The National Reading Days started on Wednesday, January 24 and Kibeo is participating again this year with great enthusiasm! Your child will have extra fun reading during this period and will learn a lot of new words. Did you know that children learn 1,000 new words per year from just fifteen minutes of reading aloud per day?
Reading aloud is a party every day at Kibeo, but during the National Reading Days we really go all out! Your child's settlement immerses itself in the theme of the book that is central these days. At some locations there is a reading breakfast, reading heroes come to visit and there are a lot of cool and educational activities with the same theme as the chosen book.
Get started with books and activities that are appropriate for the age and location
The selected books all come from the Picture Books Top 10 and have been tailored by the pedagogical policy staff per age category and location. For example, we will be working on the book 'Help, a surprise!'. Just like the main characters Squirrel Suusje and Fox August, your child will paint, read, run freely, jump and play!
Your child will discuss the book together with the reader and other children. What does your child like to do? Does your child like quiet things like Fox Augustus or does he or she prefer wild activities like Squirrel Suusje? Your child develops socially and emotionally through play.
Larger vocabulary, empathy, high involvement, taking turns and much more
Reading aloud stimulates your child's language development. This way your child will learn a lot of new words that will expand his or her vocabulary and he or she will develop a good sense of language. This includes hearing how a sentence is constructed. But the benefits of reading aloud go much further than that.
The more interesting children find something, the better they learn it. That's how it works with language. During reading, the pedagogical professionals therefore ensure the highest possible involvement with the children. They do this, among other things, by asking questions, using materials that appear in the book and playing with her or his voice for an extra exciting story. While asking questions, your child also learns social skills, such as practicing turn-taking behavior. This is a skill that will also come in handy later, for example when having conversations. And by using materials from the book, your child links the words to the correct materials.
Your child's social-emotional development is also stimulated while reading. Your child learns to empathize with the characters in the book, which increases their empathy. In addition, his or her imagination is stimulated. While reading, your child can imagine the adventures that the main character in the book experiences.
Greater educational opportunities thanks to reading aloud from an early age
Language stimulation increases your child's educational opportunities. Especially in the language-sensitive period, namely from 0 to 6 years. That is the period when children are even better at learning language. The younger your child is when you start reading, the better. If children have a positive experience with books and reading aloud at a young age, they often retain an interest in reading at an older age. This way your child grows from a little reader into a big reader!