Read aloud to your child every day!

 

Seven very important words - Read aloud to your child every day!

#readaloudtoyourchildeveryday 

Yesterday I went to a baby shower, and I was thrilled to see that the new mum-to-be was gifted several children's books (a big pile from me too, of course) including Mem Fox Time for Bed; books from the That's not my series; and Magic Beach by Alison Lester. The sister of the mum-to-be organised a Nursery Rhyme quiz but only the older family members and friends had any idea about these famous rhymes. I was pleased that I also gifted the new baby a large Nursery Rhyme book, but I do hope the young friends also discover these and read them aloud when they start their own family. 

See the full list of 81 titles here

Last week I read about this wonderful promotion by the CBCA in Tasmania. I am in awe of this idea and huge initiative. I am sure the CBCA in Tasmania are just a small organisation but they have created an eye-catching banner (and added my logo WOW). They are aiming to raise awareness far and wide about the vital importance of reading to children every day. I hope other branches of the CBCA take up this idea too!

Years ago, when I spoke to groups of new parents in my school I always shared a tiny book by Rosemary Wells and now I quote part of her text on every baby card.

Read to your bunny often,

It's twenty minutes of fun. 

It's twenty minutes of moonlight, 

And twenty minutes of sun. 

Twenty old-favorite minutes, 

Twenty minutes brand-new, 

Read to your bunny often, 

And . . . 

Your bunny will read to you.

"The Tasmanian Branch, Children’s Book Council of Australia, partnering with Toast for Kids Charity Inc., are proud to launch the national campaign “Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day”, a simple message encouraging parents, grandparents, siblings and carers to read to their children for their literary growth and education; investing in their future.

Recently released NAPLAN data (see ABC News report) showed that one in three school students throughout Australia are not meeting minimum numeracy and literacy expectations, and one in ten are so far behind they need additional support. Furthermore, over decades Tasmania continues to suffer from an illiteracy rate of 50%. Informed by these facts, we are championing our cause to develop a culture of “Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day”, locally, state-wide and nationally.

We are commencing a national campaign, reaching out to institutes, governments, schools, parent groups, agencies, not for profits, speech pathologists, writers’ groups, book and reading advocates, presenting the opportunity to partner with the effort, adopting and promoting the one message: 

“Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day”."

I have talked about this issue of reading to children in previous posts:

Can you see the ducks Mummy?

In that post I said: I dream of creating an advertising campaign where I share the importance of reading to and with children and the importance of talking to children and the importance of putting that phone away so parents, and other adults can pay attention to their child. I deeply worry about the generation of children who have been ignored while their parents give all of their focus to small screens. 

Reading to Preschoolers - five blog posts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Take a look at the ten read aloud commandments from Mem Fox (author of Possum Magic and Koala Lou and heaps of other wonderful books). 

Here is my former library slogan (I saw it in a Canadian elementary school in 1994):

Now for some books for parents. Many of the really good ones are sadly long out of print - Babies need books by Dorothy Butler; and Reading Magic by Mem Fox. These three are worth finding:

Read more here

Read my blog post about Raising Readers

I am including this even though I have not read it myself but the authors are very well respected.