Don't let "insufficient reading" become a shortcoming in your child's life

Text丨Fish Dad Image source: Meisu Gallery

1

Why do we need to read with our children?

I think it's a good thing if there are more people asking this question.

It proves that more people are beginning to pay attention to parent-child reading.

Let's put aside the notion that parent-child reading is a wonderful time to spend together.

Let's talk about the "utilitarian" effect directly.

A study of nearly 30 years has proved that parent-child co-reading in preschool can make children's primary school more smoothly and affect their reading ability in the future, and the oral expression ability can be twice as high as that of other children, and the more you read, the more significant the effect.

These two abilities are the most important basic skills for learning.

This long-term study began in 1989 at a pediatric clinic in Boston, USA.

At that time, there was a pediatrician who felt that he was responsible for taking care of the child's "physical and mental" health, and that there was still a lot of work to be done with the physical care and mental health.

So he united a group of enthusiastic doctors and education scholars, and began to remind mothers to read together at the children's clinic, and even donated books to poor families.

Although the concept of parent-child reading is often mentioned, most of the families who will receive the information are still parents with high levels of education.

So the doctor took the initiative, because every child will come to get vaccinated, and take this opportunity to provide the information of parent-child reading to families with poor resources, so that their children can get better help.

Finally, it was found that parent-child reading could effectively improve children's language ability.

You know, the vocabulary we use in our daily life is very simple, because the surroundings around us may be relatively simple, but the words in picture books are sometimes not usually used, so they can give children more diverse and richer language experience.

After repeated reinforcement, the child will subtly memorize these words.

Then you will slowly learn to use these words, and your expression skills will naturally be better, and you will not be short of words.

When you really insist on reading with parents and children for more than half a year, you will definitely feel deeply.

2

If there are so many benefits of parent-child reading, why are so many parents still not doing it?

What is holding us back from reading together?

Many parents have some doubts about parent-child co-reading:

There is no bookstore near the home (especially in the countryside);

Don't know how to read it (no one read it to him when he was a child, or the parents themselves are not very literate and have a low level of education);

Children's picture books are too expensive;

Yu Dad once learned about the mothers' situation of parent-child reading in a group, and many mothers gave feedback on the following questions:

1. I am too busy to go to work and have no time to read to my children

2. Every time he reads, the child is not serious, and he has no patience to spend with him. I gave up

3. There is no channel to choose the right book to read to your child.

In addition, I found that there are two main constraints on parent-child reading.

One is that there is no good atmosphere for reading for all:

Last time, Daddy did a survey on the platform, and today I will share the results with you to see, looking at a ratio of the reading area and the mahjong hall in a community, and the results are unexpected and reasonable.

No parent is satisfied with the reading environment in the Chinese community.

(It can be seen that the number of mahjong parlors is much larger than that of bookstores)

Another situation is the imbalance of reading resources.

When it comes to reading resources, I envy my friends in Shenzhen.

He said that there are many bookstores over there, and there are many people who love to read.

He would often take his children to the bookstore.

And I am in a second-tier city, because it is a provincial city, and I have the opportunity to take my children to the provincial library.

There are also a few bookstores that can be found within a half-hour drive.

But it's still very inconvenient.

Another friend who teaches in his hometown said that there are only two or three bookstores in the entire county.

And there is one that specializes in selling pirated books, and another that sells teaching aids.

There is only one store that actually sells children's picture books, but there are very few varieties.

The owner of the bookstore said that there were too few customers to do it.

As a result, a vicious circle was formed, and in the end, the county seat with a population of hundreds of thousands did not have a place to study.

That's the reality.

Therefore, some mothers who often buy books in groups on my side said that what they lack most in the county is good educational resources, and they hope that their children will not lose in reading.

So she will buy books for her children and accompany them to read.

I admire such mothers very much.

It's a vision that she sees the importance of reading for children.

And actively provide conditions for children.

3

How to make children fall in love with reading?

In fact, there is only one way, and that is to do it yourself.

If a parent's time is really spent on the child's reading, the child's reading will certainly not be bad.

Since there is no community library, there is no bookstore nearby.

Then I also want to give my children rich reading resources, and ensure that I accompany my children to read for time and frequency.

If there is no community in the community, they will build a reading corner in their own home, and families with conditions will build a family library.

But in fact, many parents don't really pay attention to themselves, and finally give up without insistence

They feel that homework is a big deal when their children go to school.

Therefore, I would rather spend time with my children to do their homework than spend time with my children to read, which is actually putting the cart before the horse.

I feel it myself.

Before Xiaoxiao Yu goes to kindergarten, there is plenty of time for parents and children to read.

I can take him to read all kinds of books.

And the time is also freely arranged.

When he went to school, time suddenly became tight.

As a result, the time for reading can only be placed in a few tens of minutes before bedtime.

Fortunately, he loves to read, and he also flips through books by himself in his free time at home after school.

Because I don't have that much time to spend with him all the time.

I think this is also the current situation that many parents encounter.

Especially when it comes to elementary school.

I found that almost all of the children were busy with their homework, attending cram schools or interest classes.

My nephew also loves to listen to stories and read, but after going to elementary school.

The number of people who come to our house to pick up books and read them has decreased.

Children in primary school should not focus all their energy on textbooks and homework.

Because the singleness of primary school textbooks can never meet the knowledge needs of a child.

6-12 years old is the most golden period for the long-term development of reading ability (that is, the foundation of learning ability), and in these six years, it can be said that the development of reading ability without a large amount of reading and greatly improving reading ability is more important.

Only by reading a wide range of books, reading classics, and extensively dabbling in encyclopedic general knowledge books can children's wisdom continue to grow, and eventually have good reading ability, laying a solid foundation for future learning.

4

Of course, the formation of reading skills does not happen overnight.

Two basic prerequisites are required:

One is to keep reading consistent and let children form a habit.

In the beginning, parents need to persevere on their own and guide their children to get in touch with books, and parents help them get fun and a sense of accomplishment from books.

After a few months, the child will form a habit, and the next thing is to keep it up.

Maintain a regular reading time each day.

In addition, make sure to provide your child with new books to keep him interested in reading.

Children's interests are constantly changing.

We don't just want to reinforce their current interests, but we also help them discover new ones.

The way is to let him "contact" first, then "guide", and finally strengthen.

For example, like all boys, Little Fish worships power and loves adventure, so he likes cars and beasts.

At that time, I gave him books on cars and animals.

His interest in dinosaurs was discovered, and this was reinforced.

Then, every once in a while, when he is almost reading the current book, we will buy him a little new book, and contact with new books will allow us to discover new interests and hobbies of the child.

Step by step, he opens up the world of reading.

Now he is also a writer of literary books and popular science picture books.

The other is the accumulation of readings.

I think it's an amazing process.

By the time Xiao Xiaoyu was four years old, he was already able to read most of the content of picture books on his own.

He relied on drawings, as well as some of the words he mastered.

A small brain will guess and analyze.

At the age of 6, he began to move towards independent reading.

At first, I was able to read some simple fairy tales and bridge books.

Nowadays, I can read purely textual history books, fairy tales, biographies, and other books independently.

Sometimes I think, though I didn't let him learn a skill worth showing off.

But I should benefit him a lot from cultivating this reading habit.

And the development of a child's ability is absolutely inseparable from two conditions.

One is the game of life.

The other is a lot of reading.

No matter how the times develop, reading ability will always come first.

What we need to do is to make children fall in love with reading as soon as possible and form a habit.

Don't let "insufficient reading" become a shortcoming in your child's life.