Well partly the reason why it’s important to read to them constantly, whatever age they are, is because when we’re reading to them, especially when they’re older kids… And it is wonderful if they’ll let us read to them, cause some kids say, “I can read by myself. I don’t want you to read to me anymore.”
And you have to let them go, which is really heartbreaking. But if your child will let you read at eight and nine, when they are already able to read, we are reading to them things that they could never read by themselves, which they can completely understand because they’re listening.
They’re not reading it; they’re listening to it. And in the context of that-of the story, they understand every word, whereas if they were reading it, they wouldn’t. But if we’re reading always something that’s more difficult than they can read themselves, when they come to that book later or books like that, they will be able to read them.
Which is why even a fifth grade teacher, you know, even a tenth grade teacher, even a, you know, end of high school teacher should still be reading to children aloud because there’s always something that is too intractable for kids to read on their own. We’re always pushing them ahead that little bit harder, that little bit harder. That’s why we should keep reading forever.
