Read to Your Kids Before Bed Everyday

I am not going to document all the clinical studies that say reading to your kids at a young age is beneficial.  We all know that it is a good thing to do.  Reading can be hard to fit into a busy schedule but it is really worth it, not only for the kids.  Seven months ago, before our ‘change everything lifestyle overhaul’, we were not reading to our twins.  They where 15 months old at the time and they did not have the patience for it, especially Bryce, and in reality with everything going on in our life we didn’t have the patience for it.  Bryce would take whatever book I was reading, throw it on the floor and run away.  This was really frustrating since it was a completely different than what we had experienced with Annika when she was that age.  After our move we were determined to slow down and persevere with reading to the twins.  Good Move.

I was pretty sure Jada would be like her sister and love reading books, as at a very young age Annika would spend a fair bit of her time sitting by herself and looking at books.  Bryce on the other hand has been a great surprise.  I thought he would be one of those boys who wouldn’t sit still long enough to finish one small book and would just want to go and play.  While that held true for about a week into our new reading routine that quickly changed when he started identifying with a couple of the books and now Bryce can look at books seemingly all day.  This bedtime routine is so popular that it does not matter what they are doing at the time, it is always easy to convince them to stop and come read a story together.  We read 3-4 toddler type books before tucking the twins to bed and then one of us goes to Annika’s room for a couple more she has picked out.

My advice for reading to your kids is:  Choose a time where you can commit to at least 10-15 minutes, be patient, and don’t give up.  If you do this I think you will see some of the effects that we have noticed with our kids, and the benefits mentioned in all those studies.

Recommended reading: By Bryce and Jada age 22 months

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear: Eric Carle
• Goodnight Moon: Margaret Wise Brown
• Does a Cow Say Boo?: Judy Hindley and Brita Granström
• Monkey Puzzle:  Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by: Eric Carle

Recommended reading: By Annika age 4.5yrs

• Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendak
• Richard Scarry Collection: Richard Scarry
• Curious George Collection:  Margret and H.A. Rey
• The Lorax: Dr Seuss (most Dr Suess actually)
• Tales from a Desperate Dog: Eileen Christelow
• Here Come the Babies:  Catherine and Laurence Anholt

Our kids like variety and a trip to the local library can be a very fun outing, see Rediscover Your Public Library.