The research and the experts all agree; reading to your child has many benefits for them. From improved language comprehension, increased vocabulary, heightened creativity, and enhanced memory to a host of other cognitive benefits, reading is crucial to your child’s development.

But what about the benefits it provides to you the parent? That is right; reading to your children can be beneficial to YOU. While any time you spend with your child is rewarding, reading helps develop a deeper bond and gives you time to relax and get lost in another world.

Establishing a daily reading ritual with your child gives them stability and gives you a chance to rest for a bit. Try to keep the time of day and length the same as much as is possible (which might not be often, as the demands of life and parenting are many). Choose stories that are age appropriate for your child. Get into the story and give each character a fitting voice and use tones that follow the events in the plot.

You will likely find that your daily story time will create a closer bond between you and your child. You will be pulled into the world of the story together and experience the events together, right along with the main characters. Your shared time together will also give you a chance to escape the hustle and bustle and many responsibilities of the day. Story time should leave your feeling refreshed and ready to finish the rest of the day strong.

Rereading your favorite childhood stories to your child can also help you bring up memories you have of reading with your parents. Your love of your parents and the stories they read to you can be passed on to your own child through this ritual you share together.

As your child grows up, he or she will no longer need you to read to them. This does not mean the end to your ritual, just a change to it. You can both read the same book and discuss it together. You can visit libraries and bookstores together, exchange books at birthdays and holidays, and even start a book club with other parents and their children.

So be sure to take some time out of each day to read together and you, your child, and your bond together will be better for it. The memories that your time together builds will be priceless to you later on.

Author Bio: +Brian Burton is a children’s book enthusiast and online publisher for childrensbookstore.com who writes on the topics of reading and parenting.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who love to read to their children.

Image courtesy of BenSpark via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.