For much of my life I’ve hated reading. I found it time consuming and difficult. Even if what I was reading was interesting I would find myself falling asleep fairly quickly, never getting too far. Hell, I disliked read so much I found the back of cereal boxes to be too much sometimes. I still have a difficult time reading longer articles, finding myself stopping part of the way through to do something else. It’s something I’ve struggled with for years but thankfully it’s becoming something I enjoy.

There is usually a reason people dislike doing something. I blame my dislike, almost hatred, for reading on my time at school. School almost singlehandedly killed my desire to read. Day in and day out we were forced to read some of the dumbest fucking books, the school system, called literature and clinically written textbooks. Books like Ethan Frome and the Scarlett Letter dominated the curriculum making me want to bang my head on the wall repeatedly. Even things like summer reading lists forced me to choose books others thought were worthwhile instead of giving me parameters to choose for myself.

Now that I’ve gotten this off my chest I want to talk about the real reason for this post. I love my kids and, like most parents, I want my kids to grow up better than I am. I want them to be physically and mentally prepared for everything life might throw at them. I want them to develop the love of learning, I feel, the educational system tried to beat out of me. This starts with reading.

Even before I knew how important reading was to my kids’ development, I would spend almost every night reading to them. Honestly, a good portion of my original thought process was selfish. I wanted to be a better read and I thought one of the best ways accomplish my goal was read to my kids every day. It’s worked too. The more I’ve read to them the more confident I’ve become as a reader. This wasn’t my only reason for reading to my kids. I had fond memories of my Dad reading to me before bed and I thought it was important to pass on the tradition.

I’ve since learned there are other important benefits to reading to your kids regularly. According to an article in the Washington Post by Amy Joyce, “Study after study shows that early reading with children helps them learn to speak, interact, bond with parents and read early themselves, and reading with kids who already know how to read helps them feel close to caretakers, understand the world around them and be empathetic citizens of the world.” The crazy thing is it seems to be working. My oldest is consistently one of the best readers in his class and continues to read grades above his level. Time will only tell if this continued practice will work with my two younger kids.

While I’m pumped to hear my son is one of the best readers in his class it, honestly, means very little. It’s not like it’s a competition with the other parents in his class. (Ok, maybe a little bit). What I find more exciting is his desire to read on his own. When he can’t sleep he regularly pulls out one of his books and reads on his own. That’s the win for me.

At some point I will write an entire post about my thoughts on learning vs education but I have one final thought to share. Learning is one of the most important traits we can develop in our kids. One of the most fundamental way we can foster this ability and desire is reading. The earlier and the better your kids can read the more they are able, and willing, to learn. The more they learn, the better prepared they will be for anything life throws at them and isn’t this truly what we want for them?

Please, if you have kids in your life read to them every day. I promise you won’t regret it.