182.5 Reading Challenge
The reading challenge that challenges us to read out loud to our kids for 30 minutes every day!
By reading 30 minutes aloud to our children daily, we will read for 182.5 hours in a year! Join the challenge today to build literacy in our households and create connections with our kids that will last a lifetime by downloading our FREE 182.5 Reading Challenge Tracker!
Did You Know
- 44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year
- Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 130 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children (Source)
- 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022
- 54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level
- 45 million are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level
How To Help Children Become Literate?
An analysis of more than 9.9 million students found that only those students who read 15 minutes or more per day made accelerated reading gains.
Students who had less than 15 minutes of daily engaged reading time saw below-average reading gains, putting them at risk of falling behind their peers. Students who read between just over a half-hour and an hour per day saw the greatest gains of all!
Why Read Aloud?
Reading Aloud Helps Children to Build Sophisticated Language Skills.
There are so many benefits to reading aloud but my favorite benefit is that reading aloud helps students learn how to use language to make sense of the world; it improves their information processing skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. (Source)
Reading Aloud Improves Comprehension and Active Listening.
When reading out loud or listening to others do it, your mind concentrates on both the sounds words make and their meanings, and this is a hefty cognitive workout that strengthens comprehension.
In a study led by researchers at the University of Perugia, students read out loud to adults with dementia over a total of 60 sessions. The listeners performed better in memory tests after the sessions than before. “It seems that listening to a story leads to more intense and deeper information processing,” the researchers concluded.
Reading aloud cultivates active listening, which goes beyond just hearing words to truly internalizing them. Active listening allows students to collect information deeply enough to analyze and reflect upon it. As a bonus, new research suggests that learning how to listen is a critical element in learning how to read well.
Creates Connection With Our Kids.
Want your kids to grow in empathy and compassion? Read aloud. Want your kids to succeed in school? Read aloud. Want your kids to be excellent communicators? Read aloud. Feeling at odds with the kids in your life? Read aloud. Want your kids to feel loved and values? Read aloud. (Source – Listen to this amazing podcast by Read Aloud Revival about Why to read aloud to children who can already read)
“The #1 Influence on children’s language skills should be from good quality books being read aloud.”
Download your FREE 182.5 Reading Tracker!
Click on the link below to download your free reading tracker!