Reading

The New Years Resolution that's been easiest to keep up on has been reading to Eva everyday for at least 40 minutes, or 300 minutes in a week if we fall behind on a certain day.  I've noticed a huge increase in her concentration levels and she "reads" so much more now, meaning she has more parts memorized and says them at the same time I do.  Here's a normal stack of books we'll go through every 2 days.  

Why 40 minutes you ask?  The following is a blurb on why the recommended 20 minutes a day is so important.  Now double that and you've got what we're doing with Eva.

To fully understand the benefits of reading aloud to children and what reading 20 minutes a day can do for our children, we have to move beyond the immediate and look at the big picture. The big picture is the cumulative amount of reading time during all the years leading up to kindergarten. Children typically enter kindergarten at the age of 5 so we need to look at the power of reading 20 minutes a day from the ages of birth to 5 years.

20 minutes x 30 days = 600 minutes or 10 hours per month

10 hours x 12 months = 120 hours per year

120 hours x 5 years = 600 hours over 5 years 
A typical public school system is in session for 180 days each school year. Each day is made up of approximately 5 hours of total instruction time. A school day is certainly longer, but what is important is the total instruction time. Easily 40% of all instruction time during the school day is wasted with administrative matters, behavioral issues, and other non-instruction events. This leaves 3 hours of total instruction time in a typical school day.


3 hours x 180 days = 540 total hours per school year

 

Meaning, if you read to your child 20 minutes a day, every day until kindergarten, you will have already exceeded a year's worth of learning before they even begin school.