We all want our kids to be happy and confident, to be emotionally well adjusted, have rewarding relationships and to reach their goals.

 

A mother’s expertise in choosing books and active reading (asking questions and talking about the story) has been researched and found to increase children’s emotional and social abilities including empathy, persistence in task performance, conflict resolution, impulse regulation, and emotional expression. This adds to further research that the more stories young children had read to them, the stronger their ability to imagine what other people are thinking and feeling (the basis of empathy).

 

When you read a story to your child you also help them develop their imagination. Imagination is about seeing the impossible and is a crucial part of creativity.

 

In the hectic world, we all live in, joint reading creates sacred opportunities for thought, reflection, and intimate conversations.

 

It is important to choose stories that have added value, stories that spark their imagination, that inspire them, that offer them strategies to handle life. Try and also choose books that deal with issues and emotions your child is dealing with.

 

Last but not least, I want to talk about the PURE MAGIC that happens when we sit with our kids and read to them. It fills our hearts and their little hearts in a very special way. In a way I believe will be hard for science to ever fully measure, but nonetheless we all know it is there. It creates priceless bonding time and memories

 

And don’t forget to make it fun!!  Make different voices, incorporate them in the reading if they like, take turns being the different characters. It makes it twice as fun and apparently research shows also more beneficial for learning.   It is no surprise, fun, laughs and overall great development go hand in hand. 

 

Happy reading :)