Dear Gluten-Free Readers,
Since President’s Day requires some knowledge of American history and current events, I wanted to take the opportunity to demonstrate the parental importance of incorporating an informal reading program for your kids at home.
Faced with so many forms of media, many children today are diverted from sustained reading. Between the increased number of television programs and the wide outreach of social media sites (i.e. Facebook) there are countless distractions that keep kids from reading a book or even a newspaper article.
Everyone is aware that reading is vital part of a child’s development. However, many parents overlook methods and benefits behind the implementation of a substantial reading program in their home.
NPR recently posted a very intriguing article about the effectiveness of reading along with younger children. Surprisingly, simply reading along with your little one does not significantly increase his/her reading ability. Researchers found that kids will focus the vast majority of their attention towards the pictures on the page as their parents read to them. Therefore, researchers had schoolteachers develop flash cards with short yet specific questions to ask their students intermittingly throughout the reading. So far, the study produced positive results while only adding an average of 90 seconds of reading time per book.
It is extremely beneficial to implement something along the lines of a “bedtime story” or reading period on nightly basis. Practice makes perfect and developing a nightly reading routine will drastically improve your child’s literary skill set. Holding aside literacy advancement, reading has many other vital benefits including: 1. Improved concentration. 2. Develops a broader imagination. 3. Improves sense of empathy. 4. Overall improvement throughout ALL subjects in school. 5. Relaxes the body and household. 6. Keeps children (and their parents!) updated on current events. For detail behind the cause of each of these benefits visit: http://bit.ly/SB94FO
As a segue from the sixth benefit, having a daily newspaper delivered to your house is an excellent investment. If you turn off the TV and put a newspaper on the table where your kids eat breakfast, they will be significantly inclined to read an article before school. Obviously, this is more applicable to older children whom will improve their reading ability as they simultaneously gain an understanding of current events. Plus, it provides parents additional opportunities to have beneficial conversations with their kids!
