Tuesday, January 14, 2014

30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 12

Day 12: Your Favorite Childhood Book

There was a book series called Book Trails that my dad read to me when I was little.  They were originally published in 1928, the set Dad had was the second printing from 1946, it came with a set of encyclopedias.  Do people even by encyclopedias anymore?  It was read to him when he was a kid and he saved it for when he had children, I was his only child.

It was an eight volume set that started off with very short poems and nursery rhymes in volume one and each book the stories got more complicated and longer.  The vocabulary and themes grew along with the child it was being read to.  It had poems, folk tails, fairy tales, adventure, pirates, and everything else that would help make a child's imagination grow while being read to each night.  I am fairly certain that Dad taking the time to read to me is why I love books so much.  It's why I have an imagination and probably why I have a decent vocabulary.  My love of books and reading also encouraged my curiosity.  If I had a question I could look it up and read about it, find a book about it and learn.  It made going to school much easier for me because I was a head of everyone else because Dad read to me.

Reading to children helps teach vocabulary, basic story structure, helps them develop a longer attention span, etc...  There's actually a great article HERE about the benefits.  I know it's hard to make time, especially if you're a single parent, but my dad made the time to read to me and put me a head at school because of it.  He was a single parent who worked full time so it's possible to make it work, you just have to make it a priority.  When ever I decide to get around to having munchkins I will definitely find the time to read to them. and I'll send them to their grandfather so he can read Book Trails to them like he did for me!

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