This morning Nemo woke me with this book in his hand, asking me to read it. He climbed in, snuggled up, and we read.
We usually reserve reading for bed time, but perhaps because I was out last night and wasn’t home for bed time, he thought this was a good make-up session.
I do love reading to my kids. The cuddling, the funny voices, the read-alongs to the books they’ve mostly memorized, love it all. Even after an ordeal to get them ready for bed, we can set aside our differences and enjoy a story together.
Later in the day I read this interesting article from the NY Times Well Blog about the benefits of reading on young minds:
Source: New York Times Well Blog
The different levels of brain activation, he said, suggest that children who have more practice in developing those visual images, as they look at picture books and listen to stories, may develop skills that will help them make images and stories out of words later on…
Dr. Hutton speculated that the book may also be stimulating creativity in a way that cartoons and other screen-related entertainments may not.
“When we show them a video of a story, do we short circuit that process a little?” he asked. “Are we taking that job away from them? They’re not having to imagine the story; it’s just being fed to them.”
So enjoy reading to a kid! You get the quality time, the laughter, the snuggles, and they get all that and some brain development too.
mommacommaphd 
Interesting. I read to my kids. Every night. But, honestly, I hate it and view it as one of the most unpleasant chores there is. But I guess this study suggests I just have to keep on doing it. Sigh.