Reading to children in the early years before they start going to school is more important than we even realize. In this fun episode, Sarah helps us understand the benefits of reading to infants and toddlers and gives great suggestions on ways to help parents incorporate this into their day.
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Jen: Hello and welcome to The Parent’s Place, a podcast put out by The Family Place for parents to develop skills that will strengthen families and provide tools that will help each of us in our parenting efforts. No matter our skills, we can always use reminders that help us work towards a safer, happier home. I'm your host, Jennifer Daly, the education director at the Family Place and my co-host is Sara Hendricks, a family educator at the Family Place. Every week, we will interview professionals that will provide valuable information that will make a difference when you apply it directly to your life. Thank you for joining us. Now, let's get started with today's episode.
Sara: Welcome to the Parents Place podcast, I'm your host, Sara Hendricks,
Jen: and I'm your co-host, Jen Daly.
Sara: We want to give a shout out to all of our listeners in Texas. We seem to be gaining a pretty big following there, and we're so excited about that. So thank you for sharing our podcast with your friends and family and help spreading the word to help us make a difference. Today we have a really fun guest. Her name is Sarah Orton, and I'm so excited to have her on the podcast talking to us about literacy in early childhood. So welcome, Sarah. Do you want to give us a little introduction?
Sarah Orton: I'd love to. I'm so excited to be here. When Sarah asks me if I could be on the podcast, she’s like, “what do you like to talk about? Like, what are you passionate about?” I was like, OK, I love to read personally, but I love the concept and the importance of reading in children, so I'm so excited to be here first. So my name is Sarah Orton I’m originally from Boise, Idaho. Boise, not Boise. And so I went to school at Utah State University and graduated in human development and family studies with an emphasis on community services. And I just work at the family place here in Logan, Utah, and I'm a family educator and I work a lot with kids and the Kid’s Place department.
Jen: We're glad to have you here, Sara, and we're so glad to be having this discussion about literacy and the importance of it with kids. So let's talk about reading and why it's so important to read to your children.
Sarah Orton: So first of all, I guess growing up, my parents read to me a lot, and so I never really thought twice about it, and it just grew a love for reading. I remember just reading chapter books and just getting other points in the library system, and I loved it. But the more I went to school and the more I just surround myself with the diversity of people, and there was a lot of people that don't have that experience, and a lot of the kids that I work with don't have that experience as well. And it can be obvious sometimes when a parent doesn't read to them because their language development sometimes just isn't as developed as well, which is OK each kids develops differently. But I'm in a new program here at The Family Place. I learned a lot about the importance of reading to your kids and what it can do for them in their brains and develop mentally in their relationships and in their future success. So cool thing is, if you're reading your kids and all the skills that come with reading, it's going to impact them in their life. It's going to impact how they interact with different people with their coworkers 20 years down the road. It's going to impact how they even tell a story reading the kids teaches them all these important skills, and it just sets up for success.
Sara: Right? I did not have your experience growing up where I was read to all of the time, and I did not have a love for reading until after. Honestly, after graduating college is really when I started to develop a love for reading. And so my education is what helped me understand the importance of reading with young children and realizing that I need to be doing that as a parent, which thankfully I learned that before becoming a parent. But it just makes a lot of sense with it being important for kids and exposing them to language and that interaction that you have between parent and child and the relationship that it's building. It's really pretty incredible how much it impacts our children.
Jen: I think it's funny that, like you said, that you didn't grow up with reading. I don't remember my mom reading to us. I remember her reading a lot. She read a lot of the Harlequin romances, and I remember those were kind of like the first books I read was the Harlequin romances and the Danielle Steele books and things like that back in the day. And I do love reading. So I feel like she, by example, taught us to have that love of reading, but probably not the best books when you're in high school.
Sara: So what can you tell us about research behind reading with kids?
Sarah Orton: First of all, kind of like, we're going off what you were saying, just how it's something that you mentioned, like your mom gave an example of reading. If you want to encourage reading in the home, first of all, you kind of do have to set an example. You have to set the value of reading in a home. If your mom and dad could care less about reading the chances of you caring about reading is way lower. If you didn't see your mom reading, there weren't books in their home, if there's not access to the materials, that's really hard. So increase like this reading success in like a home. It's just like, have that value and have that culture of reading and the availability of reading materials in the home, as well as how much time caregivers dedicate to actually reading a book. So those three things can help.
