Rewind your life and go back to your schooling days. Now, of the class-size of 40 odd, how many of them were the so-called bright students? 3 or 4? How many of them were just average? Most of them? Now go to your college days and recollect the numbers asked above. Almost same? What about post-graduation? Same? And how about bright workers in the office? Same? By bright workers, I am not talking about the university toppers or nerdy characters who were blindly picked by companies just by looking at their grades. I am talking about those who are smart enough to have mastered the art of acquiring growth at each phase of their careers. We will be talking more about office colleagues later in some other article, so, let us get back to school and college days for now.
What was mostly common among these 3 or 4 extraordinary students? They had good memory? They were born intelligent to intellectuals? Well, actually not. What they had in common was that they mostly read well. They could easily understand and articulate while they read their text books. Most of the average and below-average students just blindly read and try to mug topics and I was one of them in school until I realized what it takes to just understand. Developing reading habits at an early age can do wonders for anyone. I wish I could have spent more time in the school library, which used to be mostly deserted all through my first twelve years of education. Our school had a huge library and I wonder the collection of books must have been good (I do not have any idea about the collection of books as I had never used it, apart from forcefully going once in a week and sitting through 40 minutes just like most of us at that age).
So, enough of introduction to the problem, which is that most of us still do not read. We do not have that reading capability which is required at all levels. And unfortunately, our kids learn from us. We do not read and hence they do not read. We wish our kids to be super intelligent and super talented in dance, music, arts or sports at the same time. But they end up being just like us. They remind us exactly how we were in our childhood.
So, what can a young parent can do to develop better habits among their kids?
Just read!
Show them that you are a reader too. Buy some good books and keep it within their reach. Develop an environment at home where you are reading along with your kids. If a kid is studying, try switching off that idiot box or keeping that smart phone aside and pick up a book to read along. Believe me, it makes a great deal of difference.
Reading develops perspectives among children and helps them in choosing the right path for their future. The best way to detox from the distractions around would be to read good informative stuffs. Had I had good reading comprehension skills, I would have cracked some of the most prominent competitive exams in my younger days. Well, the point here I want to make is that if you are a young parent, this would be the best time to inculcate that magical habit in your children that could work wonders in their mental growth and awareness. The best way to do that is to sit and read with them as mentioned above. Children often learn habits from elders and mostly from parents and this would be a win-win situation where you could develop your own reading habit. The need of the hour is to change the conventional method of studying and start understanding. The process of studying for children should be like reading stories be it any subject where they can remember, articulate and extend their understanding in the practical world.
Anyway, technology has given us the option to be closer to books, if you choose to look at it in a positive way, through apps and reading devices like Kindle, which could also be accessed through smartphones. Although, I would not recommend Kindle app for school going children, as physical books would be the best bet for them, but you can certainly give a thought towards Kindle readers. Though they are gadgets but could be attractive to kids and might help in a positive way.
Build a small library at home
A cute little library containing books from all genre would help a great deal. Importantly, let the library grow with kids. Keep adding relevant books to the collection and you can also give away a few books to manage your space better.
Have a reading time
Just like family time or me-time, one can have a reading time, where most of us are reading books. Can be anything under the sun – Business, entertainment, fiction, magazines, or even comic books. This will have a psychological effect on the child that everyone around me is reading and so should I. Remember the exam days, where you got to overhear TV from the other room and get distracted?
Give it a serious thought. How can you help your kids in their development years? the answer to this can be discovered by peeping into your own life during schooling. Developing their reading and listening skills should be a top priority along with extra curriculars be it art, sports, music or whatever that interests them. Nothing much has changed in the school curriculum over the years, but these days thankfully we see startling difference in parents’ attitude towards activities other than studies, which is a good thing. The parents know the importance of harnessing that extra talent (or rather call it skill) within kids in sports, music, dance, art or whatever which is exceptional, but why is reading neglected? Why don’t we create that habit amongst our kids that could well make them better readers? Why are libraries generally deserted? I will leave it here for the readers to think about these. Try out these simple methods if you can and see the difference in the interpretation and comprehensive capabilities of your kids grow within weeks.
