read

For today's blogtember challenge, we are asked what advice we would give to a large group of people.

I'm going to hop on my teacher soap box for a moment:

Read.

Read daily.
 
Read to your children.  Read to them before they start kindergarten.  Read them bedtime stories.  Read with them all the way through elementary school.  Ask them what they're reading. Take them to the library.  Set aside family reading time. Make reading a positive, daily habit.  

While I can throw out every statistic in the world, from a teacher's stand point, it is really, really hard when a child starts school and has never seen a book.  It's really hard when a family doesn't support reading. It's hard when parents say they don't like to read. It's hard to get them interested in reading if they don't see reading at home.  Once they hit middle school, they probably won't learn to love reading if they don't have a strong foundation.

Let's change this.  Be excited about your children's books.  Take advantage of scholastic book orders (because seriously, it's way cheaper than a store).  Go to the library. Read to them, read with them, daily.

Please.

They'll be better off for it.