Many of us, these days, are consciously trying to inculcate
reading habits in our children. We try to read books in front of children to
encourage them to copy the habit. We read books with them to make sure that
they do read. We take memberships of various libraries and make visits
regularly to take new books for our children.
In all these efforts that we
make, we often find ourselves in a deep confusion. Some common questions which
pop-up when we are standing in the sea of books in a bookstore are “Which book
should I take for my child?” or “It says 4-5 years, but will my 5 year old one
be able to read it?” or “How do I know which books are trending these days? Are
the trending books good enough?” or “Do I take a book which he can read by
himself or which I need to read and explain to him?”
There are many ways in which you choose. You may choose
according to the age level. You just see the age mentioned on the cover and
take it. Or you may want to choose according to what everyone is reading these
days. So it’s a Geronimo Stilton for your 8 year old one, case closed. Or you
may want your child to read books on science. So you pick up the first science
book on the shelf you can find. You find it tough for him, but you decide to
read it to him.
But in all these ways, we are not taking into consideration
the most important factor- i.e. the reading level of the child. the child may
be in grade 2, but he may be well able to self-read and comprehend a grade 3
book. Or, he may be in grade 1 and can do self-reading of kindergarten books
and assisted-reading of grade 1 books.
An imposed book, a too difficult book, a too easy book will
never be able to generate and sustain the much required reading passion which
is fading in the gen-Y. Our children may shy away from reading (and which may
look like laziness or defiance to us) if they don’t get the right book.
So, when we are going to pick up a book for the child, we
should take care of these factors:
1. The
self-reading level
2. Reading
comprehension level
3. The
assisted-reading level
4. Listening
comprehension level
5. Interest
areas
A book chosen with these criteria in mind is the best pick. If your child can self-read and self-comprehend a book easily, his/her interest is definitely going to go up.
We should take this as a responsibility on us to be able to suggest
the right book to our children. We can enjoy bookworms around us then.
