RebeccaChilly weather is on its way in, and the time that we are spending outdoors is becoming more and more limited. This means we have more time for reading! I have been working with my boys in developing their reading skills through this school year, and while my oldest is more comfortable with the books, my youngest is resisting. I had tried everything short of tying him to the couch and reading to him until he enjoyed it. While I am joking there, I would never do that, I want him to understand the lessons that we gain from reading. So we started with the library. I turned him loose in the kids section, with the advice to “find something that looks interesting.” He was over there for about 30 minutes, just wandering the aisles of books. When he finally came back, he had an entire bag filled with books. I was a little shocked, I am not gonna lie, but we sat down to look at what he had picked up. Most of them were books on the military, but there were a few that were longer chapter reads.
You might be asking why I started with that…. well its for this reason. Reading for kids, FUELS the imagination. Kids by nature are inquisitive. They will ask a million questions, pop out with statements like, “I want to be a shark when I grow up,” and their play expands. Give your child a book, and watch their imaginations take off. Most pediatricians will tell you if you read to your children each day (at least 20 minutes), you are not only expanding their vocabularies, but you are stimulating their brains.
Children learn by listening, by doing, and by watching. How do you challenge your children? Find a book that is just a bit above their grade level, and read it out loud with them. They will have some questions as you read through, but they are tucking away all the information that you are giving them. Through reading with my boys each night, I have found that books that have a little adventure in them are winners. We have read books like “The Shining Company” by Rosemary Sutcliff, “The Indian in the Cupboard” by Lynne Reid Banks, and so many more! We are fixing to dive into the first Harry Potter book this next week. We have to finish adventuring through the castle in “The Castle in the Attic” by Elizabeth Winthrop. Some of these we are reading for the second time, but there are so many that we have on the list to start. I have been building their library little by little. There are books that they can read on their own, but then there are books that we will read together.
As you read together, or they read on their own, their little imaginations are going to soar. They will spend hours traipsing through jungles, sailing the seas with pirates, pretending to be kings and queen, and finding those hidden treasures buried on the coastlines. Where will your next adventure take you?
