The best gift you can give to your child

Reading a book to your child for 10 minutes a day will be the precious gift you can give to your child from their birth that can open again and again.

Have you ever thought, that reading aloud to your child will change their entire life's journey?

Yes, it is. It is a short road to happiness that cultivate your child's love of reading. According to the new research, children perform well at school if they spent larger periods with books from their birth. Reading books aloud provides them to learn new words, and sentence structures, about the concepts of their world and values. Not only that, by the time they start schooling, they get the early experiences to better know about the concepts of print, alphabet, books, shapes, space, rhymes, words, etc. If you read just 15 minutes a day, in one year you will have read over 1,000,000 words to your child. As a result, children will become good readers, writers, and learners in the widest sense.

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all".

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -

Children explore their world actively like little scientists to gain new knowledge. As parents, if you start reading books from their birth or early as possible, they have the opportunity to sense their world through touching, seeing beautiful pictures, and listening to their parents' voices. It lays the foundation for your child to bloom. The wonder starts to happen.

Benefits of Reading Books:

There is no app to replace your lap! Children are made readers in the laps of their parents. A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.

• Children need to hear 1000 stories before they start learning to read. Reading develops children's language as they expose to new sounds, words, letters, and sentence structures. Firstly, it promotes their speaking with a rich vocabulary which is of great value in preparing them to read later in their life.

• Most of all, children love to spend time with their parents. Therefore, reading a story for 10 minutes gives you the golden opportunity to actively engage with them. It is the most enjoyable time with loads of love and happiness that enables you to bond with your child.

• Children learn to value books and stories.

• It sparks your child's imagination and stimulates curiosity.

• Reading develops your child's brain, ability to focus, concentration, social skills and communication skills.

• Children learn the difference between 'real' and 'make-believe'.

• It helps your child to understand new or frightening events and the strong emotions that come with them.

• Reading books enables your child to learn about the world, their own culture and other cultures.

Any time is a good time for a story!

Parents want their children to thrive in their life. Only simple act like reading a book to your child for 10 to 15 minutes a day, open that door for them. So, let’s get started making books part of our daily routine. If we can keep books by our side all the time we can share and enjoy ourselves anywhere we want. It could be bedtime, bath time, in the car, in the park, at the dentist's waiting room, or on the bus. If you don't have a book don’t worry. There are plenty of other ways of sharing pictures, letters, and words with your child such as looking at posters, signs, packages, labels, clothing, catalogues, letters, notes, menus, etc...

Keep in mind that you don’t have to finish a book all the time. If you feel like your child is not enjoying the story, try it in another time. Even looking at books and pictures while talking about them is just as enough for you to be a good model of using language and books. Your child will observe and learn how to hold a book in the right way and how to move by gently turning the pages.

It's never too soon to start reading with your child!

“Children fall in love with books because of the memories created when they snuggle up and read with someone they love”.

- Raising Readers

"Reading aloud with your children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read".

- Marilyn Jager Adams

Tips for sharing books with your child:

• Make a routine and share at least one book every day. Choose a cozy corner or reading chair to snuggle up with your child to read a book. It is better to have a quiet place without any distractions. So that your child can hear your voice clearly.

• Be alive, have fun, and laugh a lot when you are reading the book. Make this time wildly happy that cherish in your life.

• Encourage your child to participate in the reading. It could be choosing a book they want to read, talking about the pictures or anything that is related to them or repeating familiar words or phrases. Let your child to live in the story.

• Try to find books to match your child’s changing interests. Mostly, they love books with good rhyme, rhythm, and repetition.

You can find a good book list for your child in the Resources section.

---

Watch the video of children's book author, Mem Fox.

References

NewcastleLibrary. (2010, June 10). A passion for reading aloud [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxcHy59_Q84&t=1s.