Since 1999 our friends up north have designated January 27th as Family Literacy Day
“Every year, on January 27, families and communities across Canada celebrate this special day at literacy-themed events coordinated by literacy organizations, schools and libraries”
Why might such a celebration be in order?
Because of these 7 facts of life:
- Simple things like reading and telling stories to a child at 18 months are powerful stimuli for brain development in the early years. (Early Years Study Final Report: Reversing the Real Brain Drain, Government of Ontario, 1999)
- Reading to children more than once a day has a substantial positive impact on their future academic skills. In addition, research indicates children with early exposure to books and reading are better at performing mathematical tasks. (National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, Statistics Canada, 1996-1997)
- Children aged 2 to 3 who are read to several times a day do substantially better in kindergarten at the age of 4 and 5 than youngsters who are read to only a few times a week or less. (National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth)
- For a child, the more time spent with a parent reading aloud increases his or her level of attachment, enhances a sense of security, and imparts the knowledge that their parent feels they are worthwhile people with whom to spend time
- Having a parent or other caring person read aloud with their children helps children learn listening skills, vocabulary and language skills, as well as develop imagination and creativity. (Family Literacy Foundation; 2001)
- Some experts say that for 80 per cent of children, simple immersion in reading and books will lead to real, independent reading by school age. (How to Make Your Child a Reader for Life, Paul Kropp, Random House Canada, 2000)
- Eighty-eight per cent of children aged 4 to 9 have a positive attitude about learning and look forward to school. (The Progress of Canada’s Children, Canadian Council on Social Development, 1996)
Although these stats are in Canadian I trust the conversion rate to U.S. is similar.
So turn off the cartoons and video games and break out the books. If you are showing your kid a Barney video read him the book instead, if it’s Dora and Boots explore the books instead, even Elmo translates well to the book version. If your kid prefers the video games where they kill a whole community in order to ‘advance’ to the next round then maybe a James Bond novel or an H.G. Wells novel. Something, anything just read.
If you are unfortunate enough not to have any books in the house read the newspaper out loud or better yet go to your local bookstore or library and soak in the beauty of reading and hanging out with your kids.
Thanks to Bookninja for the lead