I recently came upon this quote in a magazine I was reading: “To read aloud to someone you love is the simplest of gifts, and one of the greatest.” The quote is by Meghan Cox Gurdon, an essayist, book critic, and former foreign correspondent.
I have a daughter who is an adult now, and among my fondest memories is our time reading together. I started reading to her when she was a baby and read to her throughout her childhood years. It was clear we both looked forward to it. In addition to the known benefits of reading to children of helping to develop their creativity and intellectual ability, our reading time together was a sharing of love.
Although my main motivation for reading to my daughter was for her benefit, for I believe reading to children is one aspect of good parenting, I also gained by being exposed to many excellent children’s books and their wonderful illustrations.
Because I was not familiar with Meghan Cox Gurdon, I looked online and learned that she wrote and recently published a book entitled The Enchanted Hour. I look forward to reading it!