Sara: I think that that is a really good valuable point, and I also think that now it's so common to read on our phone, have an app downloaded to read on our phone, which is great. We're still reading, but our kids may not recognize that we're reading. They just see us on our phones. And so still having open dialogue about what you're doing.
Sarah Orton: Yeah.
Sara: So that they're seeing that it's not just being on our phones because they're not going to have the same take away of reading being valuable because they're not seeing it that way. And so if we can change it up and read actual books in front of our kids mixed with when we read on our phones, but when we're reading on our phones, pointing it out that we're reading, we're not just playing games or scrolling, you know?
Sarah Orton: That's so important.
Sara: Yeah, I think that will help with our kids having that desire to read as well
Sarah Orton: Or even know someone they- this isn't bad, it's better than nothing. They look up YouTube videos of people reading the books, which is better than nothing. But, I think it's kids watch TV all the time, you know, they don't even more sometimes. And so I think it's so important to have that just creates an amazing bond to sit down with your child and have a physical book. Kind of Like what you're saying.
Sara: I agree.
Sara Orton: And then you're talking about the some of the research.
Sara: Yeah. So let's talk about the research.
Sarah Orton: So I guess there's so many things to go off of and just how important and how it impacts a child's brain in their development. First of all, reading increases, vocabulary increases the words they know increases how they talk and how they speak with their cohorts or their family, and even improves their listening comprehension. Raise your hand if you want your kids to listen to you better? You know, just read to them because they're sitting and they're listening to you. And so ultimately, that helps their listening comprehension and their skills
Jen: So that’s what the problem is. Back in the day, like, my reading Comprehension was awful. So they had to put me in special classes for reading comprehension. But it's probably because my mom never read to me, so I never knew how to listen. So it was just a domino effect.
Sarah Orton: Yeah. So it affects their listening comprehension, which is going to help you again in your future success in your jobs and schooling, the way you interact with people. And so all these little things, even though it seems so little, it makes such an amazing impact in a child's life. One other way that it helps a child, it helps them learn how to retell a story, which you think it wouldn't be that important. But I have sometimes a hard time retelling a story and it really kind of get me in a jungle sometimes or listening to other people retell a story effectively and efficiently. Sometimes it's kind of a mess trying to figure out what people are saying or what I'm even trying to say. And so when kids are able to interact and have fun with stories that helps them when they're able to give concise information like them later in life.
Sara: Yeah, that's not something I've really thought about before, but that's probably a fairly important social skill. Think about how many conversations you carry and trying to retell a situation or something. I'm terrible at that.
Sarah Orton: Me to, I stumble. Another one is just like being able to understand background knowledge and background stories and how that can even affect your lives. So when reading to a kid, it's really cool. You can help them see how it relates to their lives and how, oh, it looks like this little girl is crying. What has there been a time when you've been really sad? And having them interact with those stories is really important.
Jen: Reading is one of my favorite ways to teach emotions and empathy because it is looking at what is that little girl feeling right now? How would that make you feel if you're in that position? So I feel like that's a great way to teach emotions and empathy.
Sarah Orton: You do that with different ages too. I love that book of the color monster and you look at the faces. “What are they feeling?” And sometimes they're old enough to be able to really identify what they're feeling like “Oh, he’s really excited.” But sometimes the child's too young to be like, “Oh, do you think he's feeling sad or happy?” And then that helps give children the vocabulary to identify emotions in themselves and in other people that essentially new time helping them learn how to read body language, which again, I can't overemphasize this is going to help them for the rest of their lives, being able to identify all these different things. It's just amazing. Another thing that I was just so excited about so recently I just read a really cool research article on why to read 20 minutes a day and just talking about the importance of reading to your kids. And it's hard reading your kids is really busy or you have a busy schedule if all these things going on in your life. But honestly, the benefits outweigh any cons, especially. When I read this one statistic. So I read this, this research and it said for every year you read with your child's average lifetime earnings increased by 50 thousand dollars, you make a $250000 gift to your child from birth to age five by reading aloud just 20 minutes a day. And when I heard that I was, I mean, I was shook as all the kid’s say. And I was like, just reading to your kids 20 minutes a day, and if you do that for a whole year, that increases their lifetime brings like fifty thousand dollars. And when you think about that, it's like, OK, even though my life can be busy, maybe I can read two books to them while we're getting them ready for bed with me sitting in bed with them right before they sleep. And honestly, to me, that would be worth it if I know that they're going to have a successful future and be able to have all these skills.
