Dear Parents,
With so much technology do you ever fear children in the future won't read? They have Ipads, Iphones, games like Nintendo and that’s all they care about. But think about this! The first words that Angel Jibril said to our prophet was "Iqra" or "Read". Angel Jibril mentioned “Read” 3 times on different occasions before saying in the name of Allah. Do you often wonder why? He could have said “listen” when our Prophet insisted he couldn’t. I often wondered about this while growing up and I am sure our children will too one day.
We like to resonate with science and research. It’s easy to explain children and our heads sometimes.Did you know that it is scientifically proven that when you read the brain writes and with concentration, it’s permanently in your head? But, when you listen it goes in and out temporarily? And, reading with passion showed an increase in blood flow to areas of the brain that control both cognitive and executive function, as opposed to the more limited effects that come from more leisurely reading. Maybe that’s why we still remember our favorite storybook and not our favorite cartoon by heart? Think about it and you’ll be amazed
Many parents think that with so much technology reading is slowly going away. Also, some children today want to record their lessons and listen to them later. I am very curious to know if that works and if it does, is it because they concentrate more? Reading is one thing that may never go out of fashion and as we all know earlier people wrote on barks of trees, leaves, cave walls, stones, animal skin before inventing paper and silk, bamboo you name it and today we have kindle books! With time they all improvised and this will keep happening till the end of the world maybe. Technology will change, learning ways will be new. But reading will never be obsolete. Harder? Yes, because our kids love tablets but they will have to learn reading no matter how much technology evolves.
Our job is to encourage them to read and experiment with their taste. Take them to a library and spend time there (Grab a coffee if you need it ) let them browse and pick out their favorite, it doesn’t matter if its minecraft or disney storybooks.My trick is to let my 6 year old pick up to four books of her choice and one book is always my choice. Even if she doesn’t read right away it's okay, slowly and steadily she becomes curious about that one book mom picked up. I make sure to keep it at a place she can see it. Sometimes she browses through pictures which is okay but very rarely shell read a few pages and say Mom ”I don’t like this one” or “Hmm” and I know she read a few words! That’s a score!!!
Fun Fact: Did you know? Each century brings a new language with it, meaning new slang words that are trendy and old words slowly disappear. I bet that’s why we don’t use “thee and thou” anymore. Your Thoughts?