New Parent Advice: Read to your kid

Goodnight to the old lady whispering "hush"

Today, we are visiting our sorta-granddaughter.  One of our exchange students stayed in the country, got her degree, found a nice Russian immigrant to marry, and settled down.  Since she is the closest of our "kids", we get to see them more than our own progeny.  Sophia was born on Friday, and we finally get to go see her tonight. 

We are going to bring her a couple of traditional English language books since both her parents are natural Russian speakers.  Then, we will sit down and read to her. 

As our children were growing up, we read to them constantly.  They would crawl up on our laps, relax and listen to the stories.  And we collected stories. 

The public library once put a hold on Gail's card because she had the maximum number of books checked out (60).  Valerie came home crying one day because her teacher had given the students homework of counting all the books in the house.  I taught her about estimation that day, for the total we came up was north of 1000.  The girls were reading Harry Potter books in second grade. 

All of my children are eloquent, and all still read.  I firmly believe that reading to them stretched their mind, as well as formed the parent-child bond both physically and mentally.  So, put down the phone, remote, video game controller or dirty dishes, and read to your kid.  You both will feel better.