Think back for a while. How did you get to start reading? You may remember your mother telling you stories at bedtime, receiving a great book on your birthday, sharing stories with your friends or reading a book of a movie you saw. These are some of the experiences in your life that lead you to love reading as an adult.
It is not very different for children. Just as they physically grow up in a slow and orderly pattern, they learn to develop a taste for books in a slow predictable manner. If books are to have any meaning, it is necessary that they suit the personal and social needs of the child. "Very young children prefer stories of talking animals and inanimate objects that talk. They move to the next stage of fairy stories and magical events. Then they grow up to stories of kings, queens and pirates. It helps if we expose them to books that they tend to enjoy as they grow up in order to maintain this interest for reading." says Rekha a primary school teacher from Chennai.
Help your child learn to love reading by creating a simple library in your own home. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
- Select a place in your house that is quiet and away from any distractions like the TV. Make it a cosy environment where your child can sit and read on his own. Keep a few cushions or beanbags where he can curl up with his favourite book.
- Keep an old bookshelf or cardboard boxes to arrange the books. Even a table with a bookstand would do. This will also help your child learn to keep away the books neatly. Allow him to arrange the books as he wants.
- Keep all kinds of reading materials for your child to read from - magazines, storybooks, encyclopaedias and newspapers. You can get books at cheap from book exhibitions or second hand bookstores. "On birthdays and special occasions I gift my grand nieces and nephews books or magazine subscriptions," says Pramila.
- Begin by having your own special reading time together. Read his favourite stories aloud to him. Give him a special gift if he spends less time watching TV and a little more time reading.
- You can even use the library to encourage your child's other work in art or craft. Display his work on the shelf or keep a small soft board where he can stick pictures or photographs.
These tips will not only help your child learn to love books and treasure his reading time but will also teach him to take care of his books. Enrol your child in a library from where he can borrow books. He can also stack these books in his own library. Enthusiasm for reading can be stimulated. Enjoying what he reads is essential if the child is to continue reading as an adult.
