By Natalie Richoux

There are numerous benefits of reading: strengthens the brain, improves health, and has an influence over the decisions we make in real life. With so many wonderful benefits, we should all be reading each day, but reading with your family has even more benefits! So, read this blog together or grab a book after reading this and explore the benefits of reading as a family.

Closeness
Reading together as a family allows parents and children to form deeper bonds as they dive into other worlds together and let their imaginations run free together which then impacts how parents and children interact and play together.

Builds Confidence
Children who read to their parents and parents who read to their children build more confidence. Many characters in children’s books, both extrovert and introvert, are intellectual and have well developed emotions which sets positive examples for children of how to develop and show parents models for their kids to emulate.

Relaxation and Sleep
Many outlets have proven that reading can help someone relax and sleep. Reading as a family can help a family relax together and eliminate many stresses from day-to-day life that are often taken out on your loved ones in the house. Additionally, when you read together, it can help assist in sleeping due to the calming effect it has on the neural pathways in the brain.

Build Vocabulary and Fluency
As adults, we tend to think we have a good handle on everything and know quite a bit, but we can’t know everything. Reading as a family helps open paths and doors to ways to speak and write that we didn’t know before. Pull out a recipe and have your kids read it to you aloud and you’ll be surprised to learn some new words too!