As a mental health expert and educator working with children and their families for over 30 years, I’m finding an overwhelming need to shout out to families with young children “STOP and REBOOT.”
Children of all ages are now communicating more with others through their own cellphones, and they interact or entertain themselves more often through their screens than through personal contact. Many of our children can’t tell you what it feels like to have a family sit-down dinner or cozy up with a parent or grandparent on the couch to read a book.
Children crave individual attention and opportunities to bond with their parents/grandparents. Without such contact, children are at risk of not filling their life’s toolbox for success before they walk out your home door and face their futures. There is such a brief moment in time in a child’s life where a parent/ grandparent can really make a difference in the trajectory of a child’s future, and it could be as easy as sitting beside them and reading a good book.
Those of us drawn together by a passion for igniting a love of reading in our children, let’s unite! As we stand bravely together as a united front, let’s get back to basics. Let’s put away the tablets, turn off the TVs, grab a book, grab our kids, cop a squat on the couch, and read together.
Close your eyes for a moment and remember what it felt like to have someone sit with you as a child and, without any other agenda, tell you a story through words and pictures from the pages of a book.
There is no other teaching methodology comparable to this timeless early learning protocol to stimulate a child’s interest in reading.
The beautiful part of my Kennedibooks “getting back to basics movement” is that the benefits are priceless as we reboot our nightly routines with our children.
My book series may look like just another kids’ book, but it’s so much more. The animals are researched, the pictures are hand-drawn, and the storylines take on a poetic, rhythmic pattern that helps with word/memory recall and keep the child engaged.
Take the challenge, buy one book from the Kennedibooks series today, and maybe, just maybe, your child or your grandchild will be the voice you hear requesting the purchase of another book.