Give a gift for life; reading

I have many friends that regularly read to their children. These are families with varied backgrounds, interests and careers but the one element that brings some commonality is that they all believe reading to their children is one of the most precious gifts they can give to them.

So what are the benefits of reading to children? And what is all the fuss about? Apart from the special together time where nothing else matters except you and your child, reading aloud to children helps them to recognise sound patterns, learn the alphabet, understand simple things such as how to hold a book, that pictures tell a story, how to turn pages, and that books read from left to right and top to bottom - all essential skills needed for learning to read and write at school. Research in Australia and overseas shows that children who have an early exposure to books and stories learn to read more successfully and do better at school. Think about how many books and text books your child will be required to read over their schooling life and the confidence they will gain in doing these tasks if they already enjoy books and reading. We all want to give our children the best start in life, reading to them is one of the ways we can achieve this.

My husband and I have read to both of our very active boys from a young age. Our 8 year old still loves to read and we still read to him at night before bed on most nights. He can also read to our younger one which helps when you're trying to get dinner or do those other wonderful domestic tasks! Our 21 month old will happily sit through 2 or 3 stories and is at the stage now where he will bring us the books and ask us to 'read'. He has a couple of favourites and this is fine - remember it's only the adults that get bored with reading the same book over and over. For children the familiarity and repetitiveness of reading the same books helps to reinforce important literacy skills.

It's never too late to start reading. Make it fun, make it exciting and watch the pleasure on your child's face. If you are trying to get older children interested in reading, read them chapter books with a movie available and once you have finished reading the book, hire the movie and talk about the differences between the text and the film. There are so many wonderful children's books available and so many ways to enjoy them. Don't just leave reading for at home...take books to the park, to the beach, to a picnic, on the train or plane, to the shops.

Remember, the best opportunity we can give our children for the future is a memory of love and laughter whilst sharing books.