Read To Your Child Before Bed
Most parents know they should read to their children before bed, but few parents know why reading to a child at bedtime is so important. Children love to spend one-on-one time with their parents and being read to at bedtime gives them that uninterrupted time with mommy or daddy where, to the child, it seems that they are the only thing that matters in the parents’ world. Reading to children before bed helps them learn, not only how to read and how words look and sound but how to handle life experiences as well. As characters in the story handle difficult situations, the child learns how to handle those situations in a safe environment. Reading to a child increases his or her vocabulary and sets a good foundation for further learning experiences and encourages children to use their imaginations and be creative. Reading to a child at bedtime promotes better sleep. Tests have shown that children should have a half hour of quiet relaxed time without television, computers, or other noisy distractions like video games before they go to bed to enable them to fall asleep more deeply and easily, thus making for a happier, well-rested child the next morning.