Getting your kids to read is just one of those trials and tribulations that all parents go through. In a world full of bright, blinking devices, millions of cartoons and YouTube channels, and a whole bevy of other powerful distractions, this is one of the most profound and daunting challenges facing your typical modern caregiver. Because kids don’t know what we know as adults: that the best rewards in life are mostly gleaned from a slow burn. In other words, the pursuit of instant gratification only gets you so far.
Books, for all their demands and required patience, yield up intellectual treasures that video games can only scratch the surface of. But getting a kid to yield to this truth is about as easy as getting them to eat their broccoli when ice cream is on the menu.
The trick, then, is to do everything within your power to help books captivate and engage your young one in a powerful way. Research shows that personalized content – that is, stories and adventures that include your child in the narrative – are a profoundly effective way to achieve this goal.
This is no earth-shattering new idea, but rather an old one that saw its humble beginnings arise in the distant dawn of storytelling itself. Parents have been cooking up custom-tailored bedtime stories featuring their own children since the oral traditions began! Loving caregivers have spun yarns involving their charges for millennium. But for the modern parent, with so many pressing demands placed upon them, sometimes the creative juices might not be flowing after 12 hours or so at the office (believe us, we’ve been there).
If you find yourself in this situation, we’re here to help – our line of bespoke children’s books has everything you need to take the guesswork out of engaging your child in reading. Just wait until you see your little one’s face light up when you read to them about their own adventures! No cell phone app will ever be able to compete with that feeling, and the emotional connection itself is worth the time and energy. This is not to mention that kids who see themselves in powerful situations tend to develop self-confidence much more quickly.
Just getting your child to associate books with a warm, familiar feeling is going to do a lot for their intellectual development. Too often reading is pushed on kids as a sort of cold chore, a box they must tick in order to proceed academically. But we find that the more you are able to ignite a child’s passion for the act of reading itself, the easier time you’ll have in getting them to peruse the activity on their own – and this is thought to carry over to other “slow burn” activities in which the rewards are found at the end of long, methodical attention. The opposite of instant gratification is happiness and fulfillment, after all.
If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to check out our store page. We have several books that can be custom tailored to your child. They are sure to teach a lifelong love of books and reading!