Teaching Toddlers the Value of Reading

Are your toddlers fond of using your smartphones, laptops, or iPads but they do not have the same interest in opening and reading REAL books?  Read on to know that there is still time to change and improve their reading habits.
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I have a three-year-old son enrolled as a nursery pupil in one of the pre-schools situated near our house.  Just like most children, he also loves to play, watch TV, and learn new things.  One of the many things that he loves doing is mimicking my actions, his father's, and the actions of all the other adults he sees each and every single day.  In my son's case, he always sees me using the laptop at home that's why he loves using it, too.  To make sure that he is learning while using it, I decided to download an online education program specifically created for kids.  I let him use it everyday and true enough, he learned many things like the alphabet, phonics, and shapes.

However, I noticed that his enthusiasm in using the laptop to study was not the same as his enthusiasm in using real school books.  With just a little pondering, an answer to my question suddenly dawned on me:  My son never saw me read books the traditional way.  Yes, I read books and magazines everyday because it's part of my job but I use the laptop or an e-book reader to read, instead of real books and magazines.

This realization prompted me to adjust and change my reading behavior in front of my child.  Now, I make sure that he sees me read REAL books.  As soon as I open a book, he comes up to me to ask what I'm reading.  Whenever he's around, I make it a point to grab a book.  Even if it means I have to pretend, it doesn't matter as long as he thinks that I'm totally engrossed in what I'm doing.  I just want him to realize that reading books is a normal thing to do.  Ever since I started showing him my interest in such activity, I've noticed the growing interest in him, too.  Hopefully, I will be able to instill in him the true value of reading books the old way.

With the emergence of the Internet, we have started to be surrounded by modern technology, and it is quite surprising how our children and gadgets seem to have a special relationship developing between them.  I don't think there's anything wrong with it since they will also be using these technological devices as they grow old.  In fact, computers have been a part of students' lives for how many years now.  These gadgets such as laptops and mobile phones have long been considered as necessities.  However, I believe that we parents should not forget to teach them the approaches that we used to apply in the past to learn things, especially if these approaches are not yet passe or obsolete like reading real books.  Gadgets such as e-book readers may have improved our reading experience but we have to take into consideration the fact that we are teaching our tiny tots the basics of reading.  We know that our children is always watching us, so let us first expose them to the basics of life in order to better prepare them to the next level.

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The author is a blogger working for Valve eCapture.  She may be e-mailed at valve.ecapture@yahoo.com and valve.ecapture@gmail.com.

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NOTE:  Photos/images used in this article were not taken/created by the author.  All photos/images were downloaded from the Internet.
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