By Frank B. Edwards and John Bianchi.
(First published in Canadian Family Magazine, April 1998)
 

Doting parents know no bounds in their determination to prepare their beloved youngsters for the next millennium. They drag sleepy-eyed children off to early-morning hockey practices in the hope of seven figure NHL salaries. They haul thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment home with entrepreneurial visions of digital careers and electronic fortunes. They hand out blue chip stocks to instil a temperate degree of avarice that will compound annually.

In the hope that today's pleasure will become tomorrow's success, parents rush their children from lessons to rehearsals to practices to classes, spending time and money on instructors, directors, coaches, counsellors, gurus, tutors and therapists.

But our advice is to stay at home with your kids - and a good book - for the real key to a young tot's future success will more likely be found upon a bedside table or living room bookshelf than at any hockey rink or in front of a computer screen.

A love of books and the habit of reading are lasting gifts that every parent can afford. Children who love to read have lively imaginations and a hunger for knowledge, prerequisites to success in whatever path they choose to follow in their adult years.

As parents, our task is to show our children that reading is an activity that provides both pleasure and information. Literacy should be part of a child's everyday life, going beyond books to billboards and stop signs, cereal boxes and junk mail.

It's never too early (and seldom too late) to start cultivating a child's love of reading, language and words. Here's how: