Read to Your Children

Read to your children
Twenty minutes a day
You have the time
And so do they.

Read while doing laundry
Read while dinner cooks
Tuck a child in your arms
And reach for the books.

Hide the remote-
Let the computer cool.
Let your children hear stories
Before going off to school.

Read in the morning
Read over noon
Read by the light of
Good Night Moon.

Turn the pages together,
Sitting as close as you'll fit
While a small voice beside you says,
Hey, please, don't quit.

Read to me riddles
and read to me rhymes,
read to me stories
of magical times.

Read to me tales
about castles and kings,
read to me stories
of fabulous things.

Read to me pirates,
and read to me knights,
read to me dragons,
and dragon-back flights.

Read to me spaceships
and cowboys and then
when you’re finished-
please read them again!

-Claudia Southward