When I was young, reading felt like a task that I wasn’t able to enjoy. I hadn’t connected to a popular series or voluntarily read like my parents hoped. I DEFINITELY was not interested in science fiction. This changed when I was given Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke; a story that looks into the beautiful and terrifying fictitious realities of evolution, life, and time. The book captured my attention so swiftly I finished reading it in one day!
Reading is one of the most powerful tools you can give to your child. Not only does it allow them to navigate their world of school and relationships with more nuance, but it is also a great way for them to build independence.
Help Your Kid Unplug
Many students begin feeling overwhelmed by the presence of social media, online discourse, and social pressures from a younger age than we normally expect. With the impact of Covid-19 changing the format of school environments, kids are spending more time online than ever. Books can be an escape from the online world, even if you have limited time to read. Reading from physical books will also allow them to put their devices down and be present in the moment.
Designing New Worlds
The older your learner gets, the more they will need to rely on the critical thinking skills they have built throughout their school years for increasingly abstract exam questions. Encouraging your child to read for leisure, not just more in quality but also in quantity, can help them to expand their understanding of language use and creative writing. Not only does reading help build your child’s imagination and creativity, it also prepares them to be more well rounded and may even boost their use of literary analysis.
There is a genre and style for everyone
Sometimes we forget that if one genre of books isn’t working for your kid, there’s plenty more to introduce them to. Just like hobbies, fashion, and favourite foods, we all have our likes and dislikes for reading. Helping your child explore the different types of literature available is also a great way to connect with them and help them explore. They might even surprise themselves!
Spoiler Alert!
Stories catch you by surprise! Some of the most delicious, jaw-dropping, horrific plot twists can be found in books. Very little compares to the mixed feeling of surprise when you realise what an author has accomplished right under your nose. Literature makes you think outside the box and it can plague you with fascinating hypotheticals about each possible ending. Allowing kids to read and discover new ideas independently can create confidence in their comprehension of learning material. And we can’t ignore the pride one sometimes feels when solving a mystery on your own!
Autonomy
Finally, I do believe that reading is one of the most important things your child can do to help define themselves as an individual. Reading stories and informational texts are one of many ways that we learn about the world and our opinions about life. Just as everyone has genres of literature that they may enjoy, we also learn about our morals, ethics, and values from literature. Fascinating and tragic fictional worlds are created in books to help us empathise and understand our world better. Reading independently helps your child figure out what they like and dislike, but it can also teach them how to be a good human and about how they want to move through the world.
The power of fluency in the written word gives your child an amazing tool to navigate life and their own personality. With the oversaturation of tablets, game systems, online worlds, and social media, it can be hard to help your child find time to just sit down with a book and learn something new or enjoy a good story.
We, at Boutique Education, recognise and celebrate the power that literature has in shaping young learners and supporting cross-curriculum learning. And we love helping our students learn how to love reading!
Find out more about how we can help your child develop a love for reading and learning. Contact us at https://boutiqueeducation.asia/contact/!