Have you ever reflected on the best part of your day?
Last week, I attended a four-day intensive workshop on Responsive Classroom. In one of the activities, we were asked to share the best part of our day. This was something I hadn’t thought of, in a long time.
At first, I thought that it would be hard to come up with one. I closed my eyes to recollect my day.
To my surprise, in a moment I knew that the best part of my day was fifteen minutes before my children slept.
Are you curious to know why?
Fifteen minutes before my children sleep, I do a read-aloud with them.
In my previous posts, I have mentioned that my son is 14 and my daughter is 9. Our lives are busy with structured routines. There are many days when I meet them directly late in the evening. Earlier, we would just focus on completing our night routine of dinner, packing our bags and so on in order to go to bed on time. We would speak for a bit but at the back of my mind, I was worried about the time.
We, then, started with the routine of read-aloud before sleeping. Fifteen minutes of read-aloud turned out to be magical. It helps us to sit together calmly, connect with each other and strengthen our bond. We discuss several personal and social issues, brainstorm solutions and learn new things that come up as a result of the story. It helps them to get in touch with their own feelings, emotions and gives them the courage to share them with me. They learn different ways of dealing with situations at hand. The last fifteen minutes what I call it ‘the most productive part’ of our 24 hours.
I select books that have limited content with lots of pictures. We stop after fifteen minutes even if the book is not over. I bring home 3-4 books and ask them to choose. We sometimes take turns to read. Children love choice and being in control, don’t they?
I always knew my daughter would take to stories naturally. I wasn’t sure how my son would respond. I was amazed to see that he looked forward to our time together.
As a teacher, I have always done read-aloud with my students, but I now extend the benefit to my children too.
Read-aloud is a proven and evidence-based technique to enable children to cope in times of stress or anxiety and as well as form a positive association with books. It stimulates language and helps them practice listening skills.
The greatest benefit that I have experienced is the positive, healthy time that my children and I spend together every night.
I would recommend every parent to develop this routine with their children and bring a happy, connected, positive and calm closure to a usually fast-paced day.
