Clifton Fadiman Quotes

It is my desire to break the destructive generational cycle of illiteracy in the home by focusing on the children. Reading to your child has so much value as a parent because it opens the lines of communication.

The home is the child's first school, the parent is the child's first teacher, and reading is the child's first subject.

You don't have to care about children to care about children. One of the things that I talk a lot about is the fact of the importance of third-grade reading level. By the end of third grade, if the child is not at reading level, it'll drop off. They never catch up.

Most of the books I read these days are children's books at bedtime.

I read a lot of books to my children, and they all seem really good. I think people have gotten really good at children's books.

As a father, I understand the importance of the bond that develops through reading picture books with your child.

With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.

I read to my children, and now they love to read. I encourage parents to carve out just 20 minutes a day. It helps you learn more about them, and really opens the door for you to speak into their life!

I'm a big reader. My kids love reading, and I think it's important, not just for development but for bonding. You start reading to kids before they can even understand what you're saying to them, so I look at it as a fundamental tool for connection.

Once upon a time, I sat in my mother's lap as she turned the pages of Golden Books, and I gradually learned to read.

As far as young kids go, my primary interest is to get parents to read to their kids. That's about the most you can do, I think.

One of my favorite things to do with my children is to read to them.

We know that reading to children is a crucial step. From the beginning, babies who are read to are exposed to the cadence of language, and school-age children who read at home for 15 minutes a day are exposed to millions of words.

There may be some doubt as to who are the best people to have charge of children, but there can be no doubt that parents are the worst.

If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent- and every adult caring for a child-read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in our lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.

We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they enjoy. To read to them stories we are already tired of. To do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves. Use reading-aloud time as bonding time, as time when no phones are being checked, when the distractions of the world are put aside.

Children who are read to learn two things: First, that reading is worthwhile, and second, that they are worthwhile.

I would love to have kids one day. In fact, I'm pretty good with them. I grew up with five half-siblings, the youngest of whom is 11 years younger than me, so I think I learned some pretty cool parenting skills quite early on in life.

If you read in front of your kids, it's very likely that they'll become readers, too.

The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child's home.

I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I'll be happy.

There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.

One day I hope to open my own day-care center. My passion for kids is through the roof.

Kids who are poor often have families that have not really been kept informed about... how important it is to read to your child, to reduce stresses in their life, to use positive incentives and words.

The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. What we see and share at that age stays with us for life.