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The Most Important Twenty Minutes Of Your Day ALL OF US love our children more than anything in the world. In their first years we feed them so they grow. We bring them to the doctor so they are healthy. We strap them in car seats so they are safe. But the most important thing in the first years of life is the growth of the mind and spirit. This is when a child learns to love and trust, to speak and listen. After a child turns two years old, these things are very difficult to learn or teach ever again. Trusting, singing, laughing, and language are the most important things in a young child’s life.

And so they must come first for mothers and fathers, too. Because we can never have those years over again. Every day, make a quiet, restful place for twenty minutes. Put your child in your lap and read a book aloud. In the pages of the book you will find a tiny vacation of privacy and intense love. It costs nothing but twenty minutes and a library card.

Reading to your little one is just like putting gold coins in the bank. It will pay you back tenfold. Your daughter will learn, and imagine, and be strong in herself. Your son will thrive, and give your love back forever. – R.W.

Reprinted from "Read to your Bunny" published by Scholastic Press

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NOTE: The "Read to Your Bunny" cover art and above essay from the book published by Scholastic Press are available for your use in reading and literacy initiatives. Feel free to print these out.

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