reading to a book vandal

On 9 Jul 2003 18:25:23 -0700, (missy) wrote:

I am 21 years old and also a new mother. Is it true that reading to my
newborn now can be beneficial to him in the next few years of his
life?

Reading to children has been shown to be the best predictor of
the ease with which they learn to read on their own.

OTOH, I don't think we *need* to read to newborns. Do it if it
is fun.. Cuddle with your child and read simple books to him.
Once the child is mobile, he may not want to be read to for a
while, but it's a nice way to establish a bedtime routine as well.

Don't beat yourself up for not reading to him early. Speech is
*more* important than books early on. Children who learn to
read well, come to school with more knowledge about the
world around them and a large vocabulary of words they
understand and words they can say. So talk to your child,
tell stories.. Read when he is interested and model reading
by having books around and reading yourself.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

In article ,
toto wrote:

On 9 Jul 2003 18:25:23 -0700, (missy) wrote:

I am 21 years old and also a new mother. Is it true that reading to my
newborn now can be beneficial to him in the next few years of his
life?

Reading to children has been shown to be the best predictor of
the ease with which they learn to read on their own.

OTOH, I don't think we *need* to read to newborns. Do it if it
is fun.. Cuddle with your child and read simple books to him.
Once the child is mobile, he may not want to be read to for a
while, but it's a nice way to establish a bedtime routine as well.

Don't beat yourself up for not reading to him early. Speech is
*more* important than books early on. Children who learn to
read well, come to school with more knowledge about the
world around them and a large vocabulary of words they
understand and words they can say. So talk to your child,
tell stories.. Read when he is interested and model reading
by having books around and reading yourself.

Sometimes, when my kids were very small, I'd read to them out of
something that *I* wanted to read. Mostly, they wanted contact and the
sound of a voice. So I'd read the newspaper or a magazine, DH might
read a textbook out loud -- it wasn't about the story, it was about the
voice. (And we'd do this with animated voices and attention to the
child -- it was actually kind of fun.)

When my twins were very small, I can remember realizing that I wasn't
talking to them: in fact, I might go hours at a time without using my
voice at all. (I was TIRED! I think I'd have had PPD if I'd had the
energy.) (And that's a joke: I suspect I WAS suffering from some PPD,
but was mostly just exhausted and overwhelmed.) I knew they needed to
hear my voice, but was having a hard time, so I started out by just
reading the newspaper to them. It got my voice working again.

And, as others have said, the modeling is also important. My kids have
always seen us reading, we've always had at least one daily newspaper
and a house full (overfull. . .) of books.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

wrote:

I am 21 years old and also a new mother. Is it true that reading to my
newborn now can be beneficial to him in the next few years of his
life?

If your baby grows up seeing you reading a lot, and seeing you read to him,
yes, that's beneficial. Newborns won't really know the difference yet, they're
getting exposed to everything all at once, it's just that you need to develop
the habit. It's socializing too. Prop him on your lap and read bits out of the
newspaper or whatever. Tell him about the recipe you're using. Tell him that
the walk light says stop. I don't mean every minute of the day, but just now
and then, as you go about your life.

A lot of it is just showing him that reading is something people do a lot, that
they like to do, that it is useful, that it is fun, that they can share with
others ... making it a normal part of life. That's all. Probably something
you'd do to some extent anyway.

--Helen