Some of my fondest memories when I was a little girl was nightly bedtime stories with my momma. For as long a I can remember, my mother read numerous books (usally little golden books) to me before we went to sleep. She says she started doing it when I was only a couple months old. One of my favorite books back then was The Giant Who Wanted Company
Our tradition ran from babyhood all the way up until I was startin teenagehood. Even today, I enjoy listening to my mom read. It was my mother’s dedication to reading to me that instilled a lifelong love of learning, language and books in me (my hubby says he lives in a library when he looks around our living room!). I loved reading so much that growing up I would read anything and everything that came my way…..even if it was just a lable on shampoo. 
(Shhh…now you know why it takes me so long in the bathroom… j/k).
Today, one of my favorite pasttimes is still reading. My favorites are the classics, christian fiction, fantasy, science fiction, self help (topic depends on what I’m looking to learn at any point in life) and financial books such as those by Dave Ramsey. I especially love reading fantasy literature with gnomes, elves, fairies, and “other world” creatures – anything that provides an imaginative escape from the real world. Some of my favorites include the Harry Potter Series
This past fall I was working on college courses towards an early childhood teaching degree, and one of my classes was “Children’s Literature”. Needless to say it was my favorite course of the semester!
Now, all of this is in stark contrast to my husband. He wasn’t read to much as a child that he can remember, and to this day he doesn’t read unless he’s forced to. He simply has no interest in it. While my strength is in book knowledge and reading, his strengths lie instead in visual perception and hands on learning. I have a great grasp on working knowledge of language and reading, while he has a better grasp than I on mechanical thinking.
Seeing how different we both are in these two aspects, both of us believe that reading (or the lack thereof) to a child at a young age strongly influences their perceptions on language, books, and future learning so we plan on making sure our child receives a mixture of our personal styles – Kevin will teach hands on mechanical things and sports while I will make sure little Jack receives daily reading, language, and interpersonal skills. Hopefully when he grows up he will be a “better version” than either of us in those two strongly different areas!
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Tags: Baby Care Tips
Hey Lisa, I’m glad I came across your blog. I’m a new father, baby Jacob was born Nov. 4th and both myself and my wife read to the little guy all the time. He’s still new, but it always stuns me when I catch him looking at the pictures in the book or looks up to hear the source of the voice reading. What both my wife and I plan on doing is also using some Language Learning software when he is old enough, I came across one that really intrigued me and even wrote an article about it…Rosetta Stone Software. You might want to consider that as well in your teachings. I figure not only will it teach him computers, but also open up some new worlds for him in the future and we all know children learn languages much easier than adults.