A Thousand Stories

Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. - Mem Fox

This is just one of many quotes from Mem Fox's webpage titled Ten Read-Aloud Commandments. She is the author of several children's books as well as Reading Magic, a guide for teachers and parents about reading aloud to kids. Mem Fox has several great resources on her website, include audio clips of some of her stories as well as resources for both parents and teachers. It is definitely worth a visit.

This quote also reminds me of when my son came into this world six years ago. Still teaching at the time, I was very aware of how important it was to read aloud to kids, regardless of age. I immediately planned to apply this same philosophy with my new family.

One of the first books I purchased for my son was Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker's Dozen By The One and Only Dr. Seuss. Once we got home from the hospital, I spent a lot of my time reading and rereading these stories to him. I know he didn't understand the words, but I think just hearing my voice started to create a bond between the two of us. I also enjoyed reading aloud poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Both of these anthologies are still in his book collection in his room.

Once my son got older and started to respond to what I was reading to him, we discovered lots of board books that he enjoyed. Some of his favorites included If You Were My Bunny by Kate McMullan, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I still laugh when I remember how my son used to try and "pinch" the mouse with his fingers in Goodnight Moon, thinking the illustration was real. Once my wife went back to her classroom, I took some time as well to be home with our new addition. We read Mama's Home by Paul Vos Benkowski every day while we waited for my wife to pull into the driveway.

Two years later, my daughter joined our family. Nothing changed in our routine of reading aloud every day to our kids. Many of the same stories my son enjoyed as a toddler my daughter enjoyed too.

When the books at home became memorized from the repeated readings, we started making more frequent visits to our public library. The kids observed how we went about the collections and selected books. Pretty soon they were following our lead. Now they are the ones that lead the way through the library.

I come from a privileged background. I grew up around books. I have received lots of information about teaching and reading, in both my post-secondary education and in my later trainings. As a principal, I feel it is my obligation to share this knowledge with everyone I come across. A thousand stories - have I read this many to my children yet? I think so, but I had a head start. It is never too late to start sharing great literature with your kids. What are you waiting for? They are only young once.