Opening a New World: Introducing Books to Young Minds
Let’s talk about ‘Reading’, one of the best habits to develop at a young age. A child is never too young to start this habit. We know that even infants respond to books. Books can be great fun for kids, and reading stories to even small children is a positive reinforcement. Buying books online in your child’s company helps ignite his or her curiosity towards the world of books and reading. An early introduction to books would allow them to grow up enjoying reading.
Here RelayRead shares some pretty hacks to introduce books into young kids’ lifes:
Regularity Always Works While reading is fun, developing this habit comes with regularity and practice. Read out something interesting to your child daily. Engage them in the story in a way that it builds their curiosity to find out what is going to happen next. Reading to them also helps in building their concentration. Parenting super active kids can be tough. A habit of reading regularly channelizes their energy into something productive and calming.
Infuse Life In The Story Kids get super excited when you act like the character in the story! Keep them captivated, modulate your voice - roar like the ogre, and moo with the cow. They’ll start visualizing the script and the plot, their curiosity and imagination will soa. Give this a shot next time when you read to your child.
Encourage Exploration Kids are inquisitive, they love to explore. So even when it comes to books, let them explore. Begin by showing the cover page. Make it a practice to go through the cover page, the design and artwork involved, the book title, and of course the character detailing. This is a great way to develop imaginative power in them. The next time they will pick up a book to read all by themselves, they will observe all these things. We already discussed various parts of a book in this blog.
Spend A Day at a Library or a Bookstore Take your child to a bookstore and show him around. Help them explore different genres. Encourage them to pick up books of their choices. Introduce them to certain characters of novels or series. Comic books are a great way to get pre-teens to read. Taking kids to Book Libraries may sound a bit old school, but that’s a promising way to introduce books to them. It also helps improve concentration and builds discipline in kids.
Stay Informed! When you begin introducing books to your kids, ensure that you stay at the top of the game. Keep yourself abreast with genres, new book releases, facts and current events in the world of authors and books. It’s much easier with a toddler since you choose the books. However, as they grow, their exposure to the world increases and hence it’s always rewarding to stay ahead in the game as a parent or guardian, so that you guide them to the right reading material. What more, you’ll have an answer whipped up in no time if a question pertaining to a book or author comes along your way. This way you also open up options for your kid to explore further, e.g. to read up about Malala Yousafzai, who she is, and what she stands for.
Keeping Books Handy Kids do a whole host of activities throughout the day. While outdoor play with friends has a very positive effect on kids, skipping reading books and spending time on gadgets is not a good idea. Have a mini library of their books placed well within their vision and reach. That’s a great way to encourage toddlers and preschoolers to develop reading habits. It’s a job well done even if the kid picks up a book and looks at the pictures! Don’t miss out on keeping a few books handy in the kids room.
Goal Setting Goals are a great motivating factor. Set reading goals with the young ones, join hands with them, play these reading games and help them achieve these mini goals. This will kindle the love of books and reading in them at a very young age. You can get as creative as you choose to be. Encourage your child to choose a book and complete reading it in a given timeframe, or motivate them to simply study a specific character in the story. You’d get a variety of options whether you get them to read books online or take them to the local bookstore.
Exchanging Books With Friends Exchanging books with your friends or family, brings us closer to one another. Motivate your kids to exchange books online or do so with their dear ones. Book exchange has several benefits - discussing a book, listening with an open mindset, sharing each other’s perspective, and hence building a deepened thought process. Kids would be thrilled to share books with friends. Let this be their first step towards ‘sharing is caring’ that you so want to inculcate in them. The exchange activity will keep them involved, and will develop responsible behaviour for keeping the books they have received in exchange in a good state.
‘Read a Book’ Book Sessions Group book reading sessions are a regular at a lot of schools. You can easily create such sessions for kids with members of family or a group of friends. Create a fun and cozy environment, get them their favorite snacks; They’ll love spending the story telling time with their friends over cookies and milk.
As you work towards introducing kids to reading, don’t expect results in the first try. This takes time to develop, but once done it will bear great results for your child in the future.
