"Hooked on Reading"

Don't forget: Read Across America is this Friday, March 2! Created by the National Education Association (NEA), Read Across America is meant to motivate children--and adults--to read each and every day. To remind us of the importance of book sharing, we wanted to share a great blog post (entitled, "Hooked on Reading") with you by Dennis Van Roekel, president of the NEA:

"It starts early. When we are maybe age three or four or five. When we are young and impressionable. Someone close to us opens a book and reads to us about animals that talk, ghosts that live in haunted castles or pirates in search of buried treasure

And we are hooked. We can't wait for someone to read us another story that causes our imaginations to run wild. If you've ever shared a book with a child, you know the joy and excitement this small act can bring. It's almost comical how some children want to hear the same story over and over and over — they are so spellbound by it.

Research shows that children who are read to at home have a higher success rate in school and frequently develop stronger reading skills. Reading is the foundation of education.

Unfortunately, too many children have no one to read to them. The National Center for Education Statistics tells us that almost 50 percent of children ages three to five do not get read to on a daily basis. This is staggering..."

Read more at EdWeek.org