Reading - Introducing the world to kids

Do you always want to cultivate your child's love for books? for reading?  Are you wondering what you should do, when you should start?  How you should go about doing it? 

Put on your memory recall and try to recall how you  had cultivated your love for reading.  Or vice versa, give some thoughts to why you not like to read.  I love reading and my earliest memories were primary one textbooks which introduced words like "Hand" (followed by picture of a hand), eyes (followed by picture of a big blue eye); early memories of lying on the bed reading Enid Blyton's books of pixies, goblins and fairies; memories of having one hand dipped inside a packet of chips and the other flipping the pages of a super interesting books; memories of 'book chasing' till well past midnight just to read how the story turns out. All very nice and heart warming memories! And the journey with books begin as I progress to teenage fiction; business, self help, diets, parenting and the list goes on...

As you think about how to cultivate the love for reading, you may wonder :

1) when and how should your start to read to your child?
2) what kind of books should you start with? you definitely do not want to kill his/her interest by reading boring books...
4) Should you start teaching phonics?
5) Should you read and point to words at the same time? to cultivate learning by sight?
6) Should you allow him/her to learn on his own pace?

I started reading to my son when he was as young as 6months old.  Prior to this, it had really been about talking and singing with/to him.  When he was able to play with books, I started reading to him with books.  In another word - Story Telling. I chose books which are simple and interesting to read. Feel and Touch books are defnitely a good bet for reading to very young kids.  They are able to captivate children's interest. With touch and feel books, children feel like they are 'playing'! They get to feel different textures, to touch different objects.  A very good bet!  However, I thought that whats most important in story telling is about parent's ability to make characters in books come to life! Parents should try to mimic the voices of characters eg : the BIG BAD WOLF (emphasize and slow down when reading these words). The BIG BAD WOLF says "Little Pig Little Pig can I come in?". This can be done in a low deep voice . Children are curious by nature. Which child can resist the "BIG BAD WOLF" who sounds sooo reeeeaaaaal?  and what about Lightening Mcqueen who says "vrooom vroooom (add this in yourself to create effect even if this does not appear in the book!) catch me if you can!".  You create the 'fun' element in reading in this manner.  You make the story fun and you make it feel like 'play'!  Naturally, most kids will be captivated.  And before you even know it, they want more and more and more! Just like you wanting more TV series, HK serials :)

Reading rhymes to children is another way to cultivate their interests for books. Rhymes are easy for children to follow and I love it for its rhythmic tune and nature.  Ricco was 1st engaged in "Thomas the Train" rhythmic touch and feel book at 6months old. It goes "Thomas loves to drive through the countryside. He toots at the cows as he passes by. Harold loves to fly high up in the sky. He loves to see the birds go flying by." Soonest he hear this rhyme, he hymns along and before long, he was able to recite this.  Again, this is fun! its just like singing.

So you see, fun and play is really the common key element here.  Reading must be something fun to do.  Children likes to play with fun stuff! So, make reading fun! Before you know it, your child will be hooked for life!

Kids who loves animals have a higher tendency to love reading.  WHY?  Take a closer look at children's titles the next time you visit the bookshop.  you will notice that most young kids's books are about animals!

Thomas' Rhyme Book