Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: How young do you think children should be when they start reading?
I don’t think you can start too early with reading to children. I started reading picture books to my baby when he was probably less than a month old. He’s almost six months now, and we read a few books almost every day. He was five months before he started appearing to notice the book much – up until that point I think he just liked hearing my voice, and it was easier for me to read than come up with a monologue. But I figure if we start the habit of reading to him now, we can just keep going.
I don’t expect him to start being able to actually read himself for years – that’s usually a kindergarten thing, right? But I think it’s important to start reading to children long before they learn how to read.
There’s lots of research out now showing the relationship between being read to really early, and being able to cope with multiple stress issues. It’s to do with the comfort/security of parent’s voice associated with reading, and being able to read earlier, thus enriching one’s learning… and a host of other things I’ve forgotten!
Totally agree with your thinking on this. Reading to kids at an early age – and modeling reading yourself – can only help them later in school and in life in general, to give them a love of reading themselves.