Mom Keep Calm: Reading With Your Kids = Priceless

By Janet Lund 

It’s the beginning of April as I write this article. I have no idea what will be going on with the coronavirus by the time you read this in May or June. Thank goodness God is in control. God always makes a way to turn things for good. I may not always appreciate His time frame, but God is bigger than our circumstances. That is when I need to remember the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Now that was a long time to wait! 

 

Time 

Time. We all have the same amount of it —24 hours in a day, seven days in a week. It’s what we do with the time we have that matters. The more that we value our time, the more powerful the results can be. 

Let’s take time…for a short story. 

 

Story Time 

Once upon a time, there was this miracle baby. 

From the very beginning of this baby girl’s life, her mom and dad took time to read to her daily. They would prop her up in their laps and read the same stories again and again. These moments together were special, warm, and cuddly. For the baby girl, reading and love were one and the same. Because of this, the little girl grew up loving books. She became a bookworm. Whether at home, in the car, at church, anywhere and everywhere, she read books. 

Shopping in the grocery store was fun! Her mom would go to the book section of the store and the little girl would pick out several books to read. While the mom shopped, the little girl quietly entertained herself. After she was done with the first load of books, they would go back and switch them out for another bunch. It was a win for mama and daughter. 

At home, the little girl would spend hours reading in her room. Her mother would check in on her and find her sitting on the floor surrounded by all her books. 

When the little girl was 4 years old, she announced to her mother, “Mommy, I’m going to write a book!” That was exactly what she did. She wrote her own little story, along with illustrations. 

In first grade, she wrote her own installment of a series she loved to read, The Magic Treehouse. 

In third grade, she attended an after-school class where the kids wrote their own stories. When their stories were completed, they were published and put into the school library. 

As she grew older, her dad would read bigger, more complicated books at the dinner table: The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. Oh, the adventures that family embarked on each night! 

However, while in middle school, the young girl struggled to find books that she enjoyed. So, her father decided to write a story for his daughter. With each chapter, he would let her read it to see what she thought. She loved every word, every scene, every moment. Each new section was a celebration in their home. 

When her father finished and published his first novel, she was inspired to write a novel of her own. She took a story she had started in grade school and read through it. After years of reading and listening to amazing stories, her vocabulary had grown by leaps and bounds, along with her understanding of what makes a good story. The girl finished her book and published it when she was only 17 years old. 

Not long after her book was published, it received several awards. By then, an entire series of seven books had blossomed in her mind. Now graduated from college, she is writing book three, with book two soon to be published. When not writing her own story, she proofreads the most recent writings of her father. He continues to work on the seven-book series he started when she was in middle school. 

 

Your Story Time 

Why do I share this story with you? Because I want you to see the incredible impact story time with your child can have on their life. Look at all the great things reading with your child can do! 

Reading: 

• Feeds their imagination
• Encourages curiosity
• Creates a love for learning
• Grows their vocabulary
• Takes them on adventures while they are curled up on the couch
• Opens doors to seeing what others have accomplished
• Nurtures compassion when they see situations from different points of view
• Creates a hunger to read more

Most importantly, reading with your child nurtures a moment of love where they feel safe, valued, and cared for. 

 

Your Story Time Together 

When your child feels loved and safe, they can relax, learn, explore, and grow. 

One of the perks about reading together is that you can always make time for it. You can do it for a few minutes — or hours. No matter how long you read, you can always know that you are positively impacting your child. 

Make time to love and nurture your child through reading! 

Love. Grow. Explore 

Interested in learning more and supporting these two Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors? Go here for your free starters of: 

Brandon King’s The Quest for the Temple Key 

https://www.brandonkingauthor.com/the-gargoyle-chronicles-the-story-behind-the-stories/ 

Taylor Hunter’s NeverSeen 

https://www.taylorhunterauthor.com/neverseen-starter/ 

 

Janet Lund is a relationship coach who specializes in nurturing the bond between moms and their teen/pre-teen daughters. She leads moms through coaching, speaking, and songwriting. Janet has spoken and performed in Canada, the United States, and Norway. Follow her on facebook.com/momkeepcalm and visit her website at momkeepcalm.com for parenting tools and words of support to be a calm mom.