth. For example, the concept is, that to compare certain ethnic groups today, and use that measurement to make some inference, is unfair because the concept of inherited wealth is not considered. (for example, the second free generation descendants of slaves would have a LOT less inherited wealth[property, investments, etc.] than a family whose lineage was always free.)
The point is, imagine the inherited/accumulated academic wealth that is transferred from generation to generation once there is the culture of reading out loud.
Man, I could go on, but I'll spare everyone.
GREAT job, Edwin! (as usual)
Frederic Gray
Thanks Shelly and Frederic.
Developing a culture of reading as well as a generational legacy of doing so is definitely a great thing. We've messed up a lot of things as parents. However, I am happy that we have diligently worked on this. We have yet to see all the rewards, but my two oldest children are already well on their way to being writers. Both of them repeatedly bring stories they've written to me. Ethan even says that is what he is going to do when he grows up. I'm cool with that.