So, here I am late on Saturday pulling together a two-for-one for you! Aren’t you excited? A SMART habit AND an exciting book review all rolled into one!
After putting together this post, I began re-thinking the reading to the two middles after lunch. Not so much an issue of guilt as much as doing what is in their best interest. One of our favorite books has a wonderful paragraph that fully defines the importance of reading. David Owen, author of The First National Bank of Dad, says:
“The best investment you can make for your kids. If your children are still young enough to tolerate close personal contact with you, there’s little you can do for them that will produce bigger long-term and short-term profits, both for them and for you. Even better, reading to children is also a good example of the best sort of family activity: quality time that is also quantity time.
Children who are read to regularly from early ages develop lifelong skills that can’t be acquired from a VCR or the Disney Channel. They become better listeners and find it easier to pay attention in school. Their vocabularies grow rapidly, and grammar seems less mysterious to them. They don’t immediately lose interest in any idea that is harder to grasp than a television commercial. They develop the patience to follow a complex problem to its solution. They become better writers all by themselves, through their ample powers of imitation.
Reading to children helps them become avid readers, and avid readers have lifelong advantages that can’t be bought for cash. Good readers do better in school, score higher on standardized tests (including standardized math tests, which, after all, consist mainly of words), attend better colleges, hold more interesting jobs, write more persuasive legal briefs, make better conversation, and become less and less likely to gripe about being bored. And they’re easier to raise and more fun to hang around with.
Most important of all, children who grow up immersed in books develop the ability to answer their own questions. If they suddenly become interested in doctors, insects, babies, the solar system, earthquakes, or fire engines, they know how to pursue the subject until their curiosity has been satisfied. Gradually, they acquire a skill shared by the greatest scholars in the world: the ability to educate themselves. Later in life, they will be able to use that same ability to teach themselves about the bond market.
All of these steadily evolving skills have economic value in adult life. Highly literate workers have immense competitive advantages throughout the economy. Employees who know how to write compelling memos are more likely to get what they want than employees who don’t. Stock analysts who are comfortable readers don’t get lost in fine print. Turning your children into good readers will give them an edge they will keep for the rest of their lives.”
My new SMART habit is reading to the middles at naptime EVERY DAY. This may mean reading to them WHILE they eat their lunch (to get them in bed so they’ll have time to nap before picking up my oldest after school), but I will read to them every day, nonetheless!
One of the neat little books we discovered this week at the library was Harry and the Dinosaurs say “Raahh! by Ian Whybrow. This is the first book we’ve read by this author, but apparently he’s written several (like more than 60!) - we’ll have to check them out next week!
In the story, Harry is on his way to see the dentist and is a little nervous (it doesn’t help that his sister showed him her filling). He wants to take his dinosaurs with him, but they all seem to be hiding (could they be nervous about the dentist too?). Harry tries to reassure the dinosaurs on the ride to the dentist, promising to push the magic button to make them big.
Tyrannosaurus “rides” the dentist’s chair first; when he opens wide and growls a loud “Raaaahhh” for the dentist, Dr. Drake asks for Harry’s help. Harry shrinks the dinosaur back to bucket-size and feels safe enough to climb into the chair himself. The dinosaurs and Harry have a pleasant dental visit, complete with spitting mouthwash everywhere.
The humor Whybrow uses in this delightful story is enough to make any child less nervous about visiting the dentist. Share it with your child - open wide!
Head over to Lara’s for other SMART habits (but I bet no one else gives you a two-for-one 
!)
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Wow! It sounds like you’ve had quite a lot going on. I hope this week is a little less adventurous er hectic. And thank you for sharing the guilt I mean encouragement to read to my kids every day. I was really good at this when it was just my son and then sometime after my daughter was born and I was juggling two nap schedules and what not I haven’t done as well. My son really likes books read to him at bedtime and I need to do that more often.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:07 am
My 7 year old had to read our book tonight because my throat is too sore. I’m going to have to re-read that part! I have finally admitted to myself that I have a short attention span for being read to. My kids can sit and listen to me read for hours but I cannot listen and comprehend when I am being read to. I guess my Mother didn’t read to me all that much. Bad Mommy!