Being a working Mom means a hectic evening with the little
one. The two hours I get after I get home is the most precious time of the day.
Strictly divided into three slots of dinner time, play time and bed time, (and
the fourth is my slot of MY Time after she sleeps!). My 1.5 year old SSS is
becoming naughtier by the day and with extended play times, her dinner time and
bed time are fast morphing into play time as well!
While her favorite activity is running around the house, and
opening all the drawers and kitchen cabinets she can, my favorite activity is definitely
not fetching the balls she throws! Being
from a family of avid readers, my personal favorite activity is reading of course
and reading to her is a delightful way of spending time with her. Alas! The
only time I get to do that is at bed time! Dangling a pretty picture book is
the easiest way to divert her attention from ransacking her cupboard for socks and
get her to clamber to the bed!
If you are Mom, you may tell me how short their attention
spans are and how difficult it is to make them read, but patience is key. Here
are some of my tips to make your kids read –
- Get board books with bright pictures. The larger the pictures the better it is.
- Large Pictures of animals, objects they recognize make for ideal reading
- Forget long stories of the Arabian nights and Gulliver’s travels for now. Read small stories that have very few sentences on each page.
- You don’t have to read. Spin a different story around the picture
- Point out little objects in the picture
- Allow them to turn the pages.
- If they start tearing pages, tell them a firm No and take away the book for a while
- Start off for as much time as they let you read to them.
- You read! If they see you reading, they will want to automatically read too
- Patience Patience Patience
What books do you read
to your child?
I agree that's harder than it sounds, reading stories to your toddler out of a book. I had invented quite a few series of my own for my twins about cats, dogs squirrels and monkeys and even trees which they really seemed to love. Latter on I used to tell them a lot of improvised science fiction... Thankfully, they have caught on reading and are only restrained by their studies. You are doing a great job with your cute daughter.
ReplyDeleteThanks USP. I am barely surprised that your daughters are avid readers! They are your daughters after all :). I hope SSS goes the way as she grows up!
ReplyDeleteAll these efforts you are taking despite your hectic schedule in cultivating reading habis in Shivani will bear fruits. Your guidelines to make kids pick up a book and read it with interest will help other mums too.
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