Welcome to the top 10 reasons that your child should read series. This is a series motivated to inspire you to encourage your child to read. There are many reasons why you should encourage your child to read over the summer, but I am just going to focus on the top 10.
The first one we are going to delve into today is a big one.
Encouraging your child to read over the summer will increase your child’s vocabulary.
Last summer, I started to research all of the words that were in books to find out if books have changed today compared to when similar lists where made 20 years ago. One of the most interesting finds that I came across wA that every single book had at least one word that was never found in any of the other books. Now, these were easy reader books that I was looking at. So imagine how many new words that your child has never seen before that are in chapter books, it could be hundreds.
There are three ways that we learn new vocabulary. One is through everyday interaction with others. Another is through direct instruction and the last way is through books. If you take away books, then your child will automatically be 1/3 behind their peers reading books. That can equal up to a 3 year instructional gap by 10th grade. There aren’t too many parents that would be happy with this educational gap and the easiest way to overcome it is by having your child read something of interest to him/her.
Some parents say, “But my child doesn’t like to read.” Well, there are some kids that don’t like to eat, but you don’t stop feeding them. If you are consistent with reminding them and make it fun, they will get on board. If you make it seem like a chore, then they will hate it. Just keep providing lots of opportunities and fill your house with books and ebooks. If your child won’t read on their own, then you read to them. They will still get the same vocabulary if you read to them 15 minutes a day to a half hour as they would if they would read on their own. Or, maybe you want to share the reading where you read one page and your child reads a page.
If your child is below grade level, then a great book called 31 Days to Become a Better Reader: Increasing your child’s reading level will be a great tool. It is available on Amazon and I wrote it after many parents asked me what they could do with their child at home to help him/her become a better reader.
Things to keep in mind about your child’s reading and increasing vocabulary.
1. Kids with bigger vocabularies go to college.
2. Kids with bigger vocabularies have more opportunities available.
3. Kids with bigger vocabularies get better jobs.
Open up doors and opportunities for your child and have him/her pick up a book. I dare you to grown their vocabularies.
beginning today. It is called 
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