“Reading Pointers”

I was reading the September issue of Parenting magazine when I stumbled across this little ditty:

“When you read to your kids, try running your finger along the individual words you’re sounding out. In a recent study, preschoolers who were read to this way had significantly higher print-knowledge scores after only 30 weeks.”

Now if you’re like me, a bad mom, you instantly felt surprised that just reading to your kids is no longer enough, but now you have to read and point along, too. And not only do you have to point, but you have to do that for 30 weeks in order to see results.

Are you kidding me?!?

30 weeks is more than half a year. My Bad Mom finger will fall off with all that pointing.

And what the heck is this mythical “print-knowledge score” anyway? And whose scores were they higher than? The kids who eat dirt? Live in a third-world country? Or the kids whose moms simply read to them without pointing?

I figure moms deserve praise and/or a cookie if 1) they read to their kids and 2) they read to their kids for 30 weeks.

I’ll point a finger–at this study. There. How’s that?