So Simple Kids Can Do It
The world is accessible if you take the time to seek. Travel anywhere while in your office, home, coffee shop, even your bed by using a method so simple your kids can do it. It lies within the pages of books. Whether online, in kindle, on your phone or physically holding it in your hands, books carry you to faraway lands and fantasy places, transporting you to another world. Each one is an amazing adventure waiting for you, so simple kids can do it.
Missing Out On The Adventure Waiting
It’s surprising that people don’t read books, actually, a large number of people. Only a staggering 28% of Americans age 15 and up read for pleasure. This is a drop of 30% since 2004. There are those who haven’t read a book since college. How can this be when amazing adventures are at hand!
Back when you went to school, I bet there was groaning when assigned to read a book and write a report on it. The teacher provided the reading list, and you searched to find which had the least number of pages.
The Reading List
The list typically includes:
The Great Gatsby – (not great)
Lord of the Flies – (not bad)
Wuthering Heights – (boring)
The Scarlet Letter – (just ok)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – (fun)
Jane Eyre – (it’s horrible)
I understand they are classics but do they encourage children to ever choose to read on their own! Is it more important to expose kids to the classics or intrigue them with books so they read the rest of their lives.
On my assigned books above, I added a comment. Just because a book is a classic doesn’t mean it will appeal to everyone. Since then, I have gone back and read a few of the classics. They are Brave New World – (fabulous), The Crucible – (interesting), and Of Mice and Men – (awful). I didn’t enjoy all of these classics, yet I learned from all three books since I was now open to read them.
Amazing Stats
Whether school helped or hurt interests in reading, the amount of time with a book continues to drop. The total time spent per day went from 23 minutes in 2004 to 17 minutes in 2017. With so few minutes invested, we can determine that books are not being read. An obvious answer to the decline would be computers, cell phones, and video games which is true. Add the amount of time spent watching television and surprisingly, Americans spend roughly 6 hours watching TV, or video, no matter what medium used, every single day, 15 times the amount spent reading.
Nonfiction
There are fabulous books, something for every taste. Add more nonfiction books like The Magic of Thinking Big, As a Man Thinketh (a must-read), and biographies about people the student is interested in. These books will equip them for life.
Fiction Adventures
Update the fiction reading list with more recent books like The Hunger Games series, The Lightning Thief series, heck, if you wish kids would read add the Harry Potter books. Teach children to enjoy reading and they can pick up the classics when they’re interested.
Whether you agree with these suggestions, and that’s what they are, having a child or an adult read a book exposes them to the experiences waiting within.
Kids Can Do It
We can overcome the outlandish lack of time spent with books by revealing that reading is a journey with fiction novels and mind-opening discoveries in nonfiction books. They provide exposure to more of life and the world, creating well-rounded book reading individuals taking amazing adventures.
Related items
