Here are just a few of the plethora of reasons to encourage kids to read. As a parent, teacher, educator, tutor, or whatever connection you have to students, hopefully this list inspires you.
- It sparks the imagination.
- Reading often can help with standardized tests later in life (i.e. the SAT, AP Tests, and the ACT)
- Fiction opens doors and windows to new worlds and often tell us things about life and human character that we wouldn’t otherwise know.
- Non-fiction can provide expertise in new fields. Knowledge in most fields can be obtained through some form of the written world.
- We get an inside peek into people’s lives. By encouraging your child to read biographies, they might find someone who inspires them.
- The more you read, the easier it gets to read and understand.
- Reading improves vocabulary.
- Reading helps with other skills like visualizing, which is a useful trick for enhancing your mind-body connection.
- Reading helps with writing. It improves how kids understand language and sentence structure, so they’re more likely to mimic what they read in their own writing.
- It can be contagious! If you kid is talking about the Hunger Games, it can be a great example to other kids and encourage them to read as well.
- Reading can help with social skills. Studies have show that children who are poor readers early in life tend to show signs of aggression later in life (I have some theories about this which may be explained in a later blog post).
- Reading saves money. Well, this might be a benefit more for parents than children. Reading is cheap. With libraries being free and now offering an array of e-books, the country’s most popular titles are at their fingertips.
- For young kids, the reading habit can start early–by you reading to them. By reading books to your kids, you help them grasp the language faster. This will help them be better communicators when they get older.
- It’s an excuse to bond with your kids. They may not want you watching iCarly or Gossip Girl with them (and you may not want to watch those shows either). But adults read young adult novels just as much as young people.
There are many, many more reasons why kids should read. I, personally, attribute much of my success to the fact that I learned how to read early. What are some of your reasons for wanting kids to read widely and abundantly?