Read To A Child

A short time ago Himself polled the members of his Bible study on the subject of who had been read to as a child.  The results kind of shocked me.  About 80% of the people (from all walks of life and many different countries) had NOT been read to as a child. 

Wow.

I was blessed to have a family who read to me.  So much so that I was reading when I entered school.  

I still have many of my childhood books.

This was my absolute hands-down favorite as a child.  This isn’t my original copy.  Somewhere along the line mine was lost.  For a birthday when I was an adult, Mom tracked down a copy for me.  (This was pre-internet so it was not an easy task!) 

This was another young favorite.  My sister enjoyed it too.

Mom made sure we heard all the children’s classics. 

She read classic fables and folk lore too.

By second grade I was reading at a very high level.  I’d bring home a stack each week from the library (I double dipped… hitting both the school and public libraries!).  

At that point you could be pretty well assured a horse was featured in any book I read…

…sometime a dog too.

Books open the world to children. 

They can instill a pride in them of their home area.  Himself is from North Dakota and was given this lovely book by a friend.  Even though it was written ‘for’ children… it is also wonderful for adults.

Books teach about other cultures.  Cultures here in our own countries and cultures far away.

And books teach about our spiritual heritage. 

Little Bird and Little Hoss have enough books that they could be a ladder to the roof.  And everyone reads to them.  It is so much fun when they ‘read’ back… telling the story because they have heard it so many times. 

I have so many wonderful books to share with them as they get older.  I can’t wait to sit and read with them!

(Today is International Children’s Book Day…celebrated on the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen.)