1. Reading picture books together with children is the best IS THE BEST bonding and learning experience.
Reading together with my son is the best part of any day. We are playful with words and stories. We makeup our own stories out of the pictures and make up our own words too. My son’s curious mind absorbed every word and picture soaking up the people, places and things that he had never seen or thought about before. Picture books bonded us together.
Parents, educators and community members impart the gift of learning in sharing and reading stories creating bonds that are both rewarding and beneficial for both adult and child.
It helps develop a love of learning at an early age. YEE HAW!
2. Before, during and after reading books with my son, we talked about EVERYTHING!
From the title of the book and what it meant, to the discussion of the meanings of words and pictures, to the understanding of events and interactions, reading together often led to endless conversations.
Picture books by their nature allow for our shared communication. This opened up new conversations about a books meaning, and to think about it in new and wondrous ways.
Talking about the books we read helped us learn together. We learned about the world and each other and I began to remember how I viewed the world as a child.
3. Reading picture books helps develop an AWARENESS of story components and sequence; beginning, middle, and end.
In life we know that most things have an order and a flow. Teaching children this early on helps them learn about this in other aspects of life. For instance, as soon as my son learned to walk, the very next spring we planted flower seeds. With each flower, he learned that in the beginning the seeds sprouted, in the middle the seeds turned to beautiful plants and bloomed, and in the end winter would the flowers die. Each spring since, we have planted new flowers.
Reading picture books early on helped him understand this natural process of life.
4. Picture books are MULTI-SENSORY, which benefits a child’s natural curiosity and imagination about the world.
A child’s 5 senses are awakened by reading picture books early in life. Sight. Hearing. Touch. Taste. Smell.
Not only do children hear the story, they get to see the illustrations and touch the pages.
I remember one of my son’s first books was waterproof. At bath time, I would read a book about frogs and tadpoles while he played in the water! Learning about water animals while being immersed in water delighted multiple senses at once. This was the start to learning the differences between animals and their habitats. Cool!
5. Picture books AWAKEN a child’s CURIOSITY and spark their IMAGINATION while learning new vowels and consonants that make up words and language.
New words=new horizons=new world.Helping a child to learn the meanings of words and finding the value in using words in communication is natural and easily influenced by reading picture books together especially in other languages.
In the first Spanish language book I read with my son, we learned the words for sun and moon, el sol y la luna. Pronouncing these words together helped him later learn other new Spanish words faster.
6. One of the best parts of any children’s picture book is the PICTURES!
The art and illustrations of a picture book are just as important as the words.
The pictures help to make the words understandable and the words help to make the pictures more understandable. Learning new words helps our children gain clearer understandings of the books they’re reading.
The pictures help a child understand what they are reading, and sometimes help them figure out new words by themselves, thus aiding them in their confidence and self-growth.
7. Picture books can help a child GAIN READING LEVELS.
My experience with this has been eye-opening! I’ve been reading to my son since before birth and he began reading by himself at age three. By 1st grade he was a 3rd grade level reader, and by 4th grade he was a 7th grade reader.
I’m certain that reading picture books together from an early age was the reason for this gain in reading levels! Sharing picture books with your child will help them gain reading comprehension, pronunciation, and understanding quicker not to mention aiding them in many other ways..
Picking out different levels of picture books from birth, to ages 3-5, then ages 5-7 and up, and even mixing older level picture books at an early age, helped my son make advances in his reading comprehension quickly and become a fluent reader sooner.
Conclusion:
The foundation of reading comprehension formed and the bond created by reading with your child at an early age is immeasurable and immensely beneficial in MAKING CHILDREN SMARTER.
Allowing children the room to develop a love of language and picture books early in life will help them become fluent readers sooner and make learning new things easier.
Sharing with your child the love of reading is like planting a seed of future learning and development, and by taking the time to water the sprouts of ideas and knowledge, you will create a foundation of comprehension that will benefit a child forever. The memories of the time spent reading with my son will remain in my heart always.
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