First off, let me say that I love the reading campaigns geared towards parents to encourage them to read to their children.  As we all know, it is very important to read to your children.  Many studies have shown that there is a link between reading to your children and the childhood literacy rate.  But, just reading to your children falls short of its goal.  In my opinion, it is not enough to just read to them as regularly as possible, it is also important for your children to see YOU reading.

Let me tell you a story about myself which will explain why this is so important to me.  In first or second grade, I was a participant in a New York teaching experiment where they taught the students how to write in script instead of print first.  It must have sounded great to the person who came up with this idea, but in reality it caused a huge reading delay for me.  Why?  Because how many books do you read use script type? Not many, if any.  Thanks to my Dad for pointing this out to the school administration – they canceled the experiment shortly thereafter.

So, there I was not being able to read a book when I should have been, but could write and read script perfectly.  I had to re-learn everything I knew in order to learn how to read again.  The only good thing that came of this was when we moved to Massachusetts I already knew how to write in cursive when they were teaching it in third grade.

Now, I can’t remember for sure, but I was either in the “below average” reading groups or the “below, below average” reading groups until about sixth grade.  I then started to improve probably because even though I struggled I had a true love of reading.  Why?  It wasn’t just because my mom read to me (which she did every night), it was because I saw her and my older sister reading ALL the time.  I wanted to be like them when it came to reading.  I saw how they enjoyed reading and how much fun it looked and I wanted to be a part of that.

I tell people now that I was in a remedial reading class and they can hardly believe it because they know how crazy I am about books.  It was a challenge that I’m proud to have conquered and has had such an impact on my life.  I’m still not, nor ever will be, a grammar queen, but when it comes to reading you can count on me.   My 3 year old twins see me reading many times throughout the day.  It might be a book, a magazine, or just a catalog, but they know how happy I am when I’m reading.  It has become a part of their experience too.

So, the BEST way, in my opinion, to help your children learn to read and love to read is to read to them AND to have them see you reading your own books and materials.  Make reading a part of your family life and I promise you won’t regret it.