Kids still love books. It is the cutest thing to see young children sitting together looking at a book. In this day and age with all our wonderful electronic gadgets, I find it amazing that kids still love books. Yes, more and more I see our youth & adults huddled together over a glowing electronic screen, but when I see them gathered together over a book now, I stop to take notice.
Kids will mimic what is modeled
The first time this really stood out to me was with my own kids. The house was quite, I was cooking dinner and I went looking for my two boys. To my surprise, I found them each quietly sitting in their own beds in their shared room, flipping through the pages of book. How could this be? They can’t read. These two little guys could barely talk. Of course they were only looking at the pictures, but they could have done that in the living room. The fact that they took the books to the bedroom and sat up right in their beds to flip through the pages could only be because modeling. Their dad is huge reader. He always has been. After a few years of watching him always reading in bed, they started to do it too. I thought it was the cutest thing.
Kids are like sponges
It was a great reminder to me that kids are sponges and they will pick up what they see and hear even when we don’t notice that they are soaking it in. This was also a big push for me to start taking them to the library for books. Most libraries are free, just watch out for those overdue fees. Luckily they send me emails to remind me my books are almost due back, and I can renew the book online if need be. I found myself picking more books up and reading too. It was good for the whole family.
I still see it in the classroom today, kids love to sit together are look at books. If they can get an adult to read to them, they all pile around for it. It is a beautiful thing. Having parent helper in the classroom to read with the kids is a huge blessing. There are so many great books to read.
One of my favorite things to do is to let my puppet friend bring a book to class. I hid the book and the puppet in a special place and when it is time for the story, I ask the puppet what kind of book he has brought for us today. I always thank the puppet for sharing the book. He can be a great tool for modeling polite conversation and love of reading. The kids look forward to seeing the puppet & the book that he brings is special to them.
