Reading did this interesting thing where it put us almost on the same side of the fence because now we're reading and we're cheering and rooting for the same characters and we're holding our breath at the same moment or gasping.

You know, it realigned us to remind us who we are.

That's Sarah McKenzie and she joins us today on Focus on the Family with Jim Dealey, sharing her passion for encouraging

you as a mom and dad to read aloud to your kids. I'm John Fuller. John, this is a great topic,

and I think people are going to see this and hear this as we unfold it. When you read with your

children, the benefits, they are astounding. Let me give you one stat. If you read

an extra day with your child, you know, just that extra time during the week for kids ages 1 to 10,

that increases their standardized test scores by 15 to 30%. Oh my goodness.

You start looking for a silver bullet.

This is one of those things.

Teaching your kids how to read and reading aloud with your children bring so much benefit.

I mean, there's another crazy statistic that people that are in jail today were typically severely underperforming in their reading skills

at grade level.

They're well below grade level.

It just can set you up predictably for failure.

For those that read at grade level or higher, it predictably suggests that they're going to

be quite successful in school, in college, et cetera, professionally.

So parents don't take this subject lightly.

Reading with your kids is really critical.

And with that, we're going to talk to our guests today about the importance of doing

it and how to do it.

Yeah. And Sarah McKenzie is a blogger, podcaster, and speaker.

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