Reading Fosters
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Reading together with your children is a fantastic way to talk about daily life in general. My son likes to read "Summer" by Alice Low. It is a book about all the exploits of summer fun like eating watermelon and ice cream, watching fireworks, going to the beach, building sand castles . . . all types of activities that I have done with my son. Conversation begins about all the fun things we have done "just like in the book." In this way, we spend quality time engaged in easy and meaningful parent child communication with one another. Books are a great way to help your child bring meaning to the world around him or her.
But meaningful conversation arises from reading together in another way as well. Do you ever listen to the radio and hear a song that triggers a long lost memory? Well the same thing happens when you read with your kids.
Whenever I read to my kids, something (either the book, or story, or pictures) will trigger some long forgotten memory of when I was young or a story from my parents and we start talking about my childhood. It is a form of oral history passed down from generation to generation.
My son is still very young so our "conversations" are limited, but he is typically rapt with interest as he loves to hear about his grandma and grandpa and his uncles. This kind of communication and time spent together is always very special and it is full of "
teaching moments
."
And, as the child gets older, this meaningful conversation turns into much more two-way
parent child communication
. Reading to older children provides the relaxed and secure one-on-one environment where children are likely to open up about their concerns and fears. This is where true parenting happens -- laying in their bed at night reading a story before lights out and slowly getting into a conversation about problems at school, fears about the family unit, wanting to fit in, about the boy or girl they like . . . and so much more!
It just doesn't get much more meaningful than this . . .
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