With the holidays fast approaching, and school soon to be out, you might be wondering how to keep your kids busy through the winter holidays. Town libraries often have holiday workshops just for kids and youths so they can have fun while learning something new.
For the little ones, libraries are places of mystery and great knowledge. It’s a great privilege to be trusted with a selection of new and interesting books. They get to learn about the concept of borrowing and returning books on time.
Libraries provide a reading experience that cannot be matched online. Books allow a child to focus and develop a sense of immersion free of distractions. Experts believe that books help kids learn better because they read slower and with greater comprehension.
When reading a book with a child, it provides a framework for teaching and interacting with language. Dialogic reading with a parent advances the educational experience beyond scrolling. Gamification of lessons is fun but the missing component is context in which the parent helps the child to create meaning from the words.
The social element to reading, and being read to, is critical to development of the narrative in the child’s mind. Studies have shown that when reading from a screen, there is less social interaction with the parent-as-teacher. The elder brings rich life experience to a story that the visual display of an electronic book cannot match in terms of integrating real life with theoretical situations.
For older kids, books are an opportunity to have a conversation about different types of media and how it makes us feel. Kids should have an awareness of how media affects them so they know when to turn it off and tune into their physical environment. Once this skill is mastered, it’s easier for them to recognize opportunities to focus on other dimensions of their development.
If your kids don’t have a library card yet, this might be the year to get one.
Laughs for kids
What did one snowman say to the other? “Is it just me, or do you smell carrots?”
What kind of parties do skiers go to? Snowballs.
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Snow. Snow who? Snow real way of knowing.
Seasons greetings from our team at Pemberton Holmes
