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Read to Your Bunny

January 11th, 2004 · 2 Comments

I can’t imagine growing up without my parents reading to me – it was so much a part of my life. Our kids love books too, bringing them to Mommy and Daddy whenever we have a spare moment.

But in an article about skater Nancy Kerrigan , I saw this quote

Reading bedtime stories to a child may sound like a simple pleasure, but Kerrigan delights in it. Her mother is blind and her father worked long hours to pay for her skating, so Kerrigan never had anyone to read to her.

“To me, it seems like a luxury,” she said. “You have someone at night and every day to be reading to you. He loves it and it’s so neat. It’s like a whole new thing I wasn’t able to experience as a kid.”

It reminded me of the Rosemary Wells book Read to Your Bunny . On the author’s site I found an article she wrote, encouraging parents, especially during the first two years of life, to spend 20 minutes a day reading to your children:

But the most important thing in the first years of life is the growth of the mind and spirit. This is when a child learns to love and trust, to speak and listen.

After a child turns two years old, these things are very difficult to learn or teach ever again. Trusting, singing, laughing, and language are the most important things in a young child’s life.

And so they must come first for mothers and fathers, too. Because we can never have those years over again.

Every day, make a quiet, restful place for twenty minutes. Put your child in your lap and read a book aloud. In the pages of the book you will find a tiny vacation of privacy and intense love. It costs nothing but twenty minutes and a library card.
Reading to your little one is just like putting gold coins in the bank. It will pay you back tenfold. Your daughter will learn, and imagine, and be strong in herself. Your son will thrive, and give your love back forever.

“Read to your bunny….and your bunny will read to you!”

Tags: family

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 medmusings // Jan 12, 2004 at 12:12 am

    Read to Your Bunny

    Julie quotes from Rosemary Wells’ website today, and touches my heart. My second determination for 2004. Read to nally 20 minutes a day. Hmmm… I don’t think she’ll sit in my lap that long since most of the time she squirms away and i end up reading t…

  • 2 medmusings // Jan 20, 2004 at 8:49 am

    Singaporean Parental Kiasuism

    “kiasu” is a hokkien term used in Singapore meaning “afraid of losing” which in parentspeak translates to the madness that is reflected by incessant scheduling of activities even for toddlers. A nurse at my clinic was flabbergasted by nally’s schedule …