Tuesday 2nd April is international children’s book day and is the perfect time to encourage your child to read more. There are so many books out there to choose from, a vast range related to different topics so there will always be something that will interest your child. It is great to let their imaginations run wild with a story and it will help develop both their reading and writing skills too.
International children’s book day started in 1967 and the 2nd of April was chosen as the date to celebrate this as it is Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday. Hans Christian Andersen is famous for a number of children’s fairy tales, however many of his tales have been made more famous thanks to other big names which turned them into movies including Disney with The Little Mermaid and The Warner Bros with Thumbelina.
There are lots of things that go on around this time such as book fairs and competitions set up in schools and libraries to get kids involved. It is great for parents to take it further and inspire learning at home too. Every home should be filled with lots of educational supplies and you can buy them for great prices at places such as Early Years Resources. If you take pens, coloured paper, glitter and other craft products and add them into the mix, you could get children who aren’t a big fan of reading interested by getting them to draw the cover of a book or make a picture storyboard about it.
Find out what subjects your child is interested in, for example some might be interested in animals whilst others love being outdoors and doing sports. You could then create a spider diagram with them to try and create a character together, get them to put down what they like and dislike and about their appearance. You can then work on writing a short story together about this character and make up some scenarios. It is a great way to see how your kids piece information together and a way to bond whilst making learning more interesting to them.
It is essential to keep children’s minds active outside of school as they will continue to absorb more important information and then can apply it to school work. Make sure to get some books out of the library or buy some for the 2nd of April, and hopefully it should inspire you to keep this up and create more fun and educational ways to teach at home.
