Family Reading Night

Do you have a weekly or monthly family game night? How about family movie night? How about family reading night?

We all know about the importance of reading to our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. In elementary school children and parents are encouraged to read to each other at least 30 minutes every day. Reading together forms a bond. Nothing is more comfortating then curling up together to share a story. Do you know it is equally important to read to readers? As our children grow up we enjoy hearing them learn how to read on their own. As they start to read by themselves we slowly and naturally cease to read to them. They want their independence and we want to provide it to them. However, we need to keep reading to them even as they become middle schoolers and high schoolers. Family reading time - out loud - is important to everyone. Family reading continues a bond that you worked to form early on. It provides great discussion topics with your teenager on lots of various topics. Research shows that reading to teens boosts their reading comprehension, increases their vocabularies, and helps them become better writers. In fact, students who are read to are more motivated to read themselves—increasing the likelihood that they will one day become independent, lifelong readers.

Choose books you enjoy currently or when you were a teen. Kids know when you are faking it you need to choose something you sincerly enjoy reading! Start small, just try a short story from a story collection, or a poem and move on from there. Start by just reading 15-20 minutes and if everyone is enjoying the story then keep going or stop for the night so everyone can go back to doing their own activities and pick it up again at a later time. Try reading books that have movies associated with them so that you can read the book out loud as a family and then watch the movie together.

Everyone loves to be read to - try listening to a good audio book next time you have a long trip, you may be surprised how much fun it is (even as an adult). Just remember it is always important to read to your children, no matter how old they are!