google-site-verification: google935433b691795853.html KRISTY BERRIDGE: 2020-07-19

Thursday 23 July 2020

A Love of Reading.

                                                                        

My love of reading started when I was a young child, I was read to often. Not only that, my brother and I were encouraged to read as much as possible, we might not have had all that we wanted, but books were plentiful.  

However, the very best stories were those told to us by our Nana. She would tell us the most captivating stories from her head, not a book…imagine pinching yourself to stay awake just to hear more, but eventually succumbing to sleep with visions of heroes and heroines. Our stays with our Nana were memorable and long lasting and her ability to weave magic into each of her stories is something that I have tried to pass onto my children.

I guess depending upon your personal preference, fiction or non-fiction can either whisk you away to exciting places with your imagination or tantalise and stimulate your synapses mentally. The point is, are we encouraging our young ones and others to read enough to keep the brain matter growing? There are some book lovers who are, but it is not enough. It seems that people read less now and prefer instead to watch TV or play on their phones.

There are so many benefits to reading, it can develop our minds, help our children with language skills and a good book can open up dimensions of thoughts as you try to connect events, emotions and experiences of the characters that you read.  The tragedy today, is that we have a huge number of Australians that lack the necessary literacy skills they need to function in life and work. Many young people that I have spoken to cannot speak properly, they don’t read, they cannot string a sentence together and worse still, some cannot read.

What is the matter with us? Our children are born ready to learn; a wonderful opportunity exists for parents today to better equip their kids before they enter their school years. Read, teach and encourage a love of books, you will be guaranteeing them success for their future, don’t make them struggle in an already difficult world.

Stephanie