Reading with Your Children

What are your earliest memories? Mine are of the time, just before bed, when my Mom used to read me Little Golden Books stories. We had the whole collection and never grew tired of them. Now, as an adult I am an avid reader myself and own a substantial library. I don’t know if it’s a direct effect but having the appreciation of books from an early age couldn’t have hurt.

Being in my forties, it’s now my turn to read to my son. We make this a part of every single evening and have done so since he was about a year and a few months. He looks forward to the mini-adventures and I can’t get enough of the quality time. He even has his own library started up beside his bed.

Books can open up a child’s eyes to so many things, that it would be a crime to not expose them a minimum of a few hours of reading and listening each week. Our son has been able to see much of the world, people that he wouldn’t encounter in a normal day and objects that are new to him. The environment is great for asking questions, which he does. Also many of the characters in his books are easy to mimic. We often catch him using little sound bytes from some of his favorite books.

One other thing we do is to not only keep his books in the white bookcase in his room but I have cleared out the bottom row of a bookcase in our tv room so that he can occasionally take a little respite from the tube and grab a favorite book. He sometimes needs a little reminder to do this, but has grown to love books so much that it’s rarely that tough.

Now from a selfish perspective. I love him playing with books as it takes all of 1 second to clean up and store the ‘toy’. No paint, no missing pieces, no stickers falling off. Just a simple book with a world to be discovered hiding inside. Oh – and did I mention the price. If you are on a budget, you can head to most thrift shops and pick up children’s books for a few quarters. They often have plenty of stock. If you haven’t started doing this yet then don’t wait. The benefits will last his entire life.

photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML