Education Next: Reading to Your Kids Can Be Far More Than a Routine
I read bedtime stories to my kids. That may sound pretty normal, but I get strange looks now and then when I acknowledge that I still read nightly to all my five sons, aged 16 down to 7. At this point, I expect I will be reading to kids for as long as they live under my roof.
The older boys are normal teenagers. They don’t wear footie pajamas anymore. They play football and baseball for their school teams, wear shorts and hoodies even in the Minnesota winter, and love hanging with friends on Friday nights. I never actively decided to make a “till college do us part” commitment to nightly reading. It just never made sense to stop. It’s part of our “family culture” that nobody wants to erase.