Bobbsey Twins

Understanding Your Options For Helping Your Kids To Read More   by Herb

Are you one of those parents who encourage reading? If not, you ought to be. Reading with your child builds vocabulary and teaches lessons they might not have already encountered in life. Children can learn to recognize words and actually teach themselves to read by listening to a parent read to them and following along with the printed matter at hand. Parents should participate in the selection of reading material for their children until they reach college age. Older children, such as high school age, may want to begin reading adult literature and that is acceptable as long as you, the parent, are aware what they are reading and approve of it.

Children’s literature is a class all its own. This class existed around the 1800’s when books by people such as Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Hans Christen Anderson’s Tales became popular. The well loved stories of Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and The Little Mermaid have been told over and over in many languages and cultures.

In 1865 Lewis Carroll published Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass, which has kept its popularity with adults and children alike. Although it was written as a nonsense and rhyme book it has come to embody a fable-like quality to those of us who have watch it morph into television shows, plays and movies. Most recently, Disney made it into a popular three-D movie for the new millennium.

Johanna Spry’s Heidi is a story that never loses its lesson or popularity. It is often required reading in the lower grades in school.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island in Savannah’s Pirate’s House Restaurant (there is still a plaque on the wall commemorating this). Long John Silver has been a part of the mental adventures of children all over the world since its publication.

Kipling wrote the Jungle Book in 1894 and forever gave animals and birds in the jungle personalities that will live on forever.

Of course, setting these stories to music and using them to make plays and movies has helped immortalize them.

Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz. It has been in constant print since its early 1900 publication. It has been immortalized both on stage and in movies and is replayed at least once a year on television in the original movie version with colorization.

The Tales of Peter Rabbit, the Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, the Chronicles of Narnia has reached the pinnacle of children’s literature.

Modern children’s literature includes things like Where the Wild Things Are, the Dr. Seuss Books, The American Girl series, and the latest Harry Potter books. Rarely do we find copies of The Five Little Peppers (and How They Grew), The Bobbsey Twins, Pollyanna and other books or series that we, as adults, grew up with as children. Luckily the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden series are alive and well. Of course, The Babysitter’s Club may outsell them now.

Yes, parents want their children to read. It encourages education even though they don’t know they are learning. Children who read are never alone. They may never leave their own neighborhood but through books they can fly through the air with Peter Pan and fight the pirates like Captain Hook. They aren’t always playing video games or glued to the television. It might even encourage them to go outside and play; You Can have much better sword fights out in the yard. Make it a tradition to read with your children. Even when they have grown older and you no longer read a bedtime story there is always Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol or The Night Before Christmas to be read on Christmas Eve. Reading is a bridge to other worlds. Start them young and they will continue when they are grown.

About the Author

Herb likes to learn about how to be the best parent possible. Please check out his website with information on tattoo removal prices and details on tattoo removal costs.
The Bobbsey Twins Go To Hell (teaser)