My mom taught me to love books at an early age.
By the time I went to school, I was already reading. At the time, I disliked her for making me sit next to her on the couch for what seemed like hours as I struggled through word after word, trying to put sounds together. Now as an adult, there are very few things I could thank her more for than instilling that love of books inside of me at a young age. Nothing will beat the memories of reading the Harry Potter books together, or going to the local library once a week to get my summer reading prizes. My collection of medals remains in my keepsake box upstairs in our house, and they are something I will likely treasure forever.
Books are the key to the magical world of imagination. Each page opens up a new adventure, a new story and even new friends. Books hold the stories that stay with us forever. I know I mentioned Harry Potter (as I'm sure I will a few times within this article), but my journey of growing up was paired side by side with Harry, Ron and Hermione's fight against Voldemort. I remember going to the midnight book releases, waiting in line for our copy we had pre-ordered the day that it became available.
When we teach children to love reading, we teach them not only to love books but to cherish those memories of a parent, grandparent or someone they love raising them to be a reader, a lover of books. Children find magic within the pages of every book that they open, whether it's traveling to new places as they read "The Magic Treehouse," or going through kindergarten with Junie B. Jones. And come on, who can resist the adorable Skippyjon Jones?!
Today's children deserve more than to be handed an iPad or a game controller. Neither of those things will enrich a child's mind and imagination like a good book can. Albert Einstein said, "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales." Children deserve that magic. The love of books is not something that should start in the classroom once they get to school. The love of books and of reading should be taught at home.
I always love babysitting my nieces and nephew, especially when they want to read books. I love it even more when they want to read the books to me. Or, being in my kindergarten field experience, having a child come up and asking you to read with them...very few things warm my heart more than that.
Nothing will ever beat the smell of a bookstore or walking in and seeing shelves and shelves of books. I hate Kindles or eBooks. Taking away that physical book for someone to hold breaks my heart. Not everything needs to be digital.
Children need to read. They need to believe in the magic. As Roald Dahl said, "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
As a future teacher, I want my students to love books. As a future mother, I want my own children to love books. Plus, if we don't teach children to love books...the books they can't find on the shelf will never be written. Each child is an unwritten book. We need to help them fill their pages.
