Reading bedtime stories to children is now a dying art. Parents fail to read a story to their kids because the hectic schedules cannot fit in the time for a story. Mostly, both the parents are working and at the end of the day they are too tired to read one to their kids. A study revealed the good intention of young parents of these days but says it is quite impossible to manage the time for it.
A number of studies show, children living in a home with an environment of books and reading make the transition to school more easily. Bedtime stories are a comforting part of routine and it can help children understand and interpret the world around them. Stories can open up a whole new world to children; make them understand life and their own feelings. Reading will become a part of their life; a routine things, if they are introduced with books at an earlier age.
Middle class children also struggle to learn how to talk because of the busy schedule of their parents. Working parents are unable to find the time to help children with speech development. Reading to children is a healthy exercise and can help a lot in speech development.
2,000 parents, from U.K., were questioned in a survey and only 52 percent said they regularly read to their children in the evening, while, 48 percent said their lives were too hectic to take time out for a story. In the survey eight out of ten people agreed that bedtime reading can help boost a child’s development. As much as 60 percent said of the surveyed people said they had stories read to them when they were young but they don’t do the same to their children.
They survey also revealed that the parents from Wales, East Anglia and Scotland were least inclined to read a bedtime story to their children, while, it was a common habit among the parents from London and West Midlands. The survey reported Enid Blyton’s Famous Five to be the nation's favourite childhood stories. Enid Blyton’s The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by CS Lewis followed in the list of favourite bedtime stories.
Bedtime stories are also a source of linking children to their origins, descents, culture and values. A number of people live in countries that are not their homelands and their homeland is far, in values and culture, from the place they live in. In such scenarios traditional bedtime stories can help a child know about where he belongs to. Many children living away from their homeland develop identity crisis because their parents do not introduce them to their culture during early age, so it become hard for children to later adopt their culture. The best way to introduce the culture and love of homeland is to do that at an early age, through traditional stories or own childhood stories and past experiences from homeland.
Keywords: Bedtime stories, story, reading, books.
