One of my friends says that the reason she reads to her children at night is that predisposes the mind to get the necessary relaxation and peace for a dream that besides being comforting, be happy. In his opinion, when we sleep we have the opportunity to prepare for a new day full of energy; and therefore, the previous readings should be fun, friendly, fantastic, beautiful or constructive.
I partly agree with this theory, although it is clear that by reading aloud to children (something we usually do at night), We get many benefits that may or may not match the exposed. And then there is the question of the amount, reading level and preferred genres that are read in each family, factors that can influence that it is not always possible to open books free of crudeness, fear or sadness.
In any case, reading them at night is still a very pleasant activity for the whole family today, although fewer and fewer parents share reading before bedtime with their children. As causes stress is noted, the fact that children prefer to watch television or connect to the Internet (before bed ?, But we had not said that these practices make it difficult to fall asleep?), And even the feeling that We have less time for everything.
Melanie Mayo is editor of Mothering magazine, and believes that part of the blame in the decline of this practice is the excess of information and options that parents face: how long should I read each child? What books are suitable? Is it convenient to talk with them about the readings? I suppose that Melanie refers to that without wanting to, we have reduced spontaneity and naturalness to these intimate moments of the family
I do not take reason, although I do not want to lose sight of on many occasions there is a lack of will or disinterest, also that there are children who go to bed very late, and beyond 10 pm it is difficult to organize to read them and allow time to fall asleep.
What is appreciated is the three basic recommendations that Mayo offers us, because it turns around some suggestions that for parents can fall like slabs in the form of "norms" (and that goes back). What do you intend? Well, nothing more or less than helping to feed and protect the reading routine at bedtime.
- Beauty and wonder: the book we read to the kids must be related to beauty, beauty in the illustrations, and especially the human form. Many illustrations represent people in a cartoon, exaggerated, and even grotesque way, and this can be daunting for a child's mind.
On the other hand, both the story and the drawings should approach the "wonder", help to imagine, and develop the themes. It seems that many children intended in appearance to children, they have an adult tone, and include figures such as irony or sarcasm, which predate the goodness or the ability to amaze that these readings should be endowed. "Everything we read with the children before they go to bed will influence their dreams".
The books should like, at least as much as our favorite readings do, otherwise one cannot identify with history and illustrations; This recommendation will help children not to develop early (before the age in which they have many other interests) reading resistance.
Talk about the book, but don't question: for this we must be very attentive to the plot (it is not worth reading while thinking about other things). When conversing each one accepts their version of what they have read and builds their own perception, when we talk we can ask ourselves about meanings of the words and we can question an illustration that does not reflect the story, when we talk we learn language turns and we also imagine other endings for readings ... in other words, we learn while we entertain ourselves. Yes, the conversation should never be forced.
When we "communicate" in the other way, that is, by interrogating, we can damage children's confidence, and also we put them in a bind and there is a likelihood that they will not continue talking. Not counting that it is very poor to ask obvious facts or exposed in the story, because it is just what we have read.
Melanie says that we cannot treat children as an adult but with the respect they deserve as developing people.
We have said that the conversation should never be forced, and this is because at bedtime it is convenient to reduce stimuli. So this would also imply that books may be slower and softer, but as I said at the beginning, this is not always possible to achieve depending on what the child likes or other factors. Anyway we can help them calm down While we read them if we stay with them and we provide them with a dim light, in addition to rounding the effect, it is possible to take advantage of the moment to give them a massage.
Finally remember that when they are older, they can give us back the minutes we have spent reading them, and from time to time they will surprise us by reading us. Let them do, although we know the story from beginning to end, let's immerse ourselves in their voices and the way they sing, thank the effort and tell them that we really like that they have read us.
Images | Lars Plougmann, Peter Dedina, littleprincessdiaries Via | Mothering In Peques and More | This is what parents can do to keep our children interested in reading. Although the reading habit has been reduced in children, we have time to recover reading for pleasure and fun.
