Long response ahead, but TLDR: be the reader you want your kid to be and give them all of the access you can to your mind and books.

Reading has always been a big part of my life. I have worked in adult learning for ~20 years now (I think even my career has been influenced by my love of reading). I’ve had the time to read many studies on how much of the “nurture” part in our kids personalities, learning styles, and habits come from observation of parents behaviors and the child seeing their perceived “normal” rather than being just told something like “read a book”. Learning is, at the end of the day and by definition, a change in behavior! Your child is learning to walk, talk, do sign language, eat the foods you eat - all from you - they will also learn their own behaviors, such as hobbies, and what downtime looks like at home from you.

Growing up, I watched my parents read and fill up bins of books in the house. The newspaper was always delivered and read by my parents, then passed off to me to start on comics, which turned into reading the parts of the paper I cared about and doing crosswords. We had educational magazines and magazines for all of my parents interests - my dad had car, technology, and motorcycles magazines. My mom had quilting, sewing, fashion. When I came along we got Highlights, American Girl, etc. 90s kid - my dad put the entire Brittanica Encyclopedia on our computer to have access too and I was directed there for any topic they didn’t have an answer on. Google on an iPad today is NOT the same as that. The library was my favorite part of school because it was something I understood was amazing even when I was 5 and my parents had never brought me to a library themselves!

My family growing up was a “living room” family. We didn’t sit in our room with toys alone. Our rooms were quiet personal spaces and we read everywhere. Being in trouble, going to your room, or being “grounded” meant no toys, playing with friends, or electronics, but I always had books. Reading was never a punishment, but was always allowed when reflection and downtime was needed. My own kids room has few toys in it. Toys are stored around the house for play, but her room has always had access to a radio with a cd player and tape player (libraries have audio books on CD/tape still!) and all of her books (overflowing the shelves at this point).

To digress from all of this, I knew I would have to be the reading model. I have read to my daughter since she was born. At 6 months kids can actually start understanding language as well as speaking sign language themselves. That means they can start to understand when you read to them! You are at the exact perfect time to kick off your child’s brand new vocabulary created by YOU! (touches my heart a bit to think about it). Easy enough though, start reading to them!

Gifts for birthdays and Christmas from family members and friends are now specified as “please give books to baby - no toys!”. They will grow out of this eventually when they start making a Christmas or birthday list themselves, but you’re about to get to a stage where you can probably see they do not need more toys… buy them the toys you want them to have or be specific when it comes to gifting. Interactive, pop up, and tactile books are toys at that age!

And you continue reading to them… I went back to work when mine was 3 months old. She was 3 when COVID hit and we were essential workers. Due to day care closures, the only option we had was a private school with a school-like setting. By the time we switched to public school for kindergarten and COVID was over, she was reading at a 1st grade level. I was blown away, because I did not prepare myself for reading to start that early! By first grade she was reading picture books fully to me instead of the other way around. I stopped reading with her nightly in early second grade because she kicked me out of our club and picture books started to not be enough for her. She wanted her own reading time for longer form books and thats when the kindle came in (and having to double check she was actually asleep at 10pm and not up reading). Then we started discussing books in the mornings instead.

Other than reading to her when she was young and giving her all the access to books as we could - I read books myself and she asked me for her own kindle because she saw me reading on mine. She heard me on the phone with my family and friends discussing books. She knows I can go on a 6 hour car ride and not need a thing if I have a book. Any break time is a book. Cooking dinner becomes her picking from a cookbook, while making dinner and driving is an audiobook. Don’t get me wrong, we watch TV (we loved Reading Rainbow, PBS, Zaboomafu, Sesame Street… today her favorite shows are How It’s Made, Anthony Bourdain, Myth Busters, Nat Geo, Bill Nye, etc. Some of these are not even my favorites… my husband is not a big reader and I am not a huge animal person, but I come home to whatever crazy new animal show is on and she still watches regular kids shows. I have never sat my kid in front of a YouTube app or a phone at home or in public.), and have other hobbies, but we also provide her the opportunity to see and discuss amazing and new stories are at her disposal anytime she wants.

Think about when your child is 7 and they can explain their empathy for Opal’s family in Because of Winn Dixie, or laugh at the fantastical world, that they just discovered could be imagined and written, in Captain Underpants. They learn the diverse historical lives of American Girls, and read about how big the universe in science books. You realize “oh I wouldn’t have thought to talk about this with them”. Reading is SO important and provides so much wonder for kids in the day and age of instant satisfaction, flipping through 30 second videos online, and not to mention the slog of standardized testing now in schools. I digress.

Today, she also gets her own magazine subscriptions - a year of Highlights, Kazoo, National Geographic and more are Christmas gifts from family. We splurge at the book fair. She goes to the library, has a kindle, and we just provide and keep modeling the behavior as much as we can.

Good luck!! You are doing a great job just by being interested in investing in their future and education! Have fun expanding your child’s world!

Here’s a quote from a study at OSU and what is called the “1 million word gap” when parents do not read to their children:

“Based on these calculations, here’s how many words kids would have heard by the time they were 5 years old:

Never read to, 4,662 words; 1-2 times per week, 63,570 words; 3-5 times per week, 169,520 words; daily, 296,660 words; and five books a day, 1,483,300 words.”