by Ann Herron

GUEST COLUMNIST

If you are a parent, you want your children to succeed. The recipe for that success can really be quite simple: read.

Read to yourself, read to the kids. Children who see their parents read -- and who are read to -- enjoy higher academic performance on every scale, according to the National Institute for Literacy.

The students of Middle Canyon Elementary brought this home last week when their reading performance of 839,040 minutes won them second place in a state contest. The students at Grantsville Elementary won 12th place. Both schools were rewarded with visits from Utah Jazz basketball players.

What an awesome commitment the students and parents of our area have. School officials were quick to praise parents, as well as students, for their efforts because reading minutes didn't count during the school day. Essentially all reading had to be completed in the morning and evening, forcing parents to come up with a variety of fun and interesting ways to meet the minimum reading time of about 30 minutes each day.

Here are three reasons why you should make the effort to read with your kids every day:

First, kids who read the recommended 20 minutes each day, read the equivalent of an extra 10 entire school days each year. What a great education.

Second, kids who were read to at least three times a week at home were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent of readers, according to the National Institute for Literacy.

Third, reading with your kids develops a lifetime love of books -- and brings families together.

The more types of reading material in a home, like books and magazines, the higher students tested in reading proficiency, according to the Education Testing Service.

The sad fact is that about 40 percent of the nation's fourth graders don't read on grade level. This is a strong indicator of future school drop outs, lower lifetime income and even inability to correctly understand medication labels.

Is doesn't even matter what you read. Comic books have proven to be a great way to get young adolescents, especially boys, interested in reading. Experts say the fast action, illustrations of the action and continuing story lines can involve even weak readers.

If you are reading this, you are probably already converted to the idea of reading for yourself and your kids.

So keep up the good work, and thank a local teacher or administrator who finds ways to make reading fun for our kids -- at all ages.

Ann Herron is a journalist and former associate professor at Utah State University who lives in Tooele. She can be reached at annherron@comcast.net.