The holiday season is that time where we spend hours upon hours stressing over family gatherings, finding the perfect gifts and making the holidays magical for our children. In all our efforts, we often overlook the most valuable gift we can give our children, our time. Our children, especially when they are young, typically want our time and attention more than toys, trinkets, or other goods that won’t make it to New Year’s Eve intact. Somehow, we seem to have bought into the folly that gifts must be trendy, spendy and wrapped in a box. Not so. The best gift we can give to our children is the gift of ourselves. Here are a few suggestions for spending quality time with potential for continued learning throughout and beyond the holidays.
Most kids enjoy stories. Whether gripping, funny, silly or meaningful, a good story can capture the attention of even the most fragile attention span. When considering stories, don’t limit yourself to books. Put your storytelling skills to the test. You might be surprised to discover your children enjoy your tales of youth, bonehead mistakes or pranks you pulled on your parents. Of course, books are excellent too. The Kindle app has hundreds of free eBooks for children of all ages. Consider making a chapter book part of your wind down routine.
Reading a half or full chapter each evening is a great way to spend time as a family and gives listeners something to look forward to the next evening. Embrace the characters with voices and theatrics to create more suspense and enjoyment. Consider audiobooks for story time as well. Sitting together to listen to stories gives us opportunities to teach children to sit for an activity or to move about during an activity without being overly disruptive. These are skills everyone needs to master.
Allow children who are proficient readers to facilitate story time. Let them pick the books they want to share with the family. If they don’t know how, teach them to embrace the characters, make up voices and have at it with the drama! Allow children who can’t read yet to make up their own stories to tell. If necessary, encourage the older children to be patient, supportive and enthusiastic as the younger children tell their stories.
Sincere cheers and applause from the family shows the presenter his or her presentation was well received and appreciated which may encourage continued reading and a lifelong enjoyment of reading overall. Afterward, a family discussion about the story, questions about characters, plot, settings and such can allow us to see what our children know about literary elements and provide opportunities to teach or reinforce literary concepts.
Spending time with our children is invaluable to the emotional well-being of the entire family. Reading with our kids can provide countless hours of fantasy, fun or mystery they will likely remember when they have children of their own.
Email comments to FMTeachersLounge@gmail. com
Follow me on Twitter @DrTeresaSanders
Check out my blog at www.TeresaESanders.com
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.