This photo courtesy of Phaitoon from freedigitalphotos.net
When I found out that I will become a mother for the first time, I thought of the many things that I will teach my child. One of those is that she will also learn to love reading just like I do. This is very important to me because I learned so many things that I otherwise would not have learned if I was not a booklover. I learned how to speak and write in English using good grammar. I learned idiomatic expressions. I was able to travel to so many places through the stories and because of this my mind was and still is open to many new experiences. Overall, I know I LEARNED from all the books I’ve read. I would like my children’s lives to be enriched with books,too.
Here are a few things I did to achieve this goal.
1. Be an example. Children adore their parents, they just want to be like us. So anything they see us doing, they want to do it,too. I read a lot. I’m never without a book. Every room in our home is strewn with books and magazines all around, yes that includes our bathrooms. So the children see an example that they can follow.
2. Read to your children. A child is never too young to be read to. Even when my children were babies, I would read aloud to them to get them used to hearing books read. Most of the time, they would ask me to keep reading the same book every night, and I would do it. Reading together is also an opportunity to bond with your child, a time to talk things over, to teach.
3. Cover your books with plastic. It protects the books from possible spills, wear and tear, so you can keep the book longer. The children see that I take time to cover our books so they know that I take good care of our books. I also tell them that books are to be taken cared of, respected and even loved. It should not be torn, written on, stomped on, or thrown away. I let them handle the books themselves, I don’t discourage them because of fear that it will be destroyed.
4. Fill your house with books. Books are quite expensive, I know. This is why I always go to Book Sale or other second hand bookstores to buy books. At one of these stores, I was able to buy a complete set of hard bound ABC books for only P75.00 each. I almost never buy brand new books. When I do, it is usually when there is a sale at large bookstores, I make sure to scour their shelves for the best bargains. I have bought brand new, hard bound children’s books for as low as P50.00 at these bookstore sales.
5. Let them choose the books they want to read. Give your children the freedom to choose which books they will read. As long as you have already previewed the books first and deemed it acceptable, there’s no reason why a child cannot choose what he wants. Letting them choose and agreeing to their choice also elevates their self-esteem. It tells them that you respect them.
Now that I have four children, I’m happy to say that I’ve been successful in passing this love of reading to my kids. The two older ones have their own genre of book collections. The two little ones love having me read aloud to them. It’s safe to say that books will be with our family as long as we live.
I bought the enrite collection of books for my kids, and also for my nephews who live in California. The kids’ ages range from 4-10 yrs. old, and all of them enjoy the books. My kids find the books to be funny and fun to read. My husband and I appreciate the creative way that the books reinforce the Armenian language and culture to our kids. Great initiative by the author to capture in story-form what we as Armenian parents have experienced during our youth. As more and more generations of American-Armenians grow farther away from our foreign-born parents’ customs and rituals, these books allow us to bring the concepts back and share the funny anecdotes with our children so that they can continue to exist in their repetoire of the Armenian culture. Online casino Ireland. ###
Wonderful! I’m happy to see how supportive you are of your kids and nephews. Thanks for reading my post.