Helping kids to Read

Our work with Lego and Yahoo continues with this article on helping kids to read. Entitled “Getting boys to read: Is it different from girls? This article explores how boys are just slighly different from girls. This is the condensed version, for the full version, head on over the Yahoo Lego website. 

Reading is always important! Besides being an outlet to discover new things, reading develops the mind. It strengthens one’s imagination, and it is an important life skill for any child. Mummy and Daddy have a love for reading, but most importantly, we want to make sure that we can pass this love for reading down to children. However, boys are very different from girls. They just can’t sit down, and therefore, this life skill might not be the easiest thing to pass to boys!

We tried the usual textbook method of reading daily with Nathan when he was a baby. We tried the most exciting books, (those with little pop-ups, or flip open corners), we tried with imaginative voices and sound effects, we also tried the boring way of just plain reading. Alas, it didn’t really work. He would read a book if you sat him down with one. But he wouldn’t volunteer to read something unless necessary.

We tried to think hard how else to inculcate this love for reading in this little boy. Then we found a solution. And it was a really unexpected one!

First off, let me tell you about the challenges that we face with our little man! He is just like any other ordinary boy! He loves his cars, trains, and aeroplanes. Just like any other boy, if you are to give him a tablet, a smart phone or a computer game, he would be totally engrossed, and be stuck to  the screen! Hands up, if you find this scenario familiar 🙂

In order to help him develop holistically, we try to inculcate a love for the outdoors in him. We try to get him out cycling, running and involved in other sporting activities. At the same time, we want to him develop a love for discovery and exploration. To get his creative juices going, we thought of working together with Lego! If he develops an interest in a certain topic, we thought that it would do wonders for him, if he could build something, that would physically develop his interest. With his interest piqued, he would hopefully return to his books, to learn and develop his interest in the area.

Recently, Nathan has been discovering a love for planets, stars and galaxies! We have been bringing him to the library to help him develop a love for reading more about the Stars and the Outer Space. Besides borrowing books, which have a good mix of visuals, we thought of another sure way of nurturing that love for space exploration.

We got him started on a Lego City Space Port. There is nothing like making your own spaceship, and putting all the moving parts together. From a pile of bricks, Nathan was able to put his imagination at work, and piece together a space shuttle, that reminded me of the “Challenger” space ship which hails from NASA.

 

For the full article, head on on to “Getting Boys to read: Is it different from girls?“