Allie Beth Stuckey

We're talking little kids.

And I saw this statistic that says only 41% of children, 41% of children age zero to four are read to daily as of 2025.

That is a nine point drop only since 2019.

Wow.

Only 55%, a little over half of children age zero to five are read to at least five days a week, okay?

So about half of kids are probably never being read to, or maybe they're just being read to randomly.

There are a lot of parents who are overstimulated, they're tired, they're distracted.

It's really not about these kids having their own lack of discipline.

It starts with a lack of discipline and discipline

bad priorities for parents, honestly.

And that's not to dismiss the difficulty or the busyness of life, but it is to say our priorities are out of whack and we are exchanging, I believe, difficulty for ourselves.

in reading to our kids for difficulty for them for the rest of their lives because we're just too tired or too busy.

So let me give you my spiel, the why of reading to your kids and emphasizing the importance of reading to them.

So here's my first reason.

The comprehension of words is necessary for understanding the world.

It is very difficult to be a diligent student, an informed voter, a productive citizen, a helpful neighbor if you do not understand words, how they are formed, what they mean.

Understanding words is the basis for knowledge.

It is the crux of communication.

Words are necessary to convey ideas, to tell a story, to inspire courage, to form movements, to lead nations.

None of these have ever been done purely through action.