🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 😊 Love of Reading — Every positive reading experience — a funny book, an exciting story, a perfectly timed cuddle — builds the reading identity and intrinsic motivation that sustains literacy development through the independent reading years.
- 🌈 Imagination & Creativity — Entering a book's world — imagining the setting, characters, and events — exercises creative and narrative thinking that enriches pretend play, story creation, and the ability to generate original ideas.
- 🌍 World Knowledge & Background Knowledge — Nonfiction and information-rich picture books build background knowledge that accelerates reading comprehension — children who know more about the world understand more of what they read across every subject area.
- 🖼️ Visual Literacy — Reading pictures — interpreting what they show, what details they add, how they relate to the words — develops visual literacy: the ability to extract meaning from images that underlies comprehension of graphs, diagrams, and media.
By Molly Christensen
Father’s Day is the perfect time to read books to your preschooler. And why not read some fun books about fathers? Preschoolers know their daddies love them, and you can reinforce that knowledge by reading good books about great fathers.
Here are five books to get you started:
A Father's Song by Janet Lawler and Lucy Corvino. A father sings a rhyming song of the fun he had playing with his son during the day.
Little Polar Bear by Hans De Beer. Lars the Polar bear is out learning to hunt with his father when he gets lost. He ends up in the warm south and has some adventures with new friends. Eventually he becomes homesick and his friends help him find his way home back to his father who is, of course, delighted to have him home.
Father Bear's Special Day by Else Minarik. Little Bear is excited to have his dad all to himself on this special father’s day fishing trip. But then all father bear’s friends join. But Little Bear learns that he is his father’s favorite present.
Daddy Kisses by Anne Gutman. This cute little board book shows how Animal fathers kiss their little ones. For example, daddy frog gives his froglet a kiss on the eyes!
Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle. Mr. Seahorse is a nurturing father who takes care of the eggs that will soon hatch into baby seahorses. He goes for a walk and meets other sea creature fathers who also take care of their little ones. Makes a fun science lesson too!
Dads, make some time for some extra snuggles and reading this Father’s Day. Let your preschoolers know that without them, Father’s Day wouldn’t mean much!
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Helpful Tips for Parents - Let children choose books. Even if they always choose the same book, following their interest builds the reading habit more reliably than adult selection. - Read books slightly above the child's current comprehension level — this is where vocabulary growth and comprehension development occur. Comfortable books feel good; challenging books expand capacity. - A library card is the most valuable free resource a family can have. Regular library visits — every week or two — build book culture at zero cost. - Read nonfiction books alongside fiction. Nonfiction expands vocabulary with domain-specific words that fiction rarely delivers, and builds informational reading habits. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How many books should I read to my preschooler per day? The volume is less important than the consistency. Even one book per day, read with engagement and followed by brief conversation, delivers significant developmental benefit. Many families read 3–5 books at bedtime plus additional books throughout the day — this is excellent and associated with the strongest reading outcomes. If you can only manage one daily reading session, make it consistent, engaged, and joyful rather than perfunctory. ### My preschooler wants the same book read over and over. Should I allow this? Absolutely — repeated reading of favorite books is both normal and highly beneficial. With each reading, children understand more: they catch details they missed, connect the story to new experiences, and increasingly delight in predicting what happens next. The request to re-read is a sign of deep engagement, not a cognitive limitation. Never replace a requested re-read with a book you've chosen — follow the child's reading lead. Boredom with a book you've read 30 times doesn't mean the child is bored. Related reading: See also our nonfiction books guide and our vocabulary building guide for more ideas on this topic.
