Reading is like a means of transportation that conveys us from our natural world into another. As we read through the pages of a book, we might be so engrossed in the lives of those characters.
Reading expands our horizons and triggers us to learn about other cultures, ideologies, and, nationalities. Most importantly, it helps us learn new at a faster pace and acquire diverse knowledge and skills. What a beautiful experience?!
Due to these potentials, the impacts of reading on children are significant to their growth and development. That's why every parent needs to make sure reading becomes part and parcel of their kids' daily routine.
So you're about to understand further why reading is important for your children, tips you can follow to make them fall in love with reading, and how to sustain the tempo.
What Makes Reading So Important for Kids?
Various researchers have confirmed that reading for fun makes a vast difference in children's performance in school. Yes, that's all the motivation you need to start early with your kid. After all, the earlier you start, the better for the child. And the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.
Even in other jurisdictions, especially the European countries, evidence has it that children who read for pleasure daily perform better than their colleagues who don't. They'll also develop a wider reach of vocabulary, improved general knowledge, and a clearer exposure to the cultures of other people.
Therefore, we can agree that the chances that a kid will perform better in school than his social background depend on how consistently he reads for fun back home.
Improving Understanding and Building Vocabulary
Do you know that learning to read is more of listening, trying to understand, and creating a mental picture of what's printed on the page? That's how listening to new stories regularly will expand the capacity at which your children learn and assimilate new words.
This will help them set up their vocabulary. And it'll also ease your burden, being the parent and teacher, because they'll need lesser monitoring to understand what they're reading as they grow up.
Even if these kids don't understand all the words in the stories you read to them, merely hearing those sounds and phrases will make it easier for them to learn. That is, their mental domains will easily pick up those words as they hear them over and over again.
Once they start learning how to read in school, getting them fun, engaging, and relatable storybooks will also determine how fluent in reading they eventually become.
Developing Empathy for Others
Most times, reading can be magically considering how it puts us right in the middle of the story we're reading. This transition helps us to build a sense of empathy for others since we live the lives of the characters and we can relate to how they feel.
Your children can also use this benefit to be sympathetic and emphatic with other folks in the real world. In other words, they'll come to understand and appreciate the importance of emotions. In no time, you'll notice that the level of your child's social maturity and development keeps increasing. That's the beauty of reading from childhood!
Deeper Bond with Parents
If you make reading with your kid or kids a part of your daily routine, there's no way they won't develop an impenetrable relationship with you while growing up. So you can see it as an opportunity to spend a quality session with your children and you should look forward to it.
Another advantage here is that reading provides your children with the conviction of love and enviable attention. And those are the key factors for robust nurturing and wellness.
Faster Cognitive Development
What is cognitive ability? This refers to how we see and evaluate the world around us using our IQ, train of thought, language understanding, and information processing.
So as you read to your children in bed, preferably at night, you're giving them a broader and clearer understanding of how the world operates, and how we should reason, treats others, and learn from others.
Meanwhile, you shouldn't fall into the error of believing reading improves children's performance in school alone. No, the benefits also extend to their economic, social, and, cultural upbringing.
Tips to Help Your Kids Read Again
We have a list of ideas you can use to revive the reading spirit in your kids. And if you're starting from scratch, these tips will also make this journey easier for you.
Let's get started.
Limit Their Screen Time
As you might have known, learning doesn't work hand-in-hand with distractions. So we'll advise that you shut the door against anything that might make you or your child lose focus while reading together.
You can start by limiting his or her screen time. And as an incentive, you can let him enjoy the screen time after your reading session. That's if, he stays focused all through. Being the teacher, you also need to steer clear of anything that might shift your attention. For the moment, put out your data connection and disengage your social media platforms.
Why all these precautionary measures? Putting your absolute concentration into the book you're reading will give both you and your children an intensive and interesting experience. And you need to make it easier for the kid by reading him a book he loves.
