Reading to young children is one of the best uses of your time. When children experience a reading session, they are often more inspired to not only be read to, but to take on reading as their own experience. Reading to young children, especially as a volunteer or parent, you can change the way a child looks at reading forever.
When children enter elementary school, many teachers offer reading time, where the children sit in a circle and listen to a story. This reading time often encourages other young children from higher grades to start coming in to read to the younger children. These programs have successfully inspired other peer tutoring and reading programs within schools. However, when an adult takes time out of their life to volunteer to start reading to young children, the impact is even more profound. Many young children aspire to be like the adults and older kids in their life, and they learn more than vocabulary when they are read to. Reading to a group of young children not only lets them know that they are important enough to be given time, but that they are worth the attention. Thereby, simply by reading to a group of young children you can inspire their own reading skills, inspire them to value an education, and additionally inspire them to want to grow up and reach out to other people. It’s truly an amazing gift. If you can’t donate the time to for reading to young children in the classroom, make some time to read to them during play time at home. The difference is phenomenal.