The third in a 4-part series regarding the importance of reading to and with young children in support of a new literacy initiative the Dane G. Hansen Foundation in northwest Kansas.

Being a parent is the most emotionally gratifying experience of my life. My wife and I have been lucky enough to experience it four times.

Parenthood does not come with a manual that will prepare you for the significant life changes you will experience! This new life with children potentially comes at a time when you are building your career or business. Professional responsibilities can stress quality time with family, and specifically the extra time it takes to ensure you are doing all that you can to promote the educational development of the children.

I personally experienced this as I was building my career to provide for our young family, which meant time and commitments that often kept me away during family learning time. I am lucky enough to have a spouse that recognized the importance of reading. And, we were fortunate to be in a school system in Northwest Kansas that met the learning needs of our children as they grew older.

As is often the case, with every new baby, we became more educated parents. As our family grew, we recognized the important life lesson that reading is the foundation to all success, and the earlier we started, the better foundation we laid for that child. Strong reading skills provide the base for all subjects. As parents, once the importance of reading is recognized, the possibilities are endless.

We are continuing to develop reading skills, along with other learning disciplines, with all our children. But we have seen faster growth and ease of learning when our emphasis on reading at home became more became more structured. Once we made reading together a real priority, the progress for our children has been amazing. It’s apparent to me that reading at an early age truly helps boosts not only learning disciplines, but also critical problem-solving skills.

I am sharing our personal story to help promote the movement in Northwest Kansas to read to our youngest citizens, thus preparing them to enter the education system ready to learn. If we do this one thing, we ultimately create a population that will have stronger opportunities in business, healthier families, and an overall better quality of life.

Scott Sproul is the CEO of the Northwest Kansas Economic Innovation Center.

Learn more about the importance of reading to your children at NWKansasReads.org.