Jen: Maybe you should go to my mom and say, you owe me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Sarah Orton: But that's only to age five.
Jen: Yeah, I’ll say you’ve owed me for how long? Because you didn't read to me. So yeah, she may have read to me. I don't. I have a horrible memory, but I have no memory of it. So I will say she didn't.
Sara: But that's such an incredible statistic that makes me hear that and think, why wouldn't you read to your children if you had to give them that kind of a gift?
Sarah Orton: Yeah.
Jen: So with all of the research and everything else that we've talked about, do you think there's benefits for parents for reading? I mean, we talked a little bit about the benefits for kids and things like that. So what are the benefits for parents for reading?
Sarah Orton: Kind of like I was saying before, it can be hard. People's lives are so busy and it's hard to integrate one more thing into a schedule when you already have so many routines and rhythms in your life. But an amazing benefit for parents is honestly just like a strengthened relationship with your child because you're taking time to be with them and time showing them that you really care and love them. And it's nothing is better. You know, if your child wants to snuggle in your lap while you're reading a book that's creating bonding time of the year after sitting on their bed while you're in the room, you dedicating time to them. And that in a way of showing them that you love them, and in turn, it grows a bond between you guys, which I think is invaluable ultimately.
Jen: I think also, I just think not necessarily reading with your kids that reading around your kids shows that example, but it's also self-care for yourself. Yeah, because it's taking those few minutes. If it's just a few minutes to sit down and read a chapter or whatnot just to reset yourself, to be able to go and do the rest of what you have to do as a parent. It's never ending.
Sarah Orton: No, its busy all the time, whenever I read to the kids, I have so much fun and it's almost like a self-care for me because I tried to. I know it's uncomfortable sometimes for people to read out loud and to have fun with it, like make different choices or, you know, show those emotions on your face can be uncomfortable for some people. But whenever I do it, I have fun. And so I think that could just be a benefit to a parent. And you're just like being a kid again and you get through those fun and cute kids stories. And it really makes your soul feel free. So to me, I feel like that in itself is a benefit.
Sara: I love that
Jen: One of my favorite things is when I would go in and teach Kid’s Empowered, and there were stories that you had to tell them, and you get those kids right on the edge of their seats waiting for the next thing.
Sarah Orton: It’s like a theatrical experience.
Jen: And then you tell them they're like, “Oh, no.”
Jen: It's like, Yes, I got them.
Sarah Orton: Got ya!
Sara: But you make a really good point when you're reading to your kids. If you're thinking of it as a chore, it's going to feel like a chore. But if you're doing your best to enjoy it, it's going to be so much more fun for you.
Jen: Goes along. I love that book by Victor Frankel. I mean, saying that someone can take everything away from you, but really, they can never take away our attitude. And really, it's the same with reading. If we go in with a positive attitude and we're going to have a positive experience, if we're going to go in saying it’s as a chore and it's horrible and the teacher's making me read to my child for 20 minutes, then it's going to be that negative experience.
Sarah Orton: And then your children picks up on that and they're “Oh, readings a chore” or when you read out loud and make it fun, in their minds it's teaching them that, “oh, reading is fun”. And so that can make all the difference too.
Jen: And if your kids love to read and they say they're bored, you always have that is a go to. Go read a book.
Sarah Orton: For sure.
Sara: One thing my kids love to do is read-a-thon. We do it maybe once a month. Where all of us just we lay out a blanket. Inside it's cold outside, if the weather is good and we all just read our own books and it's just so fun to get to do that.
Sarah Orton: So those are the kids. Yeah, they look forward to that if you're doing it often. It's obviously a tradition.
Sara: Yeah, it's always them asking me “can we do a read-a-thon today?” And it's usually me like, “I don’t have time for this. “
Sarah Orton: But yeah, that’s cool. You've made an important thing in their lives then.
