Is Buying Your Kids Books Enough to Get Them to Read?
Parents and grandparents love to buy children books to read. There are so many books published today they are certainly spoiled for choice.
As educators and parents will tell you, learning to read is one of the most important tasks any child has to learn.
It is right up there with learning to ride a bicycle, learning to swim, and later on, learning to drive a car. However, many might argue that learning to read is so much more important, and for good reason. Without basic literacy skills a child’s future career, job prospects, and even happiness will be compromised.
All children have an innate love of pictures and funny stories. They seem to be hardwired to respond to bright colors, and magical tales. Toddlers and preschoolers like nothing more than cuddling up to a parent or a grandparent, and sharing the special memories only a book can offer.
Picture books offer children so much enjoyment, but is just buying a book and reading it to a child enough?
Is there something else we can do to build a love of books, and a desire to read?
Go Beyond Just Buying Books for Your Kids
Reading with and to your children is important. Make this time special for just you and them. Remember to turn off your phone, and if you don’t and it rings, ignore it.
Use engagement techniques like discussing what is going on in the illustrations and predicting the text to make the story more relatable.
Building context will help children create connections with their world and the stories you share with them. This will go a long way to helping them develop a love of reading.
Susan Day
Susan Day is a passionate author, educator and, grandmother. She wants to empower all parents and grandparents to build meaningful relationships with their grandchildren. Her first non-fiction book was written to explore changes in grandparenting, and teaches the reader how to create their own Grandparenting Philosophy. Discover the Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing.
