Reading is Good!!

I started Zaccheus with the habit of reading daily when he turned one. I have read online and in newspaper and magazines about the benefits of reading and hence, determined to inculcate the love of reading in Zaccheus. But I was not keen with buying many books and pile up at home as they are not only costly but also taking up spaces in his room. So library became the avenue to get our supplies of books. I do know of few friends (mothers) who are not advocate of library books because they think the books are dirty as they have been passed from one child to another. I do agree with this point, however, I am more of agreeing that there are more benefits to borrowing books from library than to purchase them at the stores.

As such, Zaccheus and mummy have been diligently visiting the library every week to borrow books. And we will borrow between 8-10 books each visit and everyday, we will set aside some time to read books together. To encourage Zaccheus to love reading books, I even rope in his favourite soft toys such as Dorathy the Dinosaur and Alvin chickmunk to sit beside us to read the books together. Zacch was always elated and put the soft toys nicely beside him, sometimes even kissing them. I am proud to say that this reading habit is still ongoing and Zaccheus has definately like reading books. Today, I do not have to remind him to read books, instead, he will turn to me and tell me "Mummy, read books". And of course, I will be more than happy to read to my lovely boy.

The habit of reading has definately paid off. Zaccheus's command of vocabulary is beyond his age. He recognizes and understands many words that it makes me amazed and impressed at times. Some examples of "bomabastic" words that he could recognize and read out are marrow, planet, comet, yatch, caterpillar etc. And not to mention, he could also recongnize and speak elementary level words such as school, church, helicopter, banana, bag, staircase etc. I remember 1 month ago, I brought him to AMK Hub for a walk. And as we walked past the taxi stand, he kept telling me "train", and I looked at the taxi for awhile then I realised he was actually linking the advertisement "SMRT" to train. Next, we passed by an advertisement about Singapore Zoo and without hesistation, he said "zoo". After that, we walked passed sticky rice restaurant, pepper lunch fast food, Subway and Mcdonald. Again, as we walked past each store, Zacch said "rice", lunch", "way" and "mcdonald". I was clearly impressed that he is able to recognise so many words. Reason why he did not say 'sticky' and 'pepper' was because we have never come across such words in the storybooks we have borrowed so far.

Having said that, I am once again a proud mother to know that my little darling has inculcate a reading habit and also benefitting from it. Reading is GOOD!