At Root, we've pretty much eliminated nightly homework. What we won't eliminate is the requirement to read every day. The benefits of reading every day has a positive impact on all areas of a student’s academic and life success.

BY JUST READING JUST 10–20 MINUTES PER DAY OUTSIDE OF CLASS:

• An extra 10 minutes, 4 times per week equals 1,440 minutes of extra reading throughout the school year.
• 20 minutes of reading per day exposes readers to 1.8 million words per year.
• Students, ages 6-11, who labeled themselves as “frequent readers” read 43.3 books per year.
• High school students who completed an 18-week silent reading program showed an improvement of 1.9 grade levels.

What’s great about daily reading is that it doesn’t take a huge time commitment to make a big impact. Just 10–20 minutes per day can really add up over the course of a school year and a school career!Here's another way of looking at what happens when they read 20 minutes per day, from www.drazil.com

So how do you help your child squeeze this in, with their (and your) busy schedule?

• Keep a few books in the car for “waiting around times” or for ease of grabbing as you’re dashing off.
• Instead of reading before bedtime when kids (and parents) are tired, try reading together at a different time of day (and get a little extra “mommy time” in too!)
• Have different types of books around that fit different lengths of time you/your child may have: story/chapter book, book with CD (younger kids), a kid’s magazine, fact books/world record books. READ ANYTHING!