Originally Posted by spud912:
So I'm talking to the dck's this morning about books and it turns out that the majority of kids in my care are not read to at home on a regular basis. I shouldn't be surprised since watching television is pretty much the norm now, but it got me thinking about how little kids in society are actually read to consistently. At the daycare, I read about 4 books daily, which I feel is nowhere near enough. With my own kids (ages 1, 5 and 6), we read about 20 minutes every night (obviously the 1 year old wanders and does her own thing). I even had them listen to James and the Giant Peach as young as 3 years old and finished the junior version of Moby Dick about 3 months ago. Some of my fondest memories of when I was a child was when my dad would read chapter books to us every night and I wanted to share that experience with my children.
So are you seeing the same thing? One of my dck's even said that he doesn't like reading books 
. All of them said they either go to sleep watching tv or watch it up until it's time to lay down.
My dad often read classics by the chapter (or two or three) when I was a child as well. Some of my best memories of time with my dad too! Black Beauty, Old Yeller, Tom Sawyer.
I read to my kids the same way. One of my DS's most treasured possessions is a first print edition of Lord of the Flies that he received as a gift for his 9th birthday. At 24 yrs old he is still an avid reader.
I read to my DCK's daily too and promote book time regularly.
I have many families in care that I know do not read to their kids. I have one family that just had a girl (3rd child) after 2 boys and soon after her birth her dad says to me, "I suppose now that we have a girl, we should get some books" I was like
how are books a girl only thing?
So yes, I am seeing the same things you are and sadly my families are middle to upper class, well educated parents....some of whom are teachers themselves.
