Inspiring Reading Is A Big Step For Kids With No Libraries or Books
Phillip Mahealani Wong
President at Childrens Compassion Association International
A child's home is a special place. It's what they call home. Memories are built in these conditions during many days of dad and mom trying to find ways to provide the basic necessities. Inspiring reading for many of these children needs more than looking at real life photos as these. Sometimes we just need to be there to understand what we can do to inspire one of the most important contributions to the development of children. It is the ability to read.
The first lesson in helping kids we learned is don't expect empty school book shelves to supply books for them to read. Books in many schools are discarded after 2 years. Here in America we have libraries that have books and literature that date back to the 1940s for kids to learn history. A little research where you are trying to help children learn reading in abject conditions will reveal their books are more like paper back novels with weak paper structure and much fewer photos.
Bright pictures inspire the curiosity of the child to learn the squiggly little letters. The younger we can inspire children to learn reading the higher success they will experience in their schools and future job or business life. But wait!
Helping children learn to read in abject conditions is sometimes a little more than packing a box with books. Of course they will appreciate each book we can send to their homes and schools.
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Sometimes it takes a visit to understand how we can inspire reading for kids. Building a network of friends and teaches that visit homes like these frequently is an asset to you. It's a blessing for any of these children to carry home a book you gave them. But don't be surprised if they bring the book back to you after they have finished reading it for you to give it to another child to learn to read with.
Think about building a small learning center where you can send books to that you can gather from your local libraries and schools. Kids will be excited to learn of a place they can get books to read, writing tools, and school supplies.
In your kind work to help children learn beyond abject conditions please don't forget another special learning place in their little lives. Regardless of the bare cement floors with no carpet or tin roofs the classroom is important to a child's learning. Brighten up their classrooms with a few colorful children's books and you have made them more eager to come back to school to learn tomorrow.
Children don't have to be discouraged from going to flooded classrooms when a little effort from us can change this into a positive