Create a reading habit for children

The image of a person absorbed in a book can evoke a much more peaceful feeling than someone hunched over a phone screen. Children who read books are even more peaceful. Why?

Children's reading habits need to be encouraged in many ways. Photo: Vu Minh

Is it true that smart machines have manipulated humans, turning them into their tools in mechanizing and technologizing life? And, as a warning, humans are gradually losing their ability to think independently when depending on artificial intelligence. At the same time, deep emotions, magical imaginations, and soaring dreams associated with the human spiritual world are gradually becoming mechanical and rigid... Until one day, the "Brain rot universe" (which can be understood as an absurd, meaningless, but haunting, addictive fictional world... from trivial online products and data) is formed, which is also the time when humans fall into a state of "brain rot/brain disorder". Reading books, an ancient tradition, strangely enough, is still a solution to save that current situation.

Reading helps develop thinking, develop language, nurture the soul, intelligence, personality, practice the ability to express, arouse imagination, dreams, creativity... Thus, reading is the most important foundation for learning, development, and more deeply, building a person, a life. Famous Chineseeducator Chu Vinh Tan emphasized: "The history of an individual's spiritual development is their reading history" ("Chu Vinh Tan's educational philosophy through short sayings", translated by Minh Thuong, Writers Association Publishing House, 2019).

But, how to build a reading culture for children? Between knowing and doing, then being able to do, is a long journey, with many efforts, coming from many sides. First of all, I think, there is no place like the family itself, where the child is born and grows up every day. It is not by chance that there is an opinion, although humorous but full of bitterness, that a family without books is a family "lacking culture". Some people also say that a family may not need a wine cabinet, but definitely should have a bookcase. If parents do not read books, how can their children read books, when in the first years of their lives, children grow up by imitating the habits of adults?

From my own family's experience, I can say that parents reading books with their children, considering books as toys and gifts for their children, has a great significance in forming the habit of reading for children. Through loving books, loving reading, being satisfied with the scene of the whole family gathering to read books or share - talk about books, children feel the love and care of their parents. That is the first foundation for the habit of coming to books - coming to books is coming to love.

A little older, stepping out of the family space, school is where a child can find many passions, including reading. Schools must truly create a reading habit for children through their own educational activities. There, "the library is the heart of the school". From textbooks to reference books and many other genres of books, reading spaces and reading activities at school gradually guide students to the joy of books. A library with many good books and a beautiful, close, friendly space, with age classification, book classification, creative design, rich in interaction with children's specific reading experiences (retelling, rereading, redrawing, writing feelings, creative writing from the content of books, book exchange groups with instructors or extracurricular activities organized by teachers, book gifts...) are interesting suggestions for building reading spaces in schools.

Children's reading habits can also be shaped from public spaces. Currently, many reading promotion models have been built. Publishers, cultural centers, cultural and media companies, bookstores, book clubs, book cafes, book streets, book weeks, etc. also pay attention to stimulating activities through organizing book launch events, meetings with writers, and talks on topics, etc. Regardless of the form, whether it is persistent or seasonal, attracting children to read and experience books still requires substance, with children and books as the subject and center. In addition to designing attractive reading spaces with many books and many experiential activities - interactions from readers to books, it is also necessary to coordinate with schools or agencies - organizations to promote and attract children, expanding the reading journey from family to school and out into society.

Books are a wonderful way for children to grow up in a sustainable and substantial way. With concerns about the risk of “Brain rot” in the young generation of the technology era, building reading habits and reading culture in children has become even more important and urgent. In fact, whether children come to books or to smart devices with the “Brain rot Universe” depends entirely on how we orient and create habits right from the first steps and actions. Family, school and society are the three pillars. At the center of these three pillars are children, with the desire to live and grow physically, intellectually and spiritually, starting from the pages of books.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/tao-thoi-quen-doc-sach-cho-tre-em-703874.html