Modern parents often struggle to limit the screen time of children and build reading habits. Do you know, that many children face cognitive issues, social challenges and emotional problems due to not being able to think critically and creatively? These 10 children’s books can help you replace TV with reading habits that can increase your child’s critical thinking level.
- Modern parents face challenges in limiting children’s screen time while promoting reading habits.
- A lack of reading can lead to cognitive, social, and emotional issues in children.
- Introducing engaging children’s books can foster critical thinking and creativity.
- Tips for success include creating a reading-friendly environment, setting routines, making reading interactive, and limiting screen time.
10 attractive children’s books
1. Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma
Panchatantra is a timeless wisdom for children with moral education. It can be placed at the top among all children’s books because of its engaging short stories of ancient Indian fables and fiction. The children can stay engaged as it is thought-provoking and each lesson discusses ethics of life.
Age group:6-12.
2. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The story of Harry Potter is based on a magical world that easily attracts children’s attention. The detailed storytelling, relatable characters, and evolving plots hook the readers and encourage them to continue reading to the next chapter. Children can easily relate to the main character of the book Harry Potter because of his journey from a helpless boy to a courageous young wizard.
Age group: 8 and above.
3. The First Shadowdragon by Lee Newbury & Laura Catalán
With this book, children can take a journey to a magical world where different adventures, dragons and unexpected characters are waiting for them. Children can dive into the magic and wonder where they can explore bravery moments, strong friendships and immersive fantasy.
Age group: 8-12.
4. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
The Gruffalo is popular among children’s books because of its rhymes and colourful pictures. The story of the Clever Mouse and the fictional Gruffalo encourages children to face danger and think cleverly to solve mysteries.
Age group: 3-7.
5. Rockstar Detectives: Murder at the Movies by Adam Hills & Luna Valentine
For children who love detective stories, this book can provide them to solve mysteries and go for a great adventure. The protagonists, Charley and George are young, adventurous and eager to solve crimes with a touch of humour. This can keep those readers engaged who are eager to escape into the world of crime-solving fun.
Age group: 9-12.
6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
This book illustrates the story of a caterpillar in a vibrant and colourful but simple way. Parents can teach their children counting, the days of the week and the life cycle of living things in a funny way from the glorious transformation of a caterpillar.
Age group: 1-5.
7. My Name Is Malala by Malala Yousafzai
This book contains simple text and vibrant illustrations by Mariam Quraishi. The visual elements attract the little ones’ attention and encourage them to connect with the main character Malala on a personal level. With this book, children can understand the importance of education and activism from diverse perspectives.
Age group: 4-8.
8. Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The story is about Auggie Pullman, a 5th grader with facial differences and his journey to fitting in the classroom and community. If your child is struggling to make friends or is the most popular in the class, this book can give them a new perspective of thinking.
Age group: 8-12.
9. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
The rhythmic and soothing texts of this book help to keep engaged readers and it can be the best bedtime story book among children’s books. Children can go through several stories of goodnight wishes to feel secure. The repetitive wordplay can engage the little ones with the narrative structure.
Age group: 0-5.
10. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
This book is a timeless picture book that can hook the children’s interest. The bus driver of the story leaves the bus and says to the readers that they need to make sure the pigeon does not drive the bus. The pigeon tries differently to be the driver and asks questions and the readers need to say “No” each time loudly. This can increase eagerness to turn the next page of the book.
Age group: 3-6.
Reasons reading is the best alternative to TV
The benefits of reading children’s books are they can enhance concentration, improve vocabulary, leave more space for creativity and improve cognitive skills among children.
Enhance concentration:
TV is a quick and fast-paced nature of illustrating and portraying some stories and can create a loop. Conversely, there are an extent several children’s books that require deep attention to understand the meaning of elements and plots which can enhance the concentration skills among children.
Improve vocabulary:
With books, children can explore different vocabularies and different sentence structures which need to be read loudly. This can enhance their vocabulary skills for different languages. Whereas TV oftentimes increases screen time which is not good for the brain development of children.
More space for creativity:
Books require a long time to complete a story leaving a space where children can imagine different creative and innovative ideas of what will happen next. But a 2-3 hours movie can’t leave that space where children can think creatively. Rather than their excitement remaining for 1-2 hours after completing a movie or any cartoon show the excitement is lost.
Enhance cognitive skills:
Engaging with different riddles, rhymes and mysteries requires critical thinking among children that can help to enhance their cognitive skills. From different kinds of stories, they learn to analyse the plots, understand the characters and think differently to solve their problems which helps them in their brain development at a very small age.
Tips to make reading a habit for children
In today’s technology-based world, it is very difficult for parents to convince their children to read books rather than watch cartoons on mobiles and TVs. Well, here are some tips that might be helpful for you to create reading habits in your child.
Tip 1: Create reading ambience
If you want to engage your child with reading, first you have to create that ambience with proper lighting, cosy seating areas and noise-free surroundings.
Tip 2: Set a routine
Setting a routine of reading books whether it is before bedtime or in the evening time can help to build a habit of reading and listening to stories among your children.
Tip 3: Make reading interactive
You need to make stories interactive. For this, you can ask them questions about characters or give them riddles to solve that can increase their critical thinking skills.
Tip 4: Be a role model
Children most likely build habits whatever they find in their parents. For that, you need to be a role model for them and show them your interest in reading books and participate in discussions and predictions of stories with them.
Tip 4: Limit screen time
To build reading habits you need to reduce their screen time. You can replace screen time with exciting audiobooks that can also develop interest towards stories. This can make it easier to build habits of reading children’s books in your child.
FAQ
1. What are the benefits of reading over watching TV for children?
The benefits of reading children’s books are they can enhance concentration, improve vocabulary, leave more space for creativity and improve cognitive skills among children.
2. At what age should I start introducing books to my child?
Age group: 6-12 for Panchatantra, 8 and above for Harry Potter series, 8-12 for The First Shadowdragon, 3-7 for The Gruffalo, 9-12 for Rockstar Detectives, 1-5 for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 4-8 for My Name Is Malala, 8-12 for Wonder, 0-5 for Goodnight Moon, and 3-6 for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
3. How can I make reading fun for my child?
Make reading interactive: You need to make stories interactive. For this, you can ask them questions about characters or give them riddles to solve that can increase their critical thinking skills.
4. What types of books are best for keeping children engaged?
The story of Harry Potter is based on a magical world that easily attracts children’s attention. The Gruffalo is popular among children’s books because of its rhymes and colourful pictures. For children who love detective stories, this book can provide them to solve mysteries and go for a great adventure.
5. How can I limit my child’s screen time effectively?
To build reading habits you need to reduce their screen time. You can replace screen time with exciting audiobooks that can also develop interest towards stories.
