I remember during my summer vacations we used to travel to our ancestral village, loaded with luggage. It was a ritual we followed every year during the summer vacations, staying for a month with our grandfather in the village. He lived alone in that palatial house with no television or even a radio set to keep him occupied. When asked what did he do to keep himself busy, he replied, “I cook, clean, eat, and read.” I found it difficult to digest that books can be a substitute to television and other such forms of entertainment.
Getting back to our luggage woes, we always travelled with lots of bags and especially a bag dedicated for stuffing books (anything but the syllabus books) and registers.
My father believed since summer vacations are all about relaxing what better way to do that than read a novel. Our routine was set on the first day of the arrival itself. 2 hours of reading any novel/book and plus an hour of writing exercise through dictation.
Frankly, I miss those days. The thick books of Lewis Carol’s Alice In The Wonderland, or Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five or Munshi Premchand’s Gaban. Yes, we were not spared because we were kids. We had to read them aloud and we had discussions based upon the reading. The whole family gathered after the breakfast and that was the best time for my grandpa. He believed that TVs were destructive in nature and had no positive influence on children. An avid reader himself, my father also took to reading and fell in love with books quite early on. I, on the other hand, had a love-hate relationship with books in the beginning. I liked (and still do) reading comic books, Tintin and Tinkle Digest are my favourite.
Thanks to my father’s persistent attitude, I cannot imagine my life without books now. I always carry a book in my bag, when travelling to my office. Reading books satiates my creative senses and adds to my writing pool.
As clichéd as it may sound, but times have changed. And, kids nowadays prefer gadgets over books. Even if they read, it is an e-book that grabs their attention.
Call me old school I get heady and feel elated with the touch of a paper, the feel of the printed words. The dank smell peculiar to old books or the fresh smell of newly printed pages, can never be replaced.
But pulling back kids in this tech-savvy age is also not advisable. Although, it’s equally important to imbibe the habit of reading at an early stage, when they’re small. Cultivating a reading habit adds depth to one’s character.
How do you intend to instill this habit in your kid, well Epic App is here to save the day.
Epic gives access to children aged 12 and under an opportunity to choose from a huge variety of 20,000 books. After signing up, kids can read any book in Epic’s library at any time, as many times as they want, on any device. There are no ads or in-app purchases. Children can even set-up as many as four separate profiles per account. That way different kids can use the same app to access all their favorite books.
Now that’s a revolutionary tool which must be handed over to every child. The power to choose a book they want to read. This will help in developing the reading habit. Overall, this habit will add depth to their knowledge. Not only that, reading books is food for brain, as our imagination gets triggered every time we read a book, especially the one with less visuals.
Share with us your stories as how you have tricked your kids into reading books, in the comments section below. We would love to feature them.
One thing I can vouch for is, you will never feel bored or alone if there’s a book to give you company. Take it from someone who despised reading books in the beginning and ended up becoming a book-lover.
Happy reading :)