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
I and a blogger friend were once discussing things which we would have wanted to do if we were parents to someone (you can judge us for discussing weird things :P ) and this post should be the number one thing! :)
ReplyDeleteNo, certainly not weird. I wish more people thought like you :-) To be honest, I never thought about doing this when I did not have a child. Sub-consciously, may be I knew I would do this.
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