In today’s literary world with Disney characters and talking cars, fables with morals and ethics tend to take a back seat. I would like to remind parents that reading to you youngsters not only develops their reading skills but enhances their trust and security in you. By reinforcing that reading is an essential foundation to their education your are setting an example that will be followed the rest of their lives. What you read to them is extremely important.
Mix it up
It is important to mix up what is being read. Children need fairy tales to produce imagination, however pick up a children’s enclyopedia and read to them from that as well. They also need to know what is going on in the non-fiction world around them. I am a believer that children will ask question to the point they can comprehend. If you are reading a news article, pick one that isn’t beyond the scope of the age of the child. However if the child asks more in depth questions only answer exactly what they are asking. They will ask more questions if their nature leads them.
Fables
Finally do not forget fables. I absolutely love to read fables to my children. Fables end with a moral and then we discuss it and relate it to their day or week or upcoming event. I highly recommend picking up the book entitled “The Moral Compass”. It is a companion to “The Book of Virtues”. I read from this book to my up into my childrens early teens as Christmas and Easter especially. I read to their scout troops and have been invited to read to their classrooms. Morals have taken a backseat and I believe that through literature we can restore certain values to the foreground through entertaining classic literature.
