How often should parents read to their Preschoolers?

Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, doesn't believe you can read too much to your children. At conferences, he suggests preschoolers should hear nine picture books a day. That seems daunting at first. But, if a parent reads three in the morning, three in the afternoon, and then three at bedtime, it's certainly doable. Some books will be new and others repeated favorites. That makes 63 books a week, 3,276 books a year, and 13,104 in the four years between one and five years old. That's not counting the board and soft books in the first year and the chapter books they will be adding to the reading when the child is four and five. Can you imagine the intellectual and knowledge level, as well as the reading level, that "read-to-child" will be fortunate enough to have?

Picture the first day of kindergarten. Imagine that child, with 13,104 books somewhere in his head, sitting next to a child who has heard only a few tired Hop on Pop-type books and their ilk. Which one of the two will be more ready for school and is probably already reading? Imagine the dire effects of an exasperating, too-early experience with Hooked on Phonics. (Have you ever heard a child exclaim about their favorite vowel or blend?) The reading family will continue reading aloud—and silently—while waiting at the doctors' office, in a line at a store or bank somewhere, together as a family, or alone with a flashlight in bed. One of the finest pleasures in a parent's life is to find a little light on at night in a sleeping third grader's room and a book hidden under the pillow!

Taken from my old Children's Lit book. 

(Pic taken 12/2011)

EP is only 9 months, but I think about this all the time and I am so happy when she relaxes on our laps as we read. It already offers her comfort- even if she eventually just wants to eat the book.