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| Image by 2081671 from Pixabay |
{This is a collaborative post}
Reading and Schooling
Reading is such an easy way to support your child's homeschooling, and provide them
with endless hours of entertainment at the same time. The benefits of reading
can also be seen throughout your child’s life. The 90% Reading Goal (Lynn
Fielding, 1998) states that 77% of children reading at a second to eighth-grade
level at the beginning of third-grade will graduate high school. Only 27% of
children reading below this level will graduate.
Fielding concludes that “a mum
or dad, sister or brother, who reads twenty minutes a day with a child from
birth can first increase their chance of high third-grade reading skills and then
of high school graduation. When a child graduates high school, the child’s
probable increased lifetime earnings increase by $220,000, or £170,000.”
Such a
significant impact on your child’s future cannot be ignored or understated.
Taking just twenty minutes a day to read with your child will improve their
literacy skills and future prospects. This will most likely inspire them to read
more on their own, but reading together can be a really good time to bond.
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| Image by Amberrose Nelson from Pixabay |
Reading and Bonding
We are all spending a lot more time together under the current
circumstances, but this is not necessarily good quality time. Story time
presents the perfect opportunity to bond with your child, and take some time
together away from the tablets and television. If it’s part of a bedtime routine, this
will also give you both something to look forward to each day. Snuggling up with your child on the sofa or their bed and enjoying a great story together, it is the making of future memories.
Personalised
books are a great way to engage them in story time. Whether your child is
younger or older, they will immediately be drawn in at the mention of their own
name. A personalised book will be something they will treasure at story time,
and later in life when they’re a very successful adult looking back at their
childhood. Even now as teenagers my children still have kept their personalised books from when they were younger.
We’re all in this together
Reading will most definitely strengthen
the relationship between you and your child, but their general social skills
must also be taken into consideration under the current circumstances. We are
fortunate that we can still connect with our nearest and dearest online, but in
the moments when your child may be feeling lonely, it would be nice for them to
have book characters to keep them company.
If you’re concerned about how
lockdown is having an impact on your child, whether that’s in relation to their
addiction to technology or fear at the thought of having to eventually go back
to school, reading can help. Reading stories about other children that they can
relate to would be a really positive experience for them.
Lockdown is unpleasant
for all of us, but we should take some extra time to check in with our children,
and make sure we’re nurturing them even more than we normally would. So, what
time is story time?
