Encouraging Families to Read
We homeschool our kids but even if you don’t you should read this column. As I think you’ll see, it’s not just the kids that need to be encouraged to read.
According to a 2019 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 15 to 19-year olds spend an average of 7.8 minutes a day reading. Less than eight minutes a day. I hope this is as startling and obviously problematic to you as it is to me. We may live in a visual media age but one thing visual media are not good at is training the brain to think in an orderly, linear, and logical manner.
The intellectual framework of orderly, clear thought is very important to western culture. Perhaps our teenagers barely reading and not having this framework accounts for part of the cultural shift away from orderly discussion and logical argument. But I digress.
Backtracking from teenagers to pre-readers, there are numerous groups like the Children’s Reading Foundation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Read 20, that provide info on the positive difference reading (or being read to) 20 minutes a day can make.
If a child reads/is read to for 20 minutes a school day, by 6th grade he will have been exposed to around 1.8 million words. This exposure builds vocabulary, linguistic and reading skills, and an interest in reading. It also means the child will have that much less screen time.
In contrast, a child reading/being read to 5 minutes per school day (barely less than the average 15 to 19-year-old you may remember) will be exposed to about 252,000 words by 6th grade. That is 85% fewer words than the 20 minutes per day child.
This contrast is striking and doesn’t end with an abstract word count comparison for the kids involved but in real differences in academic readiness and capability. This is not a chore to outsource.
The good news is the bar is low (20 minutes a school day!) and there are tons of resources. Not only can you buy books for a dollar online, or for less than $2 at Goodwill and Half Price Books, but odds are there is a city or community library nearby. You may even have Little Free Libraries around your town where a neighbor has built what looks like an oversize birdhouse for books and you’re encouraged to take a book (for free!) and leave a book.
Every book is “new” if you’ve never read it, so fill the shelves with new adventures. Fill your kids’ minds with literary experiences and the wisdom of the giants of history. And start young. It’s amazing to see how much a 2-year-old will thrill at being read to if you make it a habit.
We rely on screens to transport us via movies and TV shows, but the transportational power of books, as a better escapism but also in a more transcendent way, is a gift of a lifetime that you can begin giving your kids right away.
As a matter of fact, the boys and I are going to go on a bike tour of Little Free Libraries around town right now. Maybe we’ll see you there.