Being a parent is one of the greatest things ever, wouldn’t you agree?

Besides providing some of the greatest joy in life, our kids supply endless amounts of love and laughter on a daily basis.

However, as I’m sure you’ll also agree, being a parent isn’t always easy.

We’ve all had our share of temper-tantrums, screaming, crying, sassiness, and maybe even that heart-wrenching, “You’re mean. I don’t love you anymore” (Don’t worry, they do forgive you…eventually).

Unfortunately, parenting doesn’t come with a how-to manual. If it did, I know I would skip to the chapter on “How to ensure that my kids will turn out to be caring, intelligent, successful, and productive members of society.”

While there may not be a guarantee, I’d like to think my girls are headed in the right direction.

Could reading have played a part in that? I believe so, and many experts like Dr. Anne Cunningham, Graduate School of Education Head Graduate Academic Advisor at UC, Berkeley, agree.

In her paper, entitled “What Reading Does for the Mind,”  Cunningham states that the more children read, the more developed their “vocabulary, general knowledge, spelling, and verbal fluency” becomes. (p. 143)

When my girls were babies, I read to them…constantly. They both began speaking complete sentences shortly after their first birthdays. I can’t help but think reading played a large role in that. As they grew older, their love for books increased. We would read books throughout the day and have story-time at night. Every day, reading created an opportunity for us to snuggle up together and discuss the pictures or what we think would happen next, which aided in expanding their vocabulary even further. During these bonding moments, reading allowed them to think, be creative, and use their imaginations. Soon, my girls were creating their own stories, or “reading” the books they had memorized to me. I have no doubt that because of these daily rituals, my girls were reading on their own before they entered kindergarten.

Now that they’re older, I can still hear “and goodnight to the old lady whispering, ‘hush,'” in their little girlie voices and see their tiny fingers pressed to their lips as they said “hush” while they “read” one of their favorite books, Goodnight Moon, to me.

Although we may not read cute little stories anymore, we still snuggle up at night and have our special moments. Whether we talk about something exciting that happened at school, nervousness over an upcoming test, or the dream of becoming YouTube famous, reading to my girls helped set the tone of our relationship and the foundation of their lives.

Reading has shown my girls that imagination is limitless and that an entire world filled with dreams and possibilities is waiting for them. Now, all they have to do is be willing to take the first step and keep walking…

What steps are you taking to create these moments?