{"id":782,"date":"2009-11-14T11:18:21","date_gmt":"2009-11-14T09:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=782"},"modified":"2022-06-08T20:54:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T18:54:27","slug":"loving-books-with-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/education\/reading\/loving-books-with-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving books with kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love reading. I don\u2019t get to do it as much, but I still love the feel of a book. Every now and then I still find books that, once picked up, cannot be put down. Books that have you sitting, during the witching hour, repeating the mantra, \u201cone more chapter and then I sleep, one more chapter and then I sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

This probably comes from living in a home where the garage was converted into a study just to house my father\u2019s books, covering a myriad of subjects. I would spend hours in there, looking for something to read. I went through phases, hanging out in the school library reading everything from Agatha Christie to Louis L\u2019amour.<\/p>\n

While I have always bought books, it is only in the last couple of years that I have been able to start to build a decent library. So, you can imagine my hope when it comes to Kweku, my son. I started doing the alphabet with him at two weeks and still do nearly every night. Same thing with counting, which he can comfortably do up to 10 and is working on 11 to 20.<\/p>\n

I also started reading to him very early. The usual stories for his age group are short and, to be honest, boring (I have to read them) so I very quickly picked up a copy of bedtime stories that cover stories from different cultures across the world. I have also started looking for the fairytales that I grew up on and have since discovered how scary they are. There always seems to be someone who died and tragedy. For Cinderella to have a step-mother, her real mother had to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cLondon Bridge is falling down\u201d is about destruction, Jack loses his head falling down a hill, Hansel & Gretel nearly become cuisine for a witch and the snoring old man bumps his head on the edge of the bed and can\u2019t get up in the morning. Some of these have as much destruction as an action movie. I was becoming paralysed, not quite sure what I can read to my son beyond the cute little books with lots of pictures.<\/p>\n

So, I decided to just read. He also seems to love books and will spend a good 10 to 20 minutes flipping through a magazine or newspaper so now we are going through Kahlil Gibran\u2019s The Alchemist at bedtime, for the second time. Next up, it is Anansi The Spider, fables from Ghana. I also read him poetry sometimes and stories of Winnie The Pooh (a favourite for all of us). What do you read your children?<\/p>\n

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