Put down your phone and leave the network to start the "magic moment" of growing up with your child

Why does every parent have to read aloud for their child? The power of reading aloud is beyond imagination!

Put down your phone, leave the internet, and start the magic moment of growing up with your child.

Let children be more focused, smarter, master more vocabulary, and be closer to each other!

Magic Hour

Megan Cox Gordon/

Translator: Xue Wei

Shanxi People's Publishing House

Reading aloud can be of great benefit

This book shows us what the writer Dickens called "the beating syllables in the mouth." The authors tell us that reading aloud helps treat the lack of attention and alienation between family members in the high-tech age, and the benefits of reading aloud are irrefutable and fascinating:

For infants and young children with rapid brain development, nothing promotes brain growth more than listening to stories. There are so many scientific studies that social scientists now believe that listening to a lot of stories as a child is one of the most important factors in determining a person's future development.

Listening to stories gives children of all ages the opportunity to touch words, images, and rhymes that are not found elsewhere. A report in the United States found that reading or not reading to children can cause up to 30 million vocabulary gaps between children before the age of 3. What a big gap, and, children with big vocabulary will always maintain that advantage.

Reading together can bring people a sense of security, a sense of order, and also an emotional connection. It's like sewing many squares together in order to make a quilt, and the story is like a needle and thread, which plays a role in tandem. It's not just a metaphor, it's also a finding by neuroscientists at Princeton University. When a story is read aloud, both the reader and the listener can feel the pleasure, or extreme excitement, brought by the whole bundle of neurochemicals.

Reading aloud brings joy and enjoyment to children, bringing deep connections to everyone involved. It can soothe the lonely heart, make the lonely person no longer isolated from the world, save the patient from the torment of disease, and even read a book for a stray dog will make it quiet. It is perhaps the least costly, easiest, but most effective good we can do for our families, for the wider culture of humanity.

In this era of fleeting attention, check out this book

There is such an example in the book. Kahn's father is 88 years old, and the father and daughter originally got along well, but after the father was sick and hospitalized, he began to complain and look at nothing well, which also made the father and daughter sullen and unhappy every day, unable to say a few words. Kahn was trying to find a way to distract her father, when she inadvertently caught a glimpse of a stack of books that someone had brought with her when they came to visit him. Kahn picked up the book and began to read it aloud. After reading for an hour that afternoon for her father, Kahn was pleasantly surprised to find that the atmosphere in the ward and the mentality of the patients immediately changed. Kahn explained that reading aloud saved his father from self-pity because listening to a book was different from watching TV, and he had to use his brain so that he wouldn't be blind all day; and listening to books wouldn't tire his eyes and brain too much. Since the beginning of the reading campaign, Kahn's relationship with his father has eased a lot, and although his father still frequently goes to the hospital, he has a much more positive attitude towards illness, which makes Kahn especially pleased.

As the author says, Magic Hour is for anyone who loves books, stories, art, and language; it's also for parents who want to give their baby a good start in life. If you have delicate middle school children in your family, or sensitive, fragile, and wide-ranging teenagers, and you are very concerned about their growth, then this book is also for you. It is also suitable for those who want to encounter literature and want to part ways with the "cotton wool and tasteless life". Whether you haven't tried to read aloud at all, or have been doing so for years, you might as well take a look at this book. In this age of noise and fleeting attention, if you feel confused and indifferent to each other, then this book is especially for you.

About the Author

Megan Cox Gordon is an essay writer who has been a children's book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal since 2005 and her work has been featured in major newspaper outlets.

Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Sun Jun

Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Sun Jun

Video/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Sun Jun

Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Xie Yufen