Sara: Yeah, I have really tried to have reading be something important, and I actually did want to speak to this. As you're talking about reading stories and making it fun for our families listening, that maybe reading isn't easy or it's a second language to read in English and your books are in English. You know, whatever it is, it's not so much the importance of what's on the page, the words written on the page. When you're reading a story, you don't have to read it word for word. You don't even have to read the words on the page. Just talking about the pictures and making up a story as you go still provides all of these same benefits for children where you're having that bonding time together, that quality interaction, and they're getting exposure to language. There's just so many positive benefits that it's not about what's on the page word for word, but just spending that time together, pretending like you're reading will still have such a positive effect for them.
Jen: Well you even have research studies of just if you read aloud what you're reading to your babies and things like that. How many benefits come for them if you're just reading the newspaper aloud or how it helps their language development? Just hearing that, so.
Sarah Orton: They pick up on everything with language development. Is you talking out loud and saying, “Oh, I'm grabbing the bowl and I am pouring some cereal into it next. Oh, look at this white milk that's pouring into cereal.” Like, even though it may feel stupid talking out loud, they're actually picking up on those cues. And I think at six months old children can differentiate between languages, which is amazing, and so they can pick up on these words just at six months old. So talking out loud is really important, too.
Sara: Yeah, because if you think about going through your whole day, how much talking you actually do when it's just you and your small children at home, like if you're a stay at home parent, a lot of it is like, “Don't do that. Stop.” Yeah, exactly. And so narrating your day, that's such a great way to expose them to language. And if you think about like, how little talking you do, if that was all that they got, that's not very much exposure. And so reading books is another way to get words in. When you use the example of pouring milk into the bowl, the word pouring like, that's an awesome word for them to learn at such a young age.
Sarah Orton: You taught them poring you know? I don't know where I learned that word.
Sara: Right? So it's just so great. I love this conversation because it just benefits children so much, and it's not like language is going away. We're going to use it for the rest of our lives. And so setting them up to have more of it is such an incredible gift to give them. And like, reading comprehension is something they're going to do all through school. That's not just a one and done. It's every year building more and more. And so starting them off in their early years before they're even in school is just setting them up for success in their school years. Time is always an issue as parents were busy and there's so much going on and sometimes it's hard to fit that stuff in. I mean, when you think about a bedtime routine to think of “now, I have to read a story to my kid every night or I'm going to feel guilty because the Parents Place podcast told me how important it is.” So what would you say to parents who maybe feel like they don't have the time to read to their kids?
Sarah Orton: Well, I think that is one of the questions that sometimes you even have to apply yourself because I could talk about this all day and then I'm thinking, right now I'm like, man, when have I even been able to set aside time to even read for myself, you know? And it's for those parents who are saying, “I cannot reach my kids, how am I supposed to read for myself?” I think the first step is just finding that importance and finding that joy in reading and that love of reading. I don't know if a lot of people even liked to read from their kids, and so that might be hard. That might be hard remembering when you were a kid and remembering that someone's reading. So your reasoning might be totally different. Might be reasoning of “wow, this is really important for my child.” So you just have to get back. You have to have almost a cause you can back yourself up with. First of all, and that's the first step, I would say. And then just trying to work it into a routine you already have. Nothing's worse than trying to create a new routine and new schedule that's just going to throw everything into chaos. And so just sliding into something that already works for you. So if your child is taking a bath and they're playing in it, and that's the only time you can read them. Even reading to your child who's bathing, that could be an option. Tucking them to bed, sitting with them on that bed and reading to them, that could be an option. That's just 10 minutes of something that you're already doing.
Sara: Those are great suggestions. I had never even thought about reading to them while they're in the bath. I think that's so good.
Sarah Orton: Probably, you know, there may not be paying attention the whole time, but better than nothing. If you're going to be sitting there and you're watching them,
Sara: They're still getting that exposure to language either way. And I think that really easy as parents, we don't always want to read. And when our kid brings us a book and asked us to read, it's so easy to say, “not right now. We'll do that later.” But on Sunday, you have this experience of my three year old where she brought me a book and I really was not like, I was just so sleepy. You know that reading? No, I don't feel like doing this. But I decided to just do it anyway because I thought, How long does it actually take of my time to read this book to her? Two minutes? Honestly, it's not very long to read a children's book, and she snuggled right up to me on the couch and I read this book to her and she loved it. And that's all it took was two minutes. And then she took the book and she went and put it back. And that was that. Had I have said no, we wouldn't have had that experience and she wouldn't have gotten that positive interaction with me. And so I think as a whole, we need to try harder to say yes instead of maybe later.
