Our new contributor, Ghada Salem, talks about the importance of reading during your child’s upbringing. Get inspired by her tips to ignite your kid’s passion for books.
What’s the most important trait you’d like to develop in your child? If you’re like most parents, intelligence and self-confidence are probably at the top of your list. We all want bright children. We spend a lot of time choosing the right school and making sure teachers are exceeding expectations. However, there is an important role for us parents to boost our children’s learning potential, simply by making books an integral part of their lives.
I saw a great visual on Pinterest the other day regarding reading for 20 minutes each night. It came from the Perry & Lecompton Unified School District in the US – showing how reading can affect a child’s performance at school. The theory is the easiest part, but how do you get your child to foster a love for reading? Even though children are different, there are many activities a mum can do with her child.
Create a reading corner at home
This is a great project for a long weekend; this can just be a corner in your child’s room or in the living room. I used colourful pillows, a small carpet and on the wall, my son made a few signs like ‘Reading Hut’.
Make it fun!
I got my son a smart bookmark that has a timer, so you can tell for how long your child has been reading. It shows on the screen, approximately, how many words your child read and over the days you will see the total hours of reading. You can set a monthly or weekly target – six hours for a month for example. Once they achieve the goal give them a prize or a treat.
Act it out!
Join your kid in their reading corner and read together. If it is a fiction story, maybe a sibling can participate and act the story! The other day I was reading a good night story for my boys, The Berenstain Bears. The mama bear in the story was cooking dinner for the family, so the next day we cooked the same food and the boys were in bear costumes.
Be a storyteller for a day
If your child is six-plus and has a good reading level take him/her to a nursery and he/she can read a short story for the young ones. It would be awesome if you could take the child to the nursery where they used to go. Not only will it build self-confidence and the feeling of being ‘the big boy or the big girl’, but it is also a way of teaching them to give something back and to be thankful to their old teachers.
Join a kid’s book club
PLAY and Mums in Bahrain are holding a weekly book club for one hour. Check PLAY Instagram @Playbahrain for more details.
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