There are few skills that children need in order to be truly successful in life.
I’m saying this as a trained teacher, an experienced mother, and a 7-year homeschool veteran.
If a child has self-control, the ability to problem-solve, and a solid reading foundation- there is nothing they can’t do.
If you are disciplined, you think through your decisions, manage your time and resources well, and maintain strong relationships- all of which are indicators for sucess.
If you have the ability to think through problems, find a solution, try it, and adjust as needed, most of the challenges you face are not going to deter you, but teach you.
And, if you can read, you can learn anything.
In fact, it is believed that Albert Einstein once said, “The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
Now, I have never believed that schools were meant to be a place to send our children to learn everything they needed to know about life. Both as a teacher and a parent, I have always believed that mom and dad should be the primary source of knowledge, experience, and skills for children. We learn more at home than we ever will in a classroom, especially if our parents do it right.
However, I used to see schools as useful partners for teaching children the basic the “r’s”- reading, writing, and ‘rhymatic.
Well, I went through the school system as a millennial. Even then, I often ended up teaching myself- searching through textbooks, literature, and online resources until I understood because my teachers- didn’t teach. My parents helped as much as they could, but some subjects were beyond what they learned themselves. So, I relied upon my own skills and those of my peers as we talked late into the night working on assignments together until our grades were decent.
And you would think that, after living through that special kind of hell today’s system would have improved somewhat. After all, we have poured millions and billions of dollars into the education system. It’s always a hot topic in politics, and….teachers are getting paid more now, right?
A recent study showed exactly the opposite, especially in one of my vital areas- reading. In 2024, reading levels in United States students fell below pre-COVID numbers. Not only did children fall behind during the gap in schooling, they did not recover and got worse. (Source)
In fact, only 35% of graduating seniors that year were proficient in reading at their grade level.
1 in 3.
1 in 3 of our high school graduates can read.
Millions and billions of dollars, hours of talk and debate and……..1 in 3.
Two thirds of our children entering adulthood do not have this essential skill. They cannot read technical papers, understand studies, answer basic questions about passages, or define grade-level words.
And schools are passing them into adulthood. They are going to college, getting jobs, and starting to run our society- without basic literacy abilities. In fact, a recent study showed that Gen Z college students are having a difficult time deep-diving into textbooks and often look for summaries or AI explanations rather than actually reading course material. Many professors are complaining about short attention spans and a lack of ability to comprehend material at all. (Source)
Think of the implications this has for our future for just a second, and wonder with me about what all our tax money actually doing. Professionals making decisions in our society- without ever even reading course material, understanding important concepts, or being able to focus their brain long enough to read a textbook chapter.
Schools are not teaching reading, and it matters more than most of us think.
If you still don’t believe me, this video clip is a powerful testimony of how illiteracy affects every aspect of our lives.
Reading Increases Knowledge
And not just non-fiction. Reading anything forces you to learn and remember. Unlike short-form videos (social media), which literally rot your brain, reading improves it. Reading increases attention spans, memory, self-control, sensory processing, and the number of connections your brain forms while scrolling is associated with a decrease in all these areas. (Source)
Reading teaches you about different cultures, historical time periods, and places when you can’t visit them in reality, sometimes even more than an actual visit. Reading Increases your exposure to new ideas and perspectives and puts you into situations as one of the characters, forcing you to see the world as they do and think outside of yourself.
Reading also helps your brain adapt to absorb anything that is wrote down, making instructions, recipes, reports, studies, and information easier to absorb. Reading literally trains your brain to gather and look for new information, remember it, analyze it, and figure out what to do with it.
Reading Improves Language Skills
Reading, especially at or above grade-level, can help improve vocabulary, grammar, and your own writing. Reading quality books puts new words in context and gives you the chance to look them up in a dictionary. It exposes you to literary devices, allusions, and different writing styles. Reading gives you examples of different dialects and accents, pacing, and sensory experiences in written form.
It teaches you how to write correctly and turns on the part of your brain that begins to build characters, worlds, and stories of your own by showing you how to convey them to readers. It gives you the tools you need to express yourself, describe what is going on around you, and convey emotions in ways others understand. Studies show that children who read better communicate better in both verbal and written forms. (Source)
Reading Builds Imagination
Unlike movies, TV, or short-form videos, reading forces the characters, story, and setting to come alive only in your own brain. Though each of us reads the same character and world descriptions, each of us has a slightly different idea of what they look and sound like. Books never give all the answers or fill in all the gaps, so our brains have to.
Reading is active, at least for your brain. It makes you think rather than passively watching the story unfold on a screen. Studies have shown that reading activates the region of the brain connected to understanding other people’s thoughts, social cognition skills, and shared attention. (Source)
Reading Develops Critical Thinking
Living in a fictional world forces you to draw parallels to your own and recognize patterns. It puts you inside different places, time periods, economic classes, and cultures and makes you to see them through the perspective of the main character. The problems they face become your own, and you start to find your own solutions- sometimes even arguing with your character friends.
As characters learn new information, so do readers. A lot of times, this means you are forced to change your mind, admit you were wrong, or find a new solution based on that new info. Plot twists really are character development- but for more than just the characters. In fact, studies have shown an association between reading, higher cognitive performance, and higher levels of brain connectivity when compared to passively watching videos. (Source)
Reading Builds Empathy
Daily life ties us up in our own brains. We focus on our own problems and forget that the person behind us in line at the grocery store has a whole life of their own. I’ve heard it said that there isn’t a person you wouldn’t love if you knew their story. And while I’m not sure that’s 100% true, I know that reading gives you the main character’s story and, most of the time, I end up loving them.
Calling them idiots, sometimes, yes.
But they become dear friends.
