Read-a-Boo: Importance of reading in kids in the digital age
In the digital age, fostering a love for reading in children is paramount. It cultivates critical thinking, imagination, and a lifelong thirst for knowledge, providing a valuable counterbalance to screen-centric activities.
In a chat with Megha, Read-a-Boo’s founding member and our reading partner, we talked about creating awareness around the importance of reading in kids in the digital age.
Tell us about Read-a-Boo and its idea of raising readers
Readaboo is a unique books library for children under the age of 6 years. We cater to babies as young as 4 months old as well. We are a concept library with a modern approach delivering a traditional library service to your doorstep.
We are a simple library that believes in assisting parents to spend quality time with children over books so that children develop a love for books and do not associate them as part of a school curriculum.
The world is going largely digital. What are your tips to keep the reading spirit alive as a family?
With everything available just a click away, we as modern-day parents have to consciously make small efforts.
a. Having a small bookshelf in the child’s room works wonders. Make sure you rotate the books 2 times a month for older kids and once a month for younger ones.
b. Children model parents! Even if you don’t read regularly Just having books, newspapers, magazines or any reading material around will make you pick up a book and read a couple of pages or at least browse through.
c. Reading a book on your Kindle is of absolute convenience and it is definitely complimentary to a book experience. It doesn’t matter where you read as long as you read but a screen cannot give you the experience of books, paper and print.
Taking time off the screen and spending time reading and doing other off-screen activities can greatly improve children’s development. How does Read-a-Boo help encourage this?
As a books library we often get told my child does not read or is not interested in books. We always tell our parents that all it takes is a minimum of 20 minutes. All your child requires is at least 20 mins of read-aloud time every single day at your convenient time.
You’re our Reading Partner. Tell us how do you see Happinetz bridging the gap between tech and offline learning for kids?
As a parent, you have to accept that technology is going to be a big part of your child’s life, but you constantly worry that the web is also a scary place for your child to explore by himself. Happinetz will help us bridge that gap because with all its filters in place, a parent can let a child Google all his questions on his own without worrying about what content will show up and how filtered will it be. Learning now is not only by a textbook. A single topic can have so much information available to support it and hence the web is an important place for all this information. Thus, a filtered age-appropriate browser will aid in correct informative learning.
What is a favourite thought that closely describes what impact reading can have on children?
With reading, you will see a remarkable difference in not only a child’s vocabulary and speech development but also emotional and cognitive.
My favourite quote that sums it all up is by Dr. Seuss- “the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go!”
In a world where screens abound, cultivating a passion for reading through endeavors like Read-a-Boo and complementing it with responsible technology, such as Happinetz, creates a harmonious synergy, enriching children’s lives with knowledge, imagination, and digital savvy.
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