Happy National Young Readers Day!
According to the creators of this national holiday (which takes place on the second Tuesday of November), it’s a day to recognize and celebrate the joys and benefits of reading, which unlocks knowledge, power, motivation, and happiness (as just a few major benefits!)
Did you know that the single, largest predictor of academic success is how often you read to your child?
Yep, you heard that right!
How often you read to your child is directly correlated with their academic and literacy achievement. Not the fancy pre-schools, the iPads, the expensive flashy toys, or the workbooks, but mom or dad (or both), taking the world’s most valuable resource, time, to read stories to spark the imagination and peak curiosity matters the absolute most.
What is the single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success?
An introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school.
- If a Student reads: 20 minutes a day =
- reading 1,800,000 per year =
- 851 hours reading by 6th grade =
- 90% better success rate on standardized tests
-VS-
- If a Student reads: 5 minutes a day =
- reading 282,000 per year =
- 212 hours reading by 6th grade =
- 50% better success rate on standardized tests
Access to printed materials is the proven variable that has been found to cause an effect on reading acquisition, pointing to the statistic that, “Children who live in print-rich environments and who are read to during the first years of life are much more likely to learn to read on schedule”.
– Southern Early Childhood Association, “Making Books Part of a Healthy Childhood.”
With 8 local libraries in Williamson County, there are plenty of resources to utilize in order to provide print rich environments, as well as fun activities to engage in conversation for you and your kiddos!
The Williamson County area has a packed Holiday Guide with Christmas Events and other holiday happenings. Stop by The Williamson County Sun Paper where they have set up Santa’s mail station in their office! Stop and drop-off, or stay there to write your letters to Santa and send them on their way in the mailbox to the North Pole or visit The Nutcracker Benefit Concert, among many others this holiday season for some family fun, laughs, JOY, and literacy exposure.
