Because I know you value reading and because I know you want your kids to enjoy good books, I thought you would want to hear about a recent article in Practical Homeschooling. Written by the editor, Mary Pride, More Books in Your Home = Higher Education Level for Your Kids appeared in the November/December, 2017, issue.

In the article she summarizes and quotes from a study, “Family scholarly culture and education success” that appeared in a 2010 issue of Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. According to Ms. Pride the study included 70,000 cases from 27 nations and defined “scholarly culture” as “the way of life in homes where books are numerous, esteemed, read, and enjoyed.” (It sounds like your home, doesn’t it?)

She begins by stating that “a number of studies have shown children with books in their homes have a serious advantage when it comes to learning to read.” She continues, “It turns out books in the home have an even more powerful effect on educational achievement—one that works independently of a country a child lives in, its governmental system, the parents’ income level, or whether they went to college or not.”

Quoting from the abstract of the 2010 study, she explains, “Children growing up in homes with books get 3 years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class.”

She goes on to say “what the authors [of the study] call a ‘book-oriented home environment’ can make a difference in ‘vocabulary, information, comprehension skills, imagination, broad horizons of history and geography, familiarity with good writing, the importance of evidence in argument’ and more.”

So did you and your child read today? I bet you did. Give yourself a smile.

BTW: Practical Homeschooling which is published five times per year has many more helpful ideas for parents, even if you are not homeschooling.

Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.)  Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.