For Father’s Day, from David Owen’s The First National Bank of Dad:
Children who are read to regularly from early ages develop lifelong skills that can’t be acquired from a VCR or the Disney Channel. They become better listeners and find it easier to pay attention in school. Their vocabularies grow rapidly, and grammar seems less mysterious to them. They don’t immediately lose interest in any idea that is harder to grasp than a television commercial. They develop the patience to follow a complex problem to its solution. They become better writers all by themselves, through their ample powers of imitation.
…Good readers do better in school, score higher on standardized tests…attend better colleges, hold more interesting jobs, write more persuasive legal briefs, make better conversation, and become less and less likely to gripe about being bored…
Most of all, children who grow up immersed in books develop the ability to answer their own questions….Gradually, they acquire a skill shared by the greatest scholars in the world: the ability to educate themselves…
Words to raise children by.
Book Review Monday Chatter David Owen The First National Book of Dad