How does a modern child learn to love a book?
Why is it so difficult for modern children to instill value and love of reading? What to do so that the baby loves the world of the printed word? For starters, let’s try to think about what gives modern children reading? What is its uniqueness and difference from other sources of information?
We should try to be honest. What’s the book now? The treasure trove of information? It’s for us who were growing up in another “pre-internet” era, the book was the only repository of knowledge in all possible fields. The book taught us this by telling us about worlds that were inaccessible, showing many examples of reactions to different situations. Everything has changed. Instead of searching for hours in dusty libraries, all you have to do is watch a fascinating video. With reduced criticism, this information is conditionally perceived as something objective, as some knowledge. Of course, the Internet makes it easy to get acquainted with other sources as well, but..:
- first of all, certain search skills are required;
- secondly, one needs the need for analysis, the desire to understand, to form one’s own evaluation, and not to be satisfied with the plagiarism of someone else’s opinion.
What about the book? The book is built according to different rules. Reading books is like meditation, it does not give ready-made pictures, it simulates them in our consciousness using symbols. It calls for creation, referring to our experience. In this sense, the book is less subjective, although behind it is the personality of the author with all delusions. But most importantly, the book adapts to the pace of our perception, it does not pull behind a spectacular image.
It’s a big plus of reading:
- We can stop, analyze, argue, agree.
- We have the right to pause, to think, to dive into the problem.
It is work, and man always strives for laziness, for fun, for pleasure. That is why the popularity of reading also decreases among adults, even among the generation born “before our era”.
- There is one more undeniable plus of reading: it forms creative potential. When reading pictures are born in our imagination, they are the fruit of our imagination, our creativity.
And in this sense, the book is no longer a teacher who gives knowledge, but rather a developing teacher who shapes thinking (criticality, imagery, creativity).
So what do we do to make a child love reading? A few practical tips.
Let’s be honest with the baby. If we convince him of the benefits of reading, we must reinforce what we have said with our own example. Take at least half an hour a day for your own reading. Encourage yourself to read serious literature. If there are no deferred desires or preferences, start reading classics. Perhaps you remember the content well, focus on atmosphericity. Set yourself some specific tasks, such as finding analogies with today.
When choosing literature to read with your child, be guided by their taste. Observe the baby. Read the book intended for your child in advance. Create an atmosphere of expectation, anticipation. Think about announcing the reading for the evening, the next day.
It’s just beginning with the reading! It is important for us to test the understanding of the text, to teach the child to create with the author, to develop his creativity. So after each reading we are immersed in the game.
The easiest way to test is to prepare questions about the text.
It is desirable to formulate a certain problem with questions: “Why do you think…”, “And if it hadn’t happened… what you think happened”, etc. It is important to involve the child as an equal opponent. To summarize the conversation by agreeing or arguing: “I agree with you”, “I think it would be different because…”. Turn the discussion into an intellectual conversation, however primitive the material may seem.
We draw, sculpt, create three-dimensional objects, in a word, visualize what we have read.
I’d make that method of working with the book a priority. Why is it important? Remember the main advantage of the book – it develops imaginative thinking, images are born in our heads. We need them to find their embodiment, to become real objects. In addition, this activity helps to immerse yourself more deeply in the content, prolongs the feeling of the book. It is also a development of creative potential, development of fine motor skills of the child.
We turn the text into a script and play a theatrical performance.
You can use toys and organize a puppet show. You can cut figures out of cardboard, attach a table lamp and make theater shadows, or you can connect home as actors.
We use the material for inventing various games.
Fantasize! I remember how I suggested after reading Nosov’s story “Grandfather’s Shurik” to find an alternative to a cough and hide a sock for secret messages. We used this sock later on in other lessons. A mystery appeared, there was a “recipe for interest” from the book we read. Play fashion designers, draw a line of clothes for Cinderella. Create your own fairy tales for your child, involve him in this process! The world is changing rapidly. Children will live in a different reality, a reality that is now difficult to predict. But the fact that in this new world the most popular will be people with creative approach, independent analysts, free creators – obviously. And only a book will help to form such thinking of a child.
