The Magic of Reading...

A love for reading is a delightful gift and journey to embark on with your child. I have such fond memories of reading with my parents, being read to, seeing my mum love reading books herself, curling up to read before bed... Mini Moments was born from my belief about how important books can be in providing knowledge, visuals and connection for young children.

 

Reading together promotes connection with your child (or another human!). It’s an activity done and discussed together; sharing predictions, favourite parts and general chat. Two of my favourite questions to ask friends and family are:

I find it promotes such rich discussion, and far more interesting than asking about what they've been binge watching (probably whilst doomscrolling anyway)!

 

A deep love for reading starts young. Research from The Ohio State University shows that

What a huge difference! Repeating books is more than ok and as any caregiver knows, children love to read their favourites over and over… and over… and over again!

 

Comprehension skills for young readers begin well before they can decode and read for themselves:

• Making connections to their own lives (eg. Mini Moments books!)

• Learning new things (eg. weather book)

• Following their interests (eg. Thomas trains are currently of interest in our house!)

• Celebrating and learning about differences and diversity (eg. “What happened to you?” By James Catchpole and Karen George)

 

As a (very) general statement, reading can become more laborious as children get older. Reasons may include:

• They aren’t reading for enjoyment (being told to read for learning)

• Books may be of low interest if they haven’t found a genre they like

• Lack of available material (though there are more and more older books available now!)

• Life gets in the way - friends, activities, technology etc

 

So, start a love for reading as young as possible!