Washington D.C.  -  Nancy Drew played a crucial role in raising my two daughters.  As Nancy Drew stumbled upon a new mystery in an old, abandoned house or at the beach on vacation with her family, my children explored the mystery of reading.  It was the most fundamental learning experience of their lives, and we shared it together.

 If not Nancy Drew, I am sure young parents in Southern Missouri might remember Tom Swift, Rumpelstiltskin, the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, the Boxcar Children, or Paddington Bear.  These colorful characters had adventures that lasted much longer than a half-hour, commercial-interrupted TV show.  They lived in our imaginations, not in Hollywood.

 Our children don’t know these classics as well, but there are new characters just waiting to introduce them to reading – from The Pirate Pink to Eloise.

 We need their help more than ever, because a recent study by the Kaiser Foundation indicates that two-thirds of American children under the age of two spend more than two hours looking at a TV or computer screen every day.  On the other hand, children under the age of six only spend an average of 40 minutes per day reading or being read to. 
 As the days get shorter and cooler, our children inevitably spend more time inside.  Every parent wonders how to ease the transition from outdoor play to indoor play, from summer’s vacation to autumn’s return to school.  Reading is a year-round activity, but parents have an extra opportunity to read with their children when they begin spending more time indoors.

 Parental involvement plays a critical role in childhood literacy.  The National Institute on Literacy reports that only 36 percent of American children visit the public library with their parents once a month.  On the other hand, 81 percent of children are read to at least three times a week by their parents.  Every report on literacy is a mixture of good and bad news, but the reality is that only levels of 100 percent in both these categories will mean that every child is getting the reading attention that he or she needs to be a successful reader.

 At an early age, experience with reading gives children great advantages when they begin school.  Later on in their youth, children get an active learning experience from books we cannot replicate with TV or even computers. 

 Sports, current events, religion, and even leisure take on a new angle when they are portrayed in print rather than on the TV.  Children learn how important it is to be able to show the details of an event with words rather than with pictures.  And the voice they hear relating these tales to them is a parent’s – not an unseen narrator from Studio City, much less a certain purple dinosaur.

 Sitting in front of the fireplace in your home, at a table in the children’s section of your public library, or even on the edge of the bed you tuck your child into at night, the time spent reading will pay off in the long run.

 But the prospect of making a daily quiet time for reading is daunting for some busy parents.  As difficult as it is to teach reading, the good news is that children learn best by observing.  All it takes is a book and less than a half hour to interest our sons and daughters in a lifelong skill.

 Here are some easy tips for parents who are reading with a young child:

In Missouri, 83 percent of the population is literate.  In some areas of our state, though, that statistic dips to nearly 50 percent.  On the whole, American students still lag behind students in Canada, New Zealand, and Finland in literacy skills.

Our challenge as parents is to greatly increase the pre-school exposure of our young children to reading, and raise that number considerably in the years to come. 
 We can reach that goal by working with our children to prepare them for school and for the world beyond. 

 To order a free copy of “A Child Becomes a Reader” from the U.S. Department of Education, call 1-877-433-7827 or visit them online at www.edpubs.org.  Also, you can find reading suggestions for your child at the Children’s Book Council at www.cbcbooks.org or at your local library.