Children look for safety and autonomy in the books they read. Their familiarity with a story satisfies both those desires. Multiple reads of the same book also offers them the opportunity to go deeper into the story, showing them how to get more from a story..
You might think you can’t read Sylvester and the Magic Pebble one more time…but you can and you will. Here is a shared letter from a first time parent that illustrates how very valuable the experience can be
“As a first-time parent, I found the conversational reading workshop incredibly valuable. So often we are inundated with instructions like, “be sure your child reads at least three books a day!” I’ve often felt guilty when, after a long day of work for me and later-than-usual dinner and bath for my daughter, we only manage to squeeze one book – or part of one book – together. The workshop helped me realize that it’s not simply about how much or how often you read together, but how you read together. Now, we take our time and we read deeper. This has also made me less bored when my daughter wants to read the same book for five days in a row! I take advantage of the opportunity to have five different conversations, each a little deeper and more meaningful than the one before.”
