Is Reading With your Children Embedded in your day to day life

 

Reading Culture in our homes

Last week I had to isolate as my little one had developed a cough, the cough became worse as the day progressed, therefore we had to attend the emergency department. All we took with us was her day bag with two changes of clothes and her drinking bottle. When we got to the hospital lo and behold, we were informed that only one parent can stay with her and that she was going to be admitted for treatment.

Initially she was so unwell and needed oxygen and also some steroids, so she slept most of the time and did not need any entertainment at all. By the morning she was feeling a lot better and was jumping all over the place in the little hospital room. I was overwhelmed as I was still very tired myself having not slept the previous night, as I was sick with worry. I battled to find ways and means to keep her entertained without giving her my phone to play with. I started to question if I was a good parent.

I had not prepared for the possibility of her being admitted into hospital, then I realised that I never carry books for her to read, but I always have a book for myself to read in by bag. At times I may carry toys but never any puzzles to keep her engaged and learning if there is nothing else to do. This got me thinking and led me to writing this article.

Reading platforms and how to find books

Do you take time to read with your children then read your own books? Do you have a special time within your home when everyone is engaged in a book, or the only time is when your children are reading as part of their homework?

Charity begins at home?; the reading culture should be instilled into our children’s minds by us the parents not only by the teachers at school. Don’t expect your children to just pick a book to read when they have never seen you read one. Do you take your children to the library to get them to choose their own books? Do you visit book shops with your little ones? Do you have the kindle app on your Child’s tablets to download books for them on that platform? Do you listen to audio books with your children? Do your children initiate reading by themselves without you prompting them? If your children do, then you’re lucky that it comes naturally to them, if not I urge you to be the one who instils this habit in your children by reading with them and also reading for them.

Making time to read for and with your children

When my older children were younger, I always tried to switch off the tv at least an hour before their bed time and leave them to engage in doing their homework and other activities other than watching TV. Now this can be a challenge as children now have mobile phones and tablets and at times the tablets can be used to do homework and also to read books on those platforms. How do you ensure that they are on those platforms and not engaging in activities which are not aligned with what you expect them to be doing? I am posting this to prepare myself for when my little one is a bit older and have to be doing their work on those platforms

My experience with my older children

 My older daughter loves to read my but my son only reads a book if it’s necessary for him to learn something from it. Now that my little one has started school; it has suddenly dawned to me that my 20 year old son does not seem to enjoy reading as much as my 25-year-old daughter does. My older daughter also introduced me to books on mind sent and ways of making money which has led me to venturing into writing blogs and property investment. Even though I raised them the same way they seem to have had different takes on the way I introduced reading to them as children so I guess children may need to be handled differently when trying to get them to enjoy reading. It’s good to lead by example and to be your child’s role model. It only makes sense that as we are fulfilling our purpose as parents, we don’t overlook the role we play in inspiring our children to acquire good habits from us but in this case I have learnt a lot from the kind of books my older daughter introduced me to.

Food for thought

As children while growing up in Zimbabwe, our grandparents always took time in the evenings to tell us some folk stories that were related to our way of life, now fast forward to this western culture those folk stories have been replaced by bedtime stories that we read to our children, but to the contrary we now read stories which do not necessarily enhance our identity or our culture. Let’s find ways and means to intentionally introduce these stories to our day to day life, let our children understand the reason for certain tendencies and behaviours within our culture.

Question is, when do you start reading with your little one and when you read with them, do you also include books in your native language. Are there books written in English that you can read to them in English then reread them using your native language. My niece and her husband read English books to their little ones but interpret them to Shona as they read and this has led to their 8 year old being able to speak, read and also write the language.

Furthermore, are there books available in the interpretation of your language, if not can you propose to the author to pay you to officially interpret their book to your language. Furthermore, if you are a good story teller, are you in a position to write a book for your little ones to enjoy and include some diaspora real life experiences that the children can identify with.