I have read to my child almost every day of her life. I started reading to her before she was born. While she was in the womb, I would lay down and take out a book and practice reading out loud. I figured this would be good practice for when she arrived.

There were a lot of things that I did before she was born to help shape me into a good mother. Besides reading, I would also sing and talk to her. Children learn to speak through observing their parents. The more you talk to them, not at them or about them but to them, the sooner they learn to understand and use the language. Talking to your children from the moment they are born and before, makes them more susceptible to understanding complete sentences, forming them on their own and they can even understand the proper uses of words such as "him", "his", "hers" or "theirs".

This makes a world of difference to a child when you read together. It is easier to keep the attention of a child who understand what you are saying then it is to keep the attention of a child who hasn't any idea what you are talking about. If your child doesn't understand what "she" means then it would be more difficult for them to associate the word "she" with the girl in the story book.

Children who become literate at an early age statistically have a lower drop out rate, lower criminal rate, less likely to become victims of drug abuse and overall have a better chance at becoming successful or just plain live a happy and content life.

Statistically, parents who talk to their children often and normally, as you would to other adults, start speaking earlier and have a broader vocabulary. They can communicate more effectively which makes life easier on you and your child.

In a world where children are always the future it is important to help them find their way so read with your children.

When my own child was still an infant, I had days were I really didn't feel like reading to her because she wouldn't sit still or she would grab the pages and rip them out of the book. It didn't feel like she really wanted to read with "me" but I kept at it knowing that if for once in my life I just listened to the advice of every doctor, psychologist and teacher in the world, then it will have it's reward. I just can't give up.

So on these days, instead of focusing on exactly what the book read or trying to maker her pay attention, we took a different approach. We pointed to the characters, I would tell her what they were and we would make up our own story to go along with it. And instead of insisting that we finish the book we put it down after a few minutes and continued on our own adventure because I really wanted reading to be something that she would enjoy.

By the time my daughter was 14 months old, she could say her alphabets, she could count up to 10 in English and Spanish, (forward and backward) she could recognize letters and numbers and could read a few words like "happy" and "baby". I was always sure to encourage her when she got it right and in my own way, let her know if she got it wrong. Saying "your wrong" is something that I decided I didn't want to use with her. Instead I would say something like, "close but if that is a cat, then how can this be a cat too?"

By the time she was two, she would tell me when I got something right.  My child adores books more than anything else. We read together, we sing together, we learn together and now at the age of three, she can also spell. She's not a child genius or anything like that but after helping her understand the basic literary fundamentals, she learned to spell on her own because she wanted to, not because I made her.

Books are her most favored "toy". We read every day together because reading is our special time. Knowing that I stuck to it really did pay off. And all it took was 10 minutes a day. Of course now we spend much more time than that reading on her command.

There are a tone of programs out there designed to help your children learn. Pick any one of them or all of them if you want but before you do, first pick up a book.