How books can change a child’s life
May 12, 2008 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
I can personally tell you that books were a huge influence in my life. My love for reading began at a very young age, and I owe this first to my grandparents. My paternal grandmother, an elementary school teacher, taught me to read, literally by candlelight, because the town I spent my preschool years didn’t always have electricity. She read to us first, until my younger sister and I learned to read in both the English and our native language.
My maternal grandfather, the first engineer in his town, let me read his vast collection of well-guarded classics. We didn’t have much conversation between us, but he and I would alternate using his rocking chair while I devoured Shakespeare, the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Ludlum originals, Readers’ Digests that were older than my own mother, and many more. When he died, my mother brought his books home with us.
My elementary school librarian – she let me stay in the library before school, during recess, and after school. We became such good friends that she allowed me to bring library books home without the pass. I would always return them the next day anyway. I read everyday, and well into the night. When my parents bought us a version of children’s encyclopedia and a children’s bible, I read them cover to cover, over and over. In fact, my three other siblings did too. These days, I don’t get to read much, but I would read whenever I can, even in the car with my husband driving. My choice of books have also evolved, but I still recall those story-books from grade school.
Yeah I was am a bookworm. And I gained much from being one.
Books can bring a child to far-away places long before he step foot on them. Books can introduce a child to people and cultures, and adventures and mysteries. Books will challenge a child’s values and help him shape his own. Short stories, novels, fiction and real, textbooks and inspirational – a person who loves to read will read them all.
This week, we celebrate National Children’s Book Week. Read to your child. Let your child read. It’s one of the few treasures you can give him that no one can take away.
My two older kids were HUGE readers but I just couldn’t get my younger one interested in reading. He could, he just didn’t see it as a pastime to enjoy. I was one of those moms that allowed the kids to buy just about any book they wanted from Scholastic and we had a ton of books in the house.
One day, when he was in about grade 3 maybe, he had a Captain Underpants book. Well, I tell you, the kid was in hysterics trying to tell me the story in the book – he was laughing so hard he couldn’t finish a sentence.
The next day, I went out and bought all the books I could by that author and my son read those and then – get this – he read Harry Potter next.
He is now 16 and reads anything from Shake Hands with the Devil to Edgar Allen Poe, like his older brother and sister.
Never give up if your child doesn’t seem to enjoy reading. If it takes Goosebumps and Who’s afraid of the dark (what got my oldest son into books) or the Baby sitters club (my daughter’s books of choice when she was in elementary school), don’t dismiss a book as “candy,” only. We have to get the kids to like to read first, and if that’s what it takes, then that’s how we should do it.
My daughter, just like me, is a bookworm, too. She always has been, and I love it. She doesn’t read quite as much as I did when I was her age, but that’s b/c I didn’t have electronic games or movies to take up some of my time.
Thanks for the reminder….I’m going to set aside a special time to read to both of my children this week.