As parents, the demands on our time are endless. When you’re overwhelmed by daily parenting life, reading aloud to your kids doesn’t always make the cut, but it should be a priority.

On the off chance you haven’t heard about keystone habits before, they’re a category of habits that tip off a chain reaction, impacting several areas of your life at once. As such, you can focus on just one habit, and you’ll experience several positive effects.

To get brilliant, kind children, enforcing this one keystone habit will greatly increase their chances. Simply read to your child – regardless of whether they know how to read to themselves. In a 2018 survey of American families, only 30% of parents reported reading aloud to their kids for at least 15 minutes a day.

Why is this one habit so important? Your child will hear a wider variety of words.

“The one pre-kindergarten skill that matters above all others, because it is the prime predictor of school success or failure, is the child’s vocabulary upon entering school. Yes, the child goes to school to learn new words, but the words he already knows determine how much of what the teacher says will be understood. And since most instruction for the first four years of school is oral, the child who has the largest vocabulary will understand the most, while the child with the smallest vocabulary will grasp the least.”

– The Read-Aloud Handbook

Put your child on the path to being a lifelong reader. Reading is essential for the learning process, and children who battle with reading will generally struggle in school. Remember that when you read aloud, you increase your child’s ability to pay attention and concentrate – skills that will help your child in school and in life beyond school.

“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”

– Becoming a Nation of Readers