Jen: Well, I think you may have also dealt with a meltdown because she may have just needed that snuggle time with you. And so really, you spent two minutes to snuggle, read a book when if you would have said no, you could have had that meltdown that lasted for 45 minutes. So really, some of these times that we're like, OK, I'm going to stop, I'm going to do this. It's really eliminating the meltdown and all of the time and energy that's wasted in having that meltdown with kids.
Sara: That's a really good point, because had I told her no, she could have been really upset throwing tantrums. It could have led to discipline for her behavior. But we didn't even have to experience any of that because I just said yes and did it, and it took two minutes of my time.
Sarah Orton : And that's important, like being able to choose your battles and choosing the bid for attention that kids give you. Because some bids for attention, they just like they do something and it could be good could be bad. And you're picking your battles on what you're going to give attention to. So if you're giving attention to the good, that's attention, then that's going to help them reinforce those positive ideas.
Sara: For sure. One other thing that I want to throw in about parents and not having time to read or not wanting to put in the time to read. One thing that I have found as a parent, as my kids have gotten older, is the older kids can read to the younger kids. And so that does save some time for me, knowing that my youngest is still getting exposure to language and stuff, but it's not always me having to do it. And so that's something that as your lives change and transition, as your family grows, it gets easier in some ways. In some ways it gets harder. But that's one of those things that I just kind of your time can be freed up a little bit. I still would encourage parents to read that their children have that quality time with their kids, but maybe it's every other night or something.
Jen: So I just keep pondering about how sometimes kids hate reading and we've been talking about how important it is to have kids read. What are some suggestions we can give our listeners on how to make it fun?
Sarah Orton: I think this is kind of touched on earlier. A little bit of you kind of have to make it fun yourself. If you're just going to be reading in a boring tone, not even showing the pictures, you're conveying that this isn't even important. It's not going to be fun for the kid. It's going to take a little bit of effort sometimes, especially for a kid who may be distracted or dysregulated to make it a fun time because some kids just pick right up on it and you can do whatever you want and they'll just have your full attention. But sometimes you really do want to put in a little bit effort, so using different words and facial expressions, and that helps convey that reading is fun and being able to point to words and pictures and helping them understand, you know, the difference of a word or picture and just describing what's happening in that picture or showing them the new word that's really important. Another way to make it fun, you could pause while reading and help your child fill in the line. I love Pete the Cat and his groovy buttons. Every time I read that, the kids- there's a one line that says, “But do we cry?” And all the kids say “goodness no.” And then we also say, “buttons come, buttons go.” And that comes with repeating reading books, which is again, that's really important, but yeah, just pausing, having kids fill in the line and having fun with that makes it really fun for them to be engaged with the book.
Jen: I think even a little older kids at first. The thing that just came to my mind was before you even start reading, like you read chapter books with your kids, Sarah, and I'm thinking, I wonder what would happen if they wouldn't be more invested in the book if we sat down and said, “What do you think this character's going to look like? What do you think is going to happen in this book? This is the title of the book. What do you think that means?” And things like that. “What's going to happen?”
Sarah Orton: So then they're like, “Oh, is my guess or my my thoughts of what was going to happen, really going to happen in the book?” Like, I'm just thinking that that might be some way to get them intrigued because now they have a stake in it. See if they were right.
Sara: Yeah, that's fun. I actually have a dream of doing a book club with my kids, and I feel like they just need to be a little bit older before we start doing it. But that would be a fun way to go into, Okay, we've chosen this book that we're going to read for the club, and all of us come up with our predictions. Then we read the book and come back and discuss it and look at our predictions and see where it went down.
Sarah Orton: That would be fun.
