Why you should Read Aloud to your Child: a Personal Experience

Since I have been reading more of children’s books these days, I thought it was time to start writing about them here. I am amazed at the kind of literature there is for the young and very young kids. If you assumed that children’s books would be childish, you could not be more wrong. I have learnt so much by just reading to my son. And I love them as much as he does. 

As a book lover myself, I knew I wanted to raise a reader. Yes, he could become a reader on his own but on my part, I wanted to do my best.

I started READING ALOUD my own books to my son (yes, you heard it right) when he was a tiny baby because at that time kids just need to hear your voice and language. I got him the cloth book of ‘Fuzzy Bee and Friends’, and board books of ‘Squishy Turtle and friends’ and ‘the Very Hungry Caterpillar’ when he was 6 months old. 

In the beginning, books are just another playthings. He would not even sit on one place to be READ ALOUD but that was his age and not disinterest in books. I still continued reading to him. At that time, it felt may be he really wasn't interested in books but once when he was 9-10 months old, I asked him to get me ‘the Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and he did. It was such a thrilling moment for me.

From that moment to this day (3 years later), I can tell you from personal experience that there are only positives to reading aloud. There are hundreds of articles and enough research on why we should READ ALOUD to our children. You just need to Google. But here, I would share my personal experience:

Focus. When you encourage the habit of sitting on one place and engage your child with a story, where he looks at the pictures, tries to make sense of what is happening; you enable him to focus. Young kids are restless with high energy flying all over the place. But reading to your child develops focus and the ability to concentrate.

Learn new words and concepts. When you read books after books each day, you obviously come across several new words. A child is introduced to new words and concepts in a much better way than it can ever happen through videos and television. Even I have learnt so many new words while reading children’s books. Many times, when the kids are little, it is interesting to explain even simple words which they do not have life’s experience to understand.

Imagination. Books open a world of imagination for them, where even animals and machines talk and emote. Anything is possible in their books. Soon they start imagining their own stories with their own favourite things. The gift of imagination is priceless.

Love for Learning. Initially, what attract young kids to books are the pictures. Slowly they start noticing the words. I have observed that the kids who are read to, are more interested in learning the alphabets. My 3.5 year old can read words with simple sounds like CAT, MAN, MUG, etc., and honestly, I have never sat him down to teach alphabets. Of course, I tell him when he asks and correct his mistakes; but absolutely no rote learning. My goal is to inculcate the habit of reading and love for language, and I trust, rest everything will fall into place.

Bonding. This is the best part of reading to your children. It is a great one-on-one time. It offers the opportunity to sit with them and ask questions related or unrelated to the story. It offers the perfect chance to connect with them. And it is very important to connect with them, no matter what age they are in. 

You may also want to see: 

5 Children's Fiction Titles We Love

Image source: Google

Book Recommendations: 5 Books for Toddlers

This post was first published on Parentous.

I love reading books. Naturally, if there is one habit that I would like to pass on to my son, it has to be love of reading. So, I exposed my son to books quite early. To a newborn you can read just about anything. They just need to be exposed to the sound of words. So, I would usually read my own books aloud in the initial months. Gradually, I introduced cloth books and board books. Initially, books are also playthings for little ones, so be prepared to see the books getting abused [loved, in their way]. Now at 28 months, I cannot say my son is a reader yet but we enjoy reading books before his afternoon naptime and going to bed at night. Since now it is part of his bedtime routine, he himself gets the books he wants to read. He would usually have a pick of few favourites at one time, and it is interesting to listen to his observations while reading those books.

Here is a list of 5 books which are the current favourites: 

1. Starting School by Janet andAllan Ahlberg

This beautiful picture book follows a bunch of kids [8 of them] who are starting school – their first day, their second day, the first week and how they get used to the school. The kids are shown doing all sorts of exciting activities like playing with blocks, puzzles, colours, play dough or learning new things like reading, writing, saying prayers, etc; thus creating a fun and positive image of school. This book does not dwell into negative feelings like missing home or first day anxieties, and focuses more on making school a fun experience. A few things may not be relevant in our context like involvement of kids’ parents in different kinds of activities but those things can be ignored.

