Boys and Reading

Reading with Daddy 2 months old.

I am grateful my guys have such a bond over reading.  There are horrifying statistics about boys and reading and countless strategies people are using to try and win them over.  That's part of the reason why the Mem Fox book, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, has loomed large for me since Beansprout was first born.  At the end she addresses the concerns and argues not only that we make readers out of children in the crib, but also that we need to assure it is fathers who are reading to their sons (and daughters!)

"It's fathers who need to be there from the start, reading aloud and showing love to their kids from the first hours of their lives; and thereafter as often as they can (or at least at bedtimes) for the next five years."

It's amazing that so much more goes into the whole process of reading aloud with children than simply telling them a story and building their language.  These are moments of bonding and that bonding creates stronger brains and gives children so much more than just a vocabulary and an ability to read.

Storytime with Momma -- 6 weeks old.

There are times when it is really hard to read that book Beansprout requests for the hundredth time - to put down what I want to be doing and read a book I already know by heart; and so it is in those moments that I remember the message from Mem Fox, drop what I'm doing, and connect.