Reading bedtime stories has become one of the most popular ways of putting children to sleep worldwide. Bonding, making small chitchat, and enjoying a good storybook are wonderful ways of building a healthy relationship with our children or grandchildren. However, what do you do when your child, who has many other books, wants the same story over and over again?
Turn out, you do not need to do anything about it. Keep reading that book because it makes your children smarter and prepares them to succeed in the academic world.
Have you ever heard about meaningful context?
For a child to learn and understand new vocabulary, those words must be placed into meaningful context. Although you have read the same book 100 times already, keep reading it until the child picks up another favorite one. We are learning new words as children, and even as adults, when we try to learn a foreign language, the best way to remember the new vocabulary is through experience.
Once our children go to kindergarten, and they will have to learn more about sounds and words. It is important that children understand those words. What better to learn words than through a story, through a context they can remember and use for later?
It is all about reading comprehension
Functional illiteracy is a learning problem that many societies confront. Although a person knows how to read, write and pronounce words, that person might not use these skills to their own benefit. Basically, the person can read but does not understand much.
A child with strong vocabulary comprehension will develop strong reading comprehension. Most standardized tests are based on reading comprehension skills, and it all begins at home. A great way to make sure our children understand the vocabulary from a story is to talk with them after the story and ask them questions.
