Do you read? I mean read a book? Or anything longer than 140 characters? Do you finish the books you start? Do you listen to books? How about your kids? Do they read other than school-work? We are going to talk reading with Professor Kenna Griffin this Thursday, April 17 at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET.
When I was a kid, I kept a list of favorite authors in my wallet. I’d go to our local library and scour the shelves for Hardy Boys books and others on my list. Seems such a quaint notion but I was LOST in the world of my heros in my books. I devoured them.
Following is the note/email that Professor Griffin sent me in preparation for this week’s #DadChat:
I am an avid reader and always have been. You may know that I read 100 books last year (I read 108) and challenged myself to read 150 books this year.
There are a ton of benefits of reading, which are applicable to both children and adults . However, people spend increasingly more time in front of screens, doing things other than reading.
There is a lot of research that shows the importance of reading to and with children. I don’t think the benefits are debatable at this point. Depending on what you read, it is recommended that adults spend 15-30 minutes a day reading to and with our children (depending on age). Research also shows it is important to model literate behaviors to our children. In other words, they need to see us reading and enjoying it to develop the habit.
Sadly, many of us do neither, frequently citing time as the reason we don’t. Interesting, since the average child spends two hours a day in front of the TV. Two hours in front of the TV, but no time for reading? For adults, I wrote this post about 11 ways to make more time to read.
I have one child who loves to read and one child who hates it, which absolutely breaks my heart. We make her read daily anyway, because certain levels of reading are required for school. However, I fear that she may never love to read the way her Dad and I do. Regardless, I feel like the importance of reading and modeling literate behaviors is something all parents should understand. It’s a simple way to make a more informed, articulate and well written society.
Suggested tweets to support this week’s #DadChat OR write your own!
~~ Let’s READ at #DadChat Thursday with @ProKrg
~~ Do you read? Do your kids? Let’s talk #reading at #DadChat Thursday 6pmPT/9ET!
This week’s #DadChat transcript
