Why Your Child Should Read for 20 Minutes Every Day
Let's Figure it out
by US Department of Education
October 31, 2007
Why Your
Child Should Read for 20 minutes Every Day
"WHY
CAN'T I SKIP MY 20 MINUTES OF READING TONIGHT?"
LET'S FIGURE IT OUT --- MATHEMATICALLY!
Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!
Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes
Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.
Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days
a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two 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?
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 inlife?
WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY?
*If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five
years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain
food!
*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week, and the child's
hungry mind lose 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and
stories.
*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.
*Therefore...30 minutes daily = 900 hours
30 minutes weekly = 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly = 60 hours
Guess
you now understand why reading daily is so very important.
Why not have family night reading? It is great to just shut
off the television for 20-30 minutes and read... and
share.
(Source: U.S. Dept. of
Education, America Reads Challenge. (1999) "Start Early, Finish
Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader." Washington,
D.C.
