Why I Read To My Child

I read to Sofia every night before I tuck her in to bed.

As you may know I have four daughters and some of you may have read my earlier post about fatherhood https://francolaurel.com/i-love-being-a-dad/. You will know I became an instant father when I married Ayen in 2001. When Angia was born the year after, it was the first time I got to take care of a child from birth. I am glad Ayen had the experience of taking care of kids which helped me in understanding how to raise them. As Angia was growing up, we exposed her to a lot of musicals, concerts and the arts, which she was very passionate about. I didn’t get to read that much to her because most of the time we would sing and dance together.

When Sofia was born 11 years later, I had more experience in being a father and learned a lot of “what to do” and “what not to do” in raising a child. Ayen early on began reading to Sofia who responded so well to that, we noticed that she started speaking clearly at an early age that when you asked her what the shapes were or what animal it was, she would identify it right away. We observed that it was because we started reading to her even before she was a year old.

According to rori.org (ReachOutandRead.org)

“Reading aloud helps children acquire early language skills. Reading aloud is widely recognized as the single most important activity leading to language development. Among other things, reading aloud builds word-sound awareness in children, a potent predictor of reading success.”

To this day I read to my daughter every night before she goes to bed. It has become our bonding time where I read to her a short story or a chapter of a book from Disney Princesses to Dr. Seuss to Barney the Dinosaur to Bible Stories and so many more. If there is something she does not understand, she asks about it and I explain it to her. I even encourage her to read some of the letters she has been learning at home. A good preparation for her as she will be going to pre-school this year.

She gets so excited every time we enter the bookstore where I let her choose the books she wants to read. We can spend quite some time just looking at books and discussing about it. She says “OK Dad you will read this to me”.

I truly believe that reading to your child not only enhances their knowledge and fervor for learning new things but more importantly it builds an everlasting bond with your child that will help them grow to be secure and loving human beings.