"The most important 20 minutes of your day...
is spent reading to a child."
Reading together every day builds strong minds and strong relationships. Your child, snuggling in your lap, and enjoying your attention and laughter, is learning to love reading. As long as it is a happy experience there is no wrong way to read together. Reading aloud is practically free...you can do it anywhere, and children often beg for "just one more" story. Even parents who are not fluent reads can provide a good experience for their children by telling stories from their lives, from their imaginations, or from pictures in books without words. It is best to read to your child early and often, but it is never too late to start opening the reading door for your child.
From The Children's Reading Foundation, www.readingfoundation.org/parents
Welcome to Read!
On this website you will find information and resources that will help you become part of the Cherish Every Child initiative to help children achieve reading success by fourth grade.
Why Reading is Important
Researchers tell us that kids who enter kindergarten with poor early reading skills are usually poor readers in first grade and often remain poor readers all the way through high school.
- Ten to fifteen percent of kids with serious reading problems will drop out of high school
- About half of school-aged kids with criminal records or with a history of substance abuse have reading problems.
The Big Gap in Low-Income Households
There is also a big gap between kids from low-income households and those from middle- to high-income households.
- First graders from lower-income families have a vocabulary half the size of kids from higher-income families.
- By age 3, kids in low-income homes will have heard 10 million words. Those in middle and high-income homes will have heard 30 million words.
- A child from a middle-income family will usually enter first grade with about 1,000 hours of reading picture books with a parent or other adult. A child from a low-income family will average less than 100 hours.
You have the Power to Prepare your Kids for Success
Read! Just 20 minutes a day can made a huge difference in a child's life.
Join the Cherish Every Child READ! Initiative to help all children achieve reading success by fourth grade.