10 reasons to prefer a book

Reading is at the heart of our educational project at The Stewart Bilingual School.

Reading develops thoughts, extends our knowledge and keeps our minds active. These are essential ingredients to a better education.

Nowadays, keeping focused on books might be challenging, especially in a world where education is based more and more on electronic visual aids and interaction. At our school, we embrace that challenge and offer a mostly screen free educational programme.

But what makes reading so important?

For centuries, reading was the only form of personal entertainment you could find and even with the arising of new technologies, reading has survived as a timeless form of entertainment and information.

Reading improves mental and physical health, creates healthy habits and its benefits are universally recognised:

1. Cognitive mental stimulation. By concentrating on story line and words, your child's brain get stimulated and its cognitive functions develop. His mind is sharpened and has a higher focus when concentrating on important things.

2. Vocabulary and knowledge expansion. When reading, one might come across new words, look them up or ask what it means, and start a new journey of intellectual expansion. How exciting!

3. Lower level of stress and tension relief. The very act of reading, focusing on the written word, can help managing anxiety and stress by pulling your child's mind away from stress at hand, relaxing his brain, and yours, and transport you both into a better and comforting place.

4. Memory improvement. Reading at least a little every day can improve memory just like physical exercise helps keeping them active.

5. Strengthens your writing abilities. Writers are often big readers, one comes with the other. By learning new words and keeping their minds creative, your child can improve his writing skills tremendously.

6. Enhance your imagination and empathy. Reading increases their imagination by stimulating their brain. Getting creative and the ability to express what comes up on their minds will make a difference in many situations.

7. Boost his sleep. Ohhh we like that one. Those who have trouble sleeping know that sometimes just few minutes of reading help you find the peace you need to get to sleep. That works for your child too. A daily bedtime reading routine can help your child getting to bed and find sleep.

8. Quite entertainment. Ahhhhh ! The golden silence of a reading moment. Those precious minutes with yourself, that you can achieve even next to someone else sharing the same activity, are worth everything. Shhhhhh ...

9. Stronger analytical thinking skills. Simply by following the story plot or the argument of the demonstration... being able to understand a story and being able to comprehend it, is a most valuable skill to develop to obtain not only good academical results but simply train yourself into structuring your opinion, self-evaluation and providing feedback.

10. Finally, it just brightens your day! A book is a friend forever that will never disappoint you. It is there when you need it the most. Even when you don't have time to spend some time with it... it is there for you, just waiting for you to pick it up from the shelf. Share this habit with your child and it will brighten his day too. 100% guaranteed and full proof!

But there is one rule... it will only work if parents read too and take daily 'phone free'/'screen free' time! 15 minutes will already make a difference. Take the challenge!

read more https://bilingualkidspot.com/2017/10/19/benefits-importance-reading-young-children/