Make Them Understand the Importance of Reading
You also need to make the reading session as interactive as possible for the children. And you should remember that one tends to abuse or misuse an opportunity when the importance is not known.
So the basic step you should take here is to let these children know why you're starting the new trend. Let them know what they stand to gain, why you need their undivided attention, and why they need to make it their second nature.
Apart from the ones earlier discussed, other reasons you can bring to their knowledge here include:
Their imagination can be well-polished.
Their level of creativity and ingenuity can develop.
Better performance in school.
Better ways of relating with other people without hurting their emotions.
Their mental domains become sharper and can strategically address problems right on the spot.
Provide Them with an Ergonomic Reading Space
To give yourself and the kids a comfy time together, why don't you switch to a space more ergonomic? An ergonomic reading space will allow you to live free from lower and upper back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, and other aches associated with the regular reading space.
You can complete the reading room with any of our ergonomic office chairs. These innovative pieces offer your back optimal support due to the S-shaped curve used for the seat's concept.
The chairs have maximum stability and adjustability that suit your preferred height. There's also the feature of a movable headrest which you can lift up and down to support your neck positioning. Apart from the chairs, you can also get height-adjustable standing desks of different kinds from Flexispot.
Table Lamp
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And if there are some items you need in the reading room that'll motivate you to give your kid the best reading session, why don't you get them? You can position the reading table far from the TV set or your computer screen. That's because any slight hindrance might rob an innocent child of his attention.
After this, you can get a good source of lighting that'll activate your senses and send a signal to the brain that it's time for some serious work. We will recommend that you invest in the Modern Table Lamp TA1001. It's a contemporary table lamp made of wood and metal. Available in matte black, the table lamp also has a lamp holder which makes it easier to use.
The lamp is durable and you can use it in your private study, living room, bedroom, or any area that needs proper illumination.
Give Them the Liberty of Choosing their Books by Themselves
Of course, tastes differ. And you should remember that your target is the children. So you need to give them a free environment and ask them about the books they'll love to listen to.
Since it's a subject of their interest, it's natural for them to pick up faster. However, this doesn't mean that you give them absolute freedom.
You need to fine-tune it by asking yourself how much impact will these books have on their life. If their age and mentality demand more advanced books, you can use those ones they earlier picked as templates to get the new ones for them. And these books should have images, pictures, and other infographics that'll capture their attention.
Have Patience
You were once like one of these children, isn't it? You need to remind yourself.
That's because we tend to forget what it's like to be in that critical stage. And unlike many adults that don't prioritize reading, your kids need it and you need to be patient with them because they have not fully grown into that stage where they'll appreciate what you're doing for them.
They don't know many things yet. Thus, you need to exercise patience even when they infuriate you. Be caring and flexible with them. For instance, how do you expect a kid to know that the correct way to read is from the left-hand side to the right? You have to teach him or her and also point at the words with your finger while going.
How would they even know that each inscription on the page stands for a word? The answer lies in patience.
Rewards and Encouragements
Incentives and rewards. These tips don't exist in the adult world alone, so you have to import the ideas into the reading routine with your kids also. You can set a timeline. For example, if he or she listens to you attentively, reads a particular page fluently, or learns a new word, you can get him a present.
You can also promise him more time to watch his favorite TV show or go out to a cinema together. The list is endless.
Continue the Flow
After reading a story to your child, you can try to keep the discussion going. However, this idea depends on the children's age and you can ask them their opinions about what they just read.
For instance, "Ashley, hope you enjoyed that story?", "Hey, can you tell me who your favorite character is?", "What does this story teach us?", among others.
But you should note that pushing further is not necessary for all the stories you read to them. As much as the kids enjoy the story, it'll reflect in their disposition and deepen their love for reading, even without continuing the flow.
We hope these tips and ideas help you reignite the reading spirit in your folks! And we'll like to have you on our online store for all forms of ergonomic office chairs, height-adjustable standing desks, ergonomic desk chairs and, office lighting accessories. Enjoy!