Family Reading Time

Book Week – such an important week in our library’s yearly program! This week has seen me reminiscing about the importance of books in my life. I have many cherished childhood memories but one that really stands out in my mind is the part that books played during my childhood years. Every night my parents would read books to me before bedtime, and it was a fun-filled time for our family. Dad’s favourite genres to read to me were fairy tales and fantasy books, and my Mum loved reading poetry and adventure stories to me. I enjoyed going to school and learning to read for myself, but I still really looked forward to stories at bedtime. These story times, and the adventures I went on in these books, paved the way for my love of reading throughout my adult years and continue to this day. One of my favourite pastimes now is to sit on my balcony with a good book!

Fast forward twenty years from my childhood bedtime stories and I had my own two young girls to nurture. They also were immersed in books from their early years and looked forward to these story times. One memory my primary aged girls and I have of enjoying books together was when we did a road trip from Adelaide through to Darwin. The road was LONG and STRAIGHT, and what better way to pass the time than to read the whole Little House on the Prairie book series together! My girls still comment on that memory of our trip even though thirty years has passed since then.

Dolly Parton, iconic US country singer, recognises the importance of reading to children from a young age. In 1995 she set up the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program where mothers in the United States who had just given birth were offered a free book every month for their child until the child turned five. The program has since been implemented in other countries, including Australia, with Tamworth being the first city where every new parent is offered this book membership. There has been a 98% take up rate, with most parents seeing the value in this reading program.

Ms Makepeace, a Tamworth speech pathologist, remembers the difficulties Tamworth faced before the program. "A number of communities in the Tamworth local government area had children that were three to four times more likely to be developmentally vulnerable in language and communication," she says. Now, several years in, the local library runs four times as many sessions of its Baby Book Time reading groups. "You’ll see how engaged the three- and four-month-olds are with books," Ms Makepeace says. "They're tiny babies, but they've learned the value of reading. And they love reading with their special adults."

The Tamworth program is funded by the council, local businesses, and charities, and run by the not-for-profit United Way, which administers it in other locations across Australia. Claire Galea, a researcher with United Way, has been surveying parents since the program started and compiling the results for a PhD with Macquarie University. The town is excited by the program, and research, which was recently presented at an international literacy conference, backs the benefits of this increased reading to children. “In Tamworth, we found 65 per cent of kids were read to for more than 10 minutes a day, that's nearly double the average Australian child," Claire Galea says. "The earlier we start, the longer we read, the better for the kids setting them on a good life trajectory." 

As parents and guardians, we all want the best start in life for our children. I encourage you to incorporate daily reading time with your children as part of your family routines. You and your children will enjoy this special time together; you’ll be making family memories; and you’ll see an increase in your children’s literacy development. Happy family reading time!

Mrs Jenny Litster

Teacher Librarian