Do you remember the first book you ever read?
Do you remember the first book that was your very own to keep?
For many adults, memories of childhood often include things like favorite books, bedtime stories, visits to the library, and choosing books to read for fun. For others, story times at school, visiting the school library, and English class may be the only memories that exist.
It is a fact that children that do better in school are readers. The more they read the more they improve; and as they grow into adults they will have a more expanded view of the world. Reading helps children expand their vocabulary and their reading skills. They tend to read more and for longer periods of time. Best of all, readers do better in other subjects as well. The best way to raise a reader is to read out loud to him/her every day. Have them point to the words. Practice saying and spelling the words. If there are words that your child does not understand then you should both look the word up in the dictionary and find the meaning.
From the time they are toddlers children can learn how to hold a book. They can learn where the front of the book is and how to turn the pages carefully without tearing them. They can also learn when to turn the pages as the story is being read. Children should begin to expand their collection of books at home and learn how to select a favorite book from their collection.
A valuable part of reading is the expansion of our creativity and our imagine. When you read: "The wind was blowing hard and made the flowers move back and forth," the mind creates the image of flowers and bushes blowing in the wind. On the other hand, when you read: "As the wind blew hard, the roses swayed from right to left making their fragrance more prominent in the cool morning air." Both sentences create a picture in our minds of the action of the wind on the flowers. In the second sentence, our mind goes a step further and "sees" the roses swaying in the morning when it is cool and perhaps damp and we can almost smell the fragrance of the roses as our imagination takes over. Not only can we see the action taking place, any one of the main elements - wind, roses, the fragrance - can take us to places in our memories where we can recall past experiences!
I say all of that to impress a point: that reading helps us learn by taking our imagination to new levels of awareness. This is a powerful tool for children to develop as they strive to be successful in school.
Read to and with your children every day for at least fifteen minutes. It will be an enjoyable time of learning and quality interaction for all of you.
