Children readers: are there magic formulas?
Why do children prefer television, video games or sports, to reading? Because the first activities require less intellectual effort. The concentration and imagination that is needed to read a book, causes rejection in children. How to make children readers? Are there magic formulas? We must find positive formulas to encourage our children to read, so that it becomes a passion, an adventure and not a burden.
Children readers: if you read, he reads
"As he reads too much at school, I prefer that at home, do homework and be a little distracted, which is also good." All of our children's activities have to have a time and an appropriate time. But do not think that at school they already read too much. Teachers, in many cases, have to manage to get that animation to reading in the classroom. For this reason, it is important to get our children to read at home, to take a liking, indeed, to have a passion for reading.
Benefits of reading for children
First, to make children readers we must explain to our son why reading is so important. It is not enough to say every day, like a chant "you read, that you go to your room to read, you do not read anything, you are not going to play until you read". Perhaps, these expressions sometimes turn out to be somewhat burdensome, reading becoming a heavy obligation, instead of a pleasant passion, and an entertaining and fun activity.
So, our son has to be aware that if he reads, he can get a lot of benefits and advantages:
1. Expand your vocabulary. This way you can relate better with others, improve oral, written and spelling.
2. Develop the imagination. In this way, we can better explain the situations, what happens to us, describe the facts better, have easier to speak.
3. Improves concentration and observation. Concentrating on something, on what one is doing is not a "roll". The concentration also takes you into a magical world full of adventures. Nobody bothers you, because there's only you, the book and the story.
4. Increase originality and creativity. Children who read, differ from the "mass". They have flown with the wings of a book, which is a much more individual and hard work than sitting in front of the television or a movie screen, and they give it all done. They have used their faculties and their intelligence.
5. Help to think. It provides ideas, words, concepts, all kinds of material that serves to think more intelligently.
6. It makes us smarter. By doing intellectual work, culture increases us and puts mental functions into action, speeding up intelligence. Therefore, whoever reads yields more and gets better grades.
7. Wake up hobbies and interests. It is an open door through which we peek into unpublished worlds.
Magic formulas to make children readers
But we must not forget that reading, instead of passionate our children, can be a nuisance. For example, examining children about a read book is not a good tactic. Something more positive, both in the classroom and at home, is to organize gatherings or conversations about the works: Why did we like that book? What protagonist is the bravest and why? Who would you like to imitate or look like? Our son has to read for his own satisfaction and not to be accountable.
Another circumstance that could take our children away from reading is when this activity is done in a mechanical way, without understanding what was read. Also, if you think that this book has many pages, "it's too fat," you can create anxiety and stress by thinking about all the hours of effort left to finish it.
On the contrary, when our children start a book, we must encourage them to be protagonists of their own reading, to put their feelings there, to express their opinion, to say what seems fair, unjust, etc.
In short, what keeps children away from books is the following: compelling reading, using reading as a punishment, constantly remembering how good it is to read, showing that you do not read or read little, put strict tasks on each book that is read (how to make some cards each time you read), always relate reading with academics (not only to get better grades), demand them without convincing them, end a book they have started, or propose reading only as a substitute alternative to television, since it will associate reading as something ungrateful.
How much time a day children should devote to reading
Many parents wonder how much time their child has to read each day. Depending on the age and the characteristics, each teaching center sets a series of minutes per day of reading, both in the classroom and at home.
A boy of 7 years, is quite capable of reading 15 minutes a day, and go up 10 minutes each year. With some books, those fifteen minutes will be eternal and with others, time will fly by. When it comes to the first case, we must explain to our son that, although he has not had fun, at least, he has strengthened his will, ending the time he has proposed reading until the end.
Relax and have fun with reading
Thus, reading has to be a means to entertain, relax, have fun. Many parents give little importance to this quality, because they think that reading is something serious. You are wrong. Reading is a hobby to cultivate in free time, a hobby for life. There has been a lot of talk about the pleasure of reading. And that is what it has to be.
Jaime Márquez
Advisor: Angelina Lamelas, writer and teacher.
