A wonderful explanation for parents as to why it is so important for your child to read every day. Please share this with other parents!
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“Why can’t I skip my 30 minutes of reading tonight?”
Let’s figure it out —MATHEMATICALLY!
Student A reads 30 minutes a night;
Student B reads only 5 minutes a night
Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 7 times each week.
Student A reads 210 minutes a week.
Student B reads 35 minutes a week.
Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 840 minutes a month.
Student B reads 140 minutes a month.
Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 12 months a year.
Student A reads 10,080 minutes a year.
Student B reads 1,680 minutes a year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of 28 whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only 5 school days of reading practice.
By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits:
Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days
Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.
One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably, and so undoubtedly will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?
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Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school….and in life?
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WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY?
*If daily reading begins at day one, by the time the child is five years old, he or she has been fed roughly 54,750 minutes of brain food!
*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes two times a week for five years, and the child’s hungry mind gains only 15,600 minutes of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.
*Reading to a child just one time a week over the course of 5 years, means a child is only relieving 7,800 minuets of language.
*A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition.
No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, America Reads Challenge (1999) “Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader.” Washington D.C.