The simple activity of reading is a virtual brain gym. It enables the growth of multiple intelligences. Reading stimulates both the right and left sides of the brain. In fact, it is one of those few simple activities that triggers the growth of both intuitive and logical intelligence. Studies have shown that early readers not only…
When choosing books for your child, take their age and reading capacity into consideration. For pre-readers, choose books that have bold, vivid, and colorful illustrations of everyday objects. For beginners, choose books with simple storylines and illustrations that closely match what is going on in the story. For independent readers, choose books where the illustrations tell…
Holding and reading wordless picture books can be the first positive step towards learning reading skills. Readers are not intimidated by words and they gain confidence by the knowledge that they are able to comprehend the contents of a book on their own. Picture books often require young readers to ask the basic question: What…
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of a child, that’s certainly true. A young child’s imagination is sparked off first by the image of the things she reads about, then by the words that describe them. She is far more likely to associate, for example, the picture of a…
Karadi Rhymes has really been hitting the news in recent times! Check out some recent links! On 10 February, Anukrishna wrote about using ‘My Name is Madhavi’ to teach children. Read about her experiences! On 1 March, Monika Manchanda wrote: ‘And I can vouch for the fact that they are for adults as well… whenever…
At Saffron Tree, Praba reviews Little Vinayak, written by Shobha Viswanath, illustrated by Shilpa Ranade, narrated by Vidya Balan, set to music by 3 Brothers & A Violin and with a title track by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Praba writes: ‘With refreshingly simple text paired with bright, bold illustrations, Little Vinayak is an inspiring story, which celebrates differences…
The average seven-year-old is a computer whiz. Parents are astounded at the ease with which he uses gadgets. But is he a fluent reader? Not always. Parents may ignore this. After all, he’s so smart with the computer. But they often do not realise that computers are designed to be mastered by anyone. With their…
Initially, children learn to read using a mix of ‘phonetic’ (sounding the letter and joining the sounds to form words) and ‘sight’ (recognising a word as a whole by sight through repeated exposure). Fluent readers read by ‘sight’, which means that they see every word as a picture and not as a collection of letters. …
Reading stimulates the theatre of the mind. Each child evolves his or her own unique theatre and that is the root of your child’s creative growth. Today, there exists the common misconception that children today are much smarter than children of previous generations. But the truth is that in an age where information is so…