Jen: I'm just thinking of the janitors. That's one of my favorite series. I love the children's series, but I'm just thinking, “how would I describe the janitor series books just from the title of The Janitor?” I've never gone where those books went, but
Sarah Orton: I think that's a good tactic that you're taking. “How would this been more fun and more engaging for me?” So I knew that something that parents can ask themselves, “how could get more engaged?” and then use those answers that they can look at themselves. Another one is ask your child what's happening in the picture? I love reading books that talk specifically about emotions were talking about earlier, and you can say, “Oh, what's happened to this picture? What do you think they're feeling right now?” And that helps them identify and learn clues.
Jen: “What could have made them that way?”
Sarah Orton: Yeah
Sara: Well, it's something that's so important for us to understand about child development is that kids don't have the ability to put themselves in somebody else's shoes. That comes as they grow and develop. And so having these interactions while reading books with our kids, we're helping them develop that skill.
Sarah Orton: That's important.
Jen: I mean, it's just another way to make them fun or pop-up books. I mean, when we were there, we just ordered a bunch of books for a new program that we're doing here at The Family Place. And some of them were Pop-Up Books. And let me tell you, I looked at every single one of those pop-up books.
Sarah Orton: Was it fun for you?
Jen: Yes, it was. I pulled them, I, it was just so fun to open and that big picture coming to life. But then I also I did flip every little flip book.
Sarah Orton: Like, appealing to the senses with baby books or board books, felt books and books that make sounds like appeals to my senses. And it definitely appeals to baby sometimes when they're just learning, exploring the world.
Jen: Proper books aren't as popular as they used to be. My husband wants to create a whole pop-up series for a book that he absolutely loves, and why I'm like that would be so cool. You could. That would be so cool for kids to have that. It's just like a whole picture. Just opening up in front of your face.
Sara: Comes Alive
Jen: Yes!
Sarah Orton: It's magical. Another way to make things fun for your kids, you know, fun for yourself, is just to link what's happening in the book, into their lives, into your lives. And it can be as simple as if there's a dog in a book, like “Oh, it’s a dog! Do you like dogs more or do you like cats more?” Or “I know we have a dog named Sally.” You know, it's just relating it to things in their lives, and things that interest them is a great way to help them apply things into their lives. And like what you're saying, Sarah, help them place themselves in other people's shoes if you're identifying things that are happening in a book.
Sara: Yeah, it helps kids develop like empathy and social skills. So I feel like we've kind of already touched on this. Do you know of the different reading techniques that benefit children? I mean, what we're saying right now are definitely among those techniques. So I don't know if there's anything more you want to share with that.
Sarah Orton: We're kind of like we're saying, you know, reading out loud in of itself is a technique, but I know putting your finger on the words while you're reading and it helps children identify words with the sounds that you're making. And ultimately, that's building your vocabulary.
Sara: Yeah. So that is one style of reading where the parent and the child, really older children who know how to read, you read together out loud. And so either one or both of you put your finger along to follow the words, and both of you say the words out loud together as you're reading, and it helps children learn to read faster because you read it at a faster pace than they would, and you're supposed to read to reading levels ahead of where they are. And so it's helping them have more exposure to things that are more advanced because you're reading with them and it's helping them learn a faster reading pace. So it's really cool, my children's school, that's something that they have us to do with our kids. We're supposed to do it every night. I don't know how good everyone is at doing that, but I have seen improvement with my kids when we do that that they just learn how to read faster and better and when they read words and I'm like, “How do you know this word?” Like, I'm so blown away by that? I just give credit to how we've been reading together.
Sarah Orton: It's amazing. That's a really cool skill.
Sara: Yeah, to think like my second grader is reading at a fourth grade level because of that is really incredible. So there's also another type of reading where when you're reading with kids, this is why I wasn't sure if you wanted to talk about techniques because we've really touched on it a lot with making it fun for kids is just talking about what they see in the pictures or what the story is. You know, when you're reading the Pete the Cat buttons book and you have the children make predictions about what's coming, you know, like, “Oh, no his button came off. What do you think's going to happen? Is it going to be mad?” or, you know, like it just helps them be more engaged and it's helping their brains think about what might be coming next. Or another great one would be like if you give a pig a pancake to make predictions, that is a great book. That whole series of books are great ways to help kids just be more engaged in the books and really
Sarah Orton: predicting and problem solving almost
Sara: Yes, for sure. And you don't just have to do prediction just anything like talking about what they're seeing and “why do you think they feel that way? How would you feel if this happened to you? Or how would you handle this situation differently?” All kinds of ways that you're just engaging them and really getting conversations going. And so that's why earlier when I was saying it's not necessarily about word for word, what's in the book, you know?
