Stories and Books
How do we build a love of books and stories in our children?
I have loved books for ever, they are my greatest escape. A book can be so captivating that I won’t see time passing, get behind on my work load and once a story is completed I can mourn the loss of the characters in my life. I long to hear from them, check in on their lives.
This love of books was built from when I was really young, my parents were avid readers and loved to read to us as children. There were books on tape and shared stories. A highlight of summer days was when the library bus would come to visit and we could choose two books to keep for a whole week. We chose carefully to make sure we had enough to read and the option to swap books with my siblings.
Reading was never a pressure, something I just did for school or because it was homework it was truly a love. I think re creating this for children is so important, through books they learn so much about the world around them, explore new vocabulary, emotions and situations and also have a great escape from the world when needed.
A book is such a great gift, showing a child that they can love the story and the characters and the adventure is more important than trudging through phonic blending. We need to share the story and begin an incentive to learn to phonic blending and rhyme and decode. It is such a treat to sit and read with a child at any age and any reading level, talking about what is happening in the story and who their favourite characters are and what might happen next. Queueing up for the next book in the series and racing home to read it together. Re reading favourite books over and over and always reading the book first before the movie.
It can be such a chore to battle with screens and too much screen time, to have the demands of homework and life, to be constantly asking our children to do one more thing that appears to not be of interest to them. If I could give any advice to any parent new or old that taking time to read with your child, reading in the form of a chapter book, graphic novel, joke book, or listening to stories of their yotos you are sharing a gift with a child that will be with them forever, no matter where they live or where they go or who they become they will always have books and stories.
So what do we do to start to share the love of a story or book,
read with your child or listen to books in the car, at home, curled up in bed.
Show them reading and stories - sit with a book when you travel or at home after dinner.
Create rituals around books and stories - read and listen to the stories and draw and chat about what you have read.
Go to the movies of the books you loved, go to the libraries and book shops or trade with friends.
If they struggle to read, read to them! don’t make it a laborious home- work task, if they have reading to do and they find it tricky, read it with them, take turns, or let them listen to the story. With a love of books will come the incentive to learn to read and more exposure to language.
Chat about what you are reading, create time to talk about the books and enjoy the stories!