Read more about this book in this review.

2. Watch Out! by Shamim Padamsee andAjanta Guhathakurta

This is an attractive bilingual picture book from Tulika Publishers. All kids are fascinated by animals, and more so with their babies. This brightly illustrated book has bare-minimum text on each page [2-3 words on most of them] and educates about the action words like pounce, roll, drink, climb, roll, eat, sleep etc. “This book follows the playful adventures of three curious lion cubs while their mother is away. Minimal text and lively illustrations with an edge of drama skillfully introduce young readers to the fact that those we see as predators can be under threat themselves.” [Quoted from the book]    

Read more about this book here.

3. Karadi Rhymes Book 1

I am always on the lookout for Indian literature for kids. I found this collection of Indian Rhymes by Karadi Tales, and I knew I had to get it. I got Book 1 more than a year ago and it is still a favourite. I am getting the second Part soon. Book 1 has an interesting line up of rhymes very relevant for Indian kids. The most favourite rhyme from this book is called “Just like you’. It tells you about different people from different places in India, speaking different languages, and yet they are like us. Check out its video here. It is quite a catchy song. There are songs [or rhymes] about mangoes, crows, festivals celebrated in India, cricket, sari, flowers, Indian flag, etc. Essentially, the book attempts to capture the essence of India. My son makes me read all the rhymes in this book over and over again.

This book also comes with an audio CD which contains rhymes in the voice of Usha Uthup.

Read more about the book here.

4. What Shall I Make? by NandiniNayar and Proiti Roy

I am convinced that playing with kitchen utensils and dough should be part of developmental milestones. I am certain every kid goes through that phase. Since my 2 year old loves playing with the regular dough on daily basis, when I chanced upon this book, I thought this was apt for reading to him. To add to the fun, we sometimes also keep some dough handy to make the things that the little boy, Neeraj, in the book makes.

This book is about Neeraj. He gets a little dough from his mother, and his imagination lets loose. He turns it into a snake, a mouse and a cat. This book is about how a child’s mind is full of imagination and creativity. The illustrations are extremely endearing.

Read more about the book here.

5. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

This book was a hit with our toddler from the first day. It is a lift-the-flap book. The text is minimum and prompts the child to lift the flap on each page, which reveals an animal inside. It is exciting for the child to lift the flap one-by-one and discover the animal.

Learn more about the book from author’s website.

You may also want to read: 5 Fiction Titles for Toddlers.

Book Recommendation: 10 Takeaways from 'Raising Boys'

Taking the discussion forward from my last post on this wonderful Parenting book called‘Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids’ by Laura Markham; in this post, I would like to offer glimpses of another recommended read called ‘Raising Boys: Why Boys Are Different – and How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men’ by Steve Biddulph.

I chanced upon this article several months ago, which eventually led me to look up resources for ‘raising boys’. Well, I completely look down on gender stereotyping [incidentally, that was the subject of my first post here] but it is also true that boys and girls are wired differently [ok, so it is debatable but, I would lean a little on this assumption because of general observation about girls and boys], and when we attempt to understand those differences, we help our children thrive better. You know, as women when we are raising girls, atleast we have our own experiences to fall back on; but when we are raising boys, many times we find ourselves in a quagmire.

Please click here to read the complete post.

Image source: Amazon

Book Recommendation: 10 Takeaways from 'Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids'

I just finished reading this wonderful book called ‘Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: HowTo Stop Yelling and Start Connecting’ by Dr. Laura Markham. That does not mean I yell. OK, sometimes I do. But the reason I like reading these books is that I don’t want my inadequacies to influence my child’s life.

Books cannot teach you how to raise a child, but they can certainly offer rational and inspiring insights to become a better parent, and therefore a better person.

This book essentially believes in the simple philosophy that kids are people too, and they deserve empathy, respect and connection. See, on the face of it, we all agree with this philosophy but when we are really having a tough time, we get caught up in ‘trying to discipline’ or ‘teaching the right thing’ or such trappings of being a parent. 

Please click here to read the complete post.

Image source: Amazon