I still remember my mom reading to me pretty much every night before bed. I remember the little picture books she would read, the Bible stories, and as we got older, many of the classics that I still love to this day such as “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Anne of Green Gables,” and my all time favorite, “The Three Musketeers.”
As the fourth of six kids, I heard some of these classics being read to my older siblings even when I was still young. Though I may not have completely understood everything going on, I still remember the vivid pictures that would play through my head as my mom would read. This may sound crazy, but I also still loved to hear my mom read even up into middle and high school. Although I was busy with sports practices and homework, I would try to pop in for just a few minutes while she read to my younger siblings.
Before I had kids, I didn’t really picture myself being a parent that often. That seemed like something I would think about and do later on. But, I did always think about when I finally had kids, I wanted to read to them like my mom did for us. My mom is the best mom in the whole world, and I think this may have been one of the most influential things she did in my life. Thanks, mom!
There are a lot of things we are told to do for our kids. We try to make sure they eat healthy, get enough sleep, wear warm clothes when it’s cold, brush their teeth, and are polite. None of these things come easy at my house. (It may be different at your house, I don’t know!) While I may spend an hour fighting with one or both of my kids about wearing a coat when it’s cold outside, (this should be common sense, right???) I never have a fight about bedtime stories. My kids have learned to love this time, and I am so thankful.
What does reading with your kids do?
Without going into a lot of research about being smarter and reading skills and test scores, I just want to quickly share three things that I have noticed reading with my family does. It creates a close bond between us, relaxes and gets us ready for bedtime, and can also be a valuable teaching tool.
1. Close bond
Even when it’s hot outside, oftentimes my kids want to snuggle up under a blanket to read. One or both of them like to sit in my lap (at least at first, but they don’t always stay there). A lot of the time my husband is there either reading the book himself, or just present in the room. But it is a time when we are together as a family. We are close, providing the physical presence that children crave so much. That is when the magic happens, and whether it is from the story or just from the family time I haven’t quite figured out yet.
As my daughter has gotten older, she has become an active participant in the story, asking questions, making connections in her real little life, and drawing conclusions. And now, my dream has come true! I have just started the Narnia books with her, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I love hearing her questions and thoughts as we read. It is magical for me too to hear how she thinks about what she is hearing, and the bond created gets even closer the more we interact.
2. Relaxing
This morning I asked my daughter about why she likes to read stories before bed. She told me that it helps her calm down and get ready for bed. I had no idea what she would say, but that makes sense to me! I still have to read before bed to calm my mind down.
Reading to my kids does not happen every single night. And they do not always sit still. But I have found that when our lives are more balanced, and not so hurried, that we have more time to read and the kids tend to sleep better. Though reading to your kids is no magic charm, I have noticed the nights where I am in a hurry, and am skipping words or paragraphs or pages of the story, or even skipped the story altogether, my kids do take longer to settle. Sometimes I’ve wished that I just took the five minutes to read them a story instead of shoving them in bed so that they would have been more settled!
3. Teach about life
There are so many good books out there that can teach your kids some of the lessons we want them to learn. There are books about being kind, sharing, not being scared of the dentist, perseverance, and having new siblings. My kids have always responded well to life lessons when I remind them about what happened to different characters in the stories we read. Sometimes the more voices are pouring into your kids’ lives, the less we have to continually teach and remind them.
When I was pregnant with my second, my daughter’s favorite books were the ones about having a little brother, such as “Little Miss, Big Sis” and a Billie B. Brown book called “The Big Sister.” I really think that each time we read these books, she was learning about what to expect when she had a little brother. I wish my mom and I had already published our book, “Big Sister on the Way,” before our son was born, but they both still enjoy reading it together now.
What a privilege it has been to work with my mom on two children’s books of our own! And there are more in the works! The two books we have already published, “Grandparent on the Way,” and “Big Sister on the Way,” are exactly in line with reading being about a close family bond, and teaching about life. My mom and I believe so much in the power of family and reading, and I hope you take just five minutes (or more) a day to read to your kids before bed too. Go get ’em, mama!
