Dear Moms, Dads, Relatives, Educators and Business Owners

Do you have any books in your house that you have on occasion hidden away from your children for the sake of your own sanity?

Atoms and Cells, through the microscope. This was my daughter's favourite book when she was 3 years old. Her favourite choice as a bedtime story. It was a hand me down from a friend. Of course, you don't get to read a book like this without a flood of questions to accompany it. Now, I really love books and I have always encouraged my children to love all kinds of books and to be enthusiastic about learning to read, which they are, but I must admit, I got to a point when I had to hide Atoms and Cells away. I couldn't face another night of explaining the element Carbon in graphite form, organelles, biomolecules and cell division.

My son's favourite books that I have on occasions relocated to the back of the cupboard are Where's Wally. He is fascinated by the small details included in every page and likes to discuss each and every image (of which there are thousands) on each page. It's not that I don't love the books and enjoy the challenge of looking for Wally, but my son has a strange sense of humour and only seems to bring these books out when I am feeling brain wrecked at the end of a particularly challenging day.

Every book in our house is sacred, even the ones mentioned above. We still read the baby books with their corners chewed off and the "lift the flap books" which became "rip the flap off books". You will still see the baby bath books in the bathroom that also made wonderful chew toys at bath time! I don't consider these books redundant at all. No matter how old, weird, long, short, challenging or exhausting, they still provide learning experiences for my children and most important of all, quality family time with memories of conversations that they have inspired, good and bad!

In this issue I have included some videos on the importance of reading out loud to babies and children and some useful articles and web sites to highlight the importance of, and to encourage reading. I hope you find them helpful. The newly released books I have chosen to highlight this week are all by local authors and published in South Africa.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend. I challenge you to use the holiday time to read to your children, the books you hide away. The ones that your children love the most, that you usually don't have the time or energy for. These are the books that are the most sacred as they inspire the most interesting and memorable conversations.

www.kidzworld.co.za

 April 2010