The Importance of Reading with Our Children

The Importance of Reading with Our Children. The joys and value of reading with my daughter and my advice to new parents.

My daughter Madeline (who will be 2 in a few months!) loves to read. Just like her sister, Phoebe, Madeline is obsessed with ELMO and Sesame Street. Hats off to all you moms out there who have never let your kid watch TV until age 2 or 3 or whatever. Sorry, I can’t do it. I do limit the TV watching time of course. But hey, this mom needs to keep her sanity a little. I know it’s selfish, but I have to survive.

I love this age because I find everything she does so precious, cute and entertaining. . she still runs up to me and hugs me. .  she doesn’t talk back to me. .  she learns something new everyday. .  it’s really fascinating to watch. .  she amazes me.

We read books together all the time. And I love it how she wants to read the same book, over and over again, after about 7 consecutive times. .  she says “More!” and points to the book. It’s pretty awesome to me because she is learning the story by asking me to read it to her so many times. .  and then it becomes familiar to her so she knows what to expect. I think it’s so sweet.

Reading to our children is so important. Not only are you spending quality time with your kids but you’re also helping them fall in love with books, stories and reading. And maybe it’s because she’s my second, or maybe it’s all the reading we did and all the reading her older sister does with her, but Madeline speaks very articulately, already has a great vocabulary. Reading also sparks their imagination and creativity! And I don’t think there’s anything better than that.

I am going to enjoy this time as much as I can because there might come a day where she will not want to pick up a book with this much gusto. Until then, I am going to read “My Little Cupcake”, “Guess Who Ocean Friends”, “Barnyard Dance”, “Ten Chirpy Chicks”, “Kiss Kiss” and many more. .  over and over again.