George R.R. Martin said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
Living inside someone else’s thoughts helps you to understand them in a way that nothing else can. You see not only actions, but feelings, logic, and thought processes. You not only see physical traits, but internal pieces that most of us try to hide from others. You really start to understand another human being-even if they are fictional. You hear their mind as if it were your own, experience their story, and know only what they know about their world. You celebrate their victories and, a lot of times, cry along with them when they fail.
Ask any reader about a character they will defend until death and, I promise, there’s more than one.
The magical part is this- when you live in someone else’s brain, you realize that you are not alone. That everyone struggles, celebrates, and grieves. That the person behind you has their own story, too, and your empathy for fictional people carries over to ones in real life. It makes you wonder who has a good story to tell locked in their own mind. You want to know more about what they believe, what challenges they are facing, and how you can better understand them. (Source)
Reading is Good for Your Health
As any reader will tell you, there’s nothing better to escape the world than a cup of something warm, a fuzzy blanket, and a good book.
Picking up a book the same thing as Bilbo Baggins leaving his hobbit hold and declaring, “I’m going on an adventure!”
It transports you outside of your life, time, and world, and allows you to tune it all out as their life, time, and world become real. In fact, one study showed that reading for just six minutes can reduce stress by 68%. (Source)
In addition to lowering cortisol, reading prevents brain function decline, supports better sleep, and regulates emotional health.
Less stress, a more active brain, and more sleep all roll over into a plethora of health benefits.
Reading Strengthens Your Moral Code
This one is tough to support with studies.
However, I personally believe that readers see the world in a different, more idealistic way.
Like the myths and fairy tales of our ancestors, our stories teach lessons.
Friendship, good vs. evil, human nature, knowing who you are, courage, responsibility, the power of love, sacrifice, growth, corruption, failure, freedom, fate, death, taking a stand, finding truth, joy, grief, anger, and mischief are all very common themes in fictional stories as well as non-fiction narratives.
The more you read, the more you see the patterns between choices and consequences, not just for the main character, but for those around them and, at times, their entire world.
Reading makes you believe that a normal person can make a difference simply by trying to do the right thing.
It makes you think about where you stand on issues and how far you are willing to go to fight for them.
It forces you to hold both empathy for villains and a distain for their choices at the same time.
It helps you cheer for heroes, even when they seemed doomed to failure.
Reading helps you analyze what makes people good or bad, why they make the choices they do, and whether or not those choices were good.
And it forces you to choose a side.
The Norse had Freya for love and Loki for chaos and laughter.
The Greeks had Titans to hate and Heracles to struggle with.
Rama protected. Coyote for tricks. Zulu for leadership. And Anansi for both cleverness and greed.
Today, we have Sophie Foster, Percy Jackson, Tris Pryer, Harry Dresden, the Weasley family, and Samwise Gamgee, along with others.
Their stories teach us that choosing the right thing despite all odds is never the wrong choice, that it’s okay to laugh, that we all struggle, that sacrifice is almost always required to make things better, and that even when we feel small and helpless, there is something we can do.
Reading Has to Be a Part of Home Learning
Yes, we pay taxes and expect teachers to do their job. We expect to hand the system a 5-year old, barely potty-trained human and get back a full-grown, fully-skilled adult.
But that is not, and has never happened.
Parents are primary teachers. Whether children are in public school, private school, or homeschool, parents being involved in education is the number one indicator of student sucess, especially in reading.
It is one of those skills that becomes a lifestyle- or it gets left behind.
Reading has always been a part of my life. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t.
When I was tiny, I couldn’t wait to come home from school and read my 5-page-readers to my parents everyday.
As I grew, I got into trouble more and more for sneaking a flashlight and book under my blankets at night so I could read ‘just one more chapter.”
As a teen, reading took me to new worlds, taught me magic, helped me see through the eyes of people I didn’t know, and live in times I never saw. I would rather cry my eyes out over a book than do anything else without one.
When I became a teacher, I learned why all teachers tell you the same thing- if you want your child to do well in school, read to them. Literally, that’s all we ask. READ.
When I had children, reading changed.
It was no longer about me.
Instead of reading thousand page books, I went back to Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, and Little Golden Books.
I read to my kids every night.
A lot of times we would spend months reading the same book over and over, because my littles liked it.
Reading was a time to snuggle, let them choose, and explore new places together.
It was a part of our life. One that included love, peace, and excitement all at once.
And they learned to love it.
As they got old enough to read on their own, they started to choose longer and longer books.
Naturally, I wanted to live in their world, so I read those books, too. We would often buy two copies so that we could read at the same time.
And, not long after, they started to out-read me.
While I was exhausted and falling asleep, they were the ones sneaking flashlights and books under the covers.
When they are bored, they ask each other for book recommendations.
Every trip, they pack books. If the house is too quiet, books. If something falls over and it sounds like an avalanche, stacks of books.
And, honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My kids have walked with lions, battled beside dragons, learned spells with wizards, time traveled in a treehouse, stopped fires with dinosaurs, and cried with little boys when their dogs died.
They think they are getting away with something.
But really, they are becoming stronger people.
The kind of people who think for themselves, see through lies, fight for truth, and always want to learn more.
Readers.
Something incredible happens when you read that doesn’t happen through any other media. It is a deep form of magic that connects generations and helps us strive for something better. But reading is an actual life skill with measurable results as well.
And parents are the only hope for fixing the failures of the school system. They are the ones who unlock the magic of hallucinating fictional worlds while staring at pieces of dead trees. They are the ones who have to teach their children that reading is worthwhile.
By reading themselves. And with the kids. As a priority, not a side-quest.
So, what adventure is next for your family?
*For a list of books I recommend everyone read, see my post here (with free printable)