Sarah Orton: It's talking about what's happening like, “Oh my gosh, her hair's crazy. Does your hair look like that in the morning? My hair looks like that in the morning.” Just making those side comments, but making them laugh and make them think about what their hair looks like in the morning. Yeah, just talking about what's in those pictures, I think that is.
Sara: Yeah, and asking open ended questions where they get to respond and not just, you know, like “do you see the brown tree?” Or, you know, I don't know if was a bad example. And they just say yes. And then you move on. Like, that's not the same as asking more open ended questions like, “why do you think that tree is brown” because of the weather changing weeds, you know? And so it just leaves room for more interaction with your kids and more exposure for them to just grow and develop. I don't know. I love children's books. I think they're just so fun and kids love them. And it really isn't a huge time dedication to read to your kids. A book a day, you know, and just one book a day or 20 minutes a day like that, research said, makes such a huge difference for them that I can't say enough positive things about reading the children. And another thing if you don't enjoy the book like Disney books, I do not enjoy reading those out loud to my kids. We've seen the movies enough. Those are not fun books to read out loud.
Jen: It's not even like a short story. They make it like the whole stinking thing and it's like, you know, half an hour to read this Disney book.
Sara: It goes on and on. I don't enjoy reading those books, so those are not books I provide for my children who provide the books that you think are fun to read. There is one that I love called Tickle Monster, and it is all different ways that this tickle monster tickles the reader, the children reading the book right. And so when I read that I'll add to my kids, I do the things Tickle Monster says to my children, and it's just so fun. And there's another one by the same author, which I don't know off the top of my head to the author authors of these two books, but it's called Boogie Monster, and it's all about dancing and have my kids do the actions of the Boogie Monster is doing that in the book, and it's so, so fun.
Sarah Orton: That's cool, because then they're learning how to follow directions. And having fun with it.
Sara: Right? And because we've read these two books so much tickle monster especially they anticipate it. So they're like moving away from me when they have not something. And part of it is the inflections in my voice. Like, they know that it's about to come because of how I'm reading it. So definitely, as parents pick books, you enjoy reading.
Jen: I'm just thinking, even your boogie book. I mean, when you're wanting them to do something. Not relevant to the book or anything you can say, can you go put your shirts away and do this bugging move or whatever comes in the book to where is making them do those actions. It's a little bit more fun and you're getting something done that you're wanting done.
Sara: Yeah, it's a good way of making things more fun. Through are skills that they're learning because of reading.
Sarah Orton: And then you're having fun too, because you're bonding with the kids and you get to tickle them.
Jen Daly: Exactly.
Sarah Orton: Yes.
Jen: Well, this has been a really fun conversation, and I appreciate you taking your time out and coming and talking to us about the importance of reading and the benefits that can be for both kids and parents. We want to thank you for coming and listening to our podcast today. This week, we would like to challenge you just to spend if it's 10 minutes, 20 minutes, how ever many minutes you would like to jus, just pick up a book and read it with your kids. If you have any questions or comments you can-
Sara: or need book recommendations
Jen: Always. But if you have any comments, questions, need those book recommendations. We're happy to give them. You can reach us at parentsatthefamilyplaceutah.org , or you can reach Sarah or myself on Facebook. Sarah Hendricks Dash the Family Place or Jen Daily Dash the Family Place. We hope you have a great week reading. And we'll see you next week.
Sara: Thanks again for listening. The family place is a non-profit organization in Logan, Utah, with a mission to strengthen families and protect children. We call ourselves starfish throwers. If you're unsure what that means, refer back to our introduction episode where we explain it. The good news is you can be a starfish thrower too by subscribing to The Parent’s Place podcast and liking our social media pages. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with others and help us get our message out to more people. Also, be sure to check the show notes for links to information referenced in this episode. That's all for now, but we'll catch you again next time on The